Richard Granger, the former-head of NHS Connecting for Health, has returned to the world of consulting.

E-Health Insider understands that Granger will join KPMG’s Global Health Practice as a partner. KPMG’s Global Health Practice is based in Australia.

Granger’s new appointment was informally announced yesterday at an e-health conference in Melbourne, Australia. KPMG has yet to officially confirm his appointment.

Granger was appointed as director general of NHS IT in September 2002. He went on to lead the £12.7 billion National Programme for IT in the NHS and CfH when the agency was created in April 2005. He left the NHS at the start of this year.

His new role will apparently be a global one. It is not known at this stage whether it will include the UK.

The former NHS IT boss, who was reputed to be the highest paid civil servant, had made known he took a significant pay-cut to join the health service. At the time of his departure, Granger was paid £285,000 per year.

There have been rumours that the ex-CfH boss has been in discussion with other consultancy firms, offering to bring in a team to help set up a health practice.

Before taking on the role of director general of NHS IT, Granger worked for other professional services firms, including Deloitte and Touche.