Gwyn Thomas, former chief executive of the now-defunct NHS Information Authority, is the new Director of the NHS Wales Informing Healthcare Programme.
The general election means that Dr Thomas is not available for interview but he said in the official announcement from the National Public Health Service for Wales: “I look forward to working with the Informing Healthcare programme team, so that we can create, for Wales, a national infrastructure of information and knowledge services that will provide the support that local health communities and their patients require.”
The move marks a return to Wales for Dr Thomas, who was born in Treorchy. He said he was delighted to be able to help the Informing Healthcare Programme make a contribution towards improving patient care across the NHS in Wales.
Chair of Informing Healthcare, Ian Kelsall, welcomed Dr Thomas’ appointment and commented: “The Informing Healthcare Programme is of vital importance to the future of the NHS and of patient care in Wales and I am confident that his wide experience and excellent track record of directing change and of forming and leading effective organisations in the NHS will provide a major boost to the forward development of the programme.”
The Informing Healthcare strategy was published in December 2003. Rather like the English NHS Care Record Service, its primary focus is on developing integrated electronic patient records, though in Wales this is being termed the ‘Single Record’.
When the strategy was announced, the then health minister for Wales, Jane Hutt, said a total of £16m would be invested by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2004-2005, rising to £36m in the years 2005-06 and 2006-07. She spoke of the need to catch up after decades of “piecemeal under-development”.
Dr Thomas left the NHS Information Authority in October before its demise at the end of March 2005 but after the government’s arm’s length bodies review was published spelling the end of authority. Its functions have been divided between the National Programme for IT (now NHS Connecting for Health) and the new NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre.
As chief executive, he led the authority in the delivery of a portfolio of high profile national projects and services including: NHSnet, the NHS Number, NHS Numbers for Babies, payments for GPs, national screening programmes and the analysis of data to support clinical audit.