John Quinn to be named new NHS CIO

John Quinn to be named new NHS CIO unknown

John Quinn, the current interim NHS England CIO, is set to be confirmed as the new NHS England CIO, following a lengthy recruitment process.

Digital Health News understands that Quinn, who was previously executive director of IT operations and enterprise services at NHS Digital, was chosen following a close selection race.

Prior to joining NHS Digital Quinn had eight years in digital leadership roles at MHRA.

An official announcement has yet to be made by NHS England.

Quinn took over as interim CIO following the decision by Simon Bolton, former CEO of NHS Digital and interim CIO designate at NHS England, to step down in January as the organisation was taken over by NHS Digital.

Quinn, who is a keynote speaker at Digital Health Summer Schools in July, faces a daunting in-tray as NHS England slashes staff numbers, particularly among former NHS Digital staff. He will also have to navigate the political hot potato of the contentious Federated Data Platform programme.

The wider challenge he will face is to find ways to harness digital and data to support NHS recovery with very little national money available for investment.

The other final candidate is thought to have been Beverley Bryant, CDIO at Guys and St Thomas’. Bryant is thought to have only been available to start after the £500m Apollo EPR programme.