Paul Jones has been appointed as chief digital and information officer (CDIO) at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Digital Health News can exclusively reveal.

Jones joins the trust from BUPA, where he has held a number of senior IT roles which involved establishing a global security operations centre and was also responsible for the company’s enterprise architecture.

Previously, Paul worked across the public and private sector with roles including Group CIO of Serco and as a director within the public sector practice at KPMG Consulting.

He has also served as chief technology officer for the NHS in England where he was the senior responsible officer for the Spine and N3 as well as responsible for the clinical coding service and the Information Governance Toolkit.

Jones, who is expected to start his new role in November 2019, said: “I am delighted to be joining Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust at an exciting time in its digital journey.

“With ambitions to become a digital hospital, it is great to see the focus and importance placed on improving the experience of both patients and staff through impressive digital initiatives.

“I am looking forward to learning more about the challenges and opportunities and I have been blown away by the people I have met so far. The Leeds Way culture shines strongly across the organisation.”

Jones replaces Richard Corbridge, who stepped down from the role in March 2019 to take up a position at Walgreens Boots Alliance.

The CDIO post has been covered by Andy Williams in the interim.

Julian Hartley, chief executive at the trust, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that Paul will be joining our trust board and I know he will be a great asset to the team.

“This is an exciting time for Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Paul’s skills and expertise will help us to build on the innovative work of our Digital and Informatics team in collaboration with partners across the city.

“This will drive forward our vision to provide the best specialist and integrated care for patients across our seven hospitals.”