David, currently CEO of NHS Birmingham and Solihull, will move quickly to appoint a new shared executive leadership team working across both Birmingham and Solihull and the Black Country.
The move to cluster the two organisations follows a requirement set out by NHS England in April this year for ICBs to reduce running costs significantly, including through the delivery of functions at greater scale and to move toward delivery of a strategic commissioning function aligned to the shifts set out in the Government’s 10-year Health Plan. Clustering enables both organisations to work together across borders, develop a range of shared support functions and to have a shared leadership team. It does not constitute a formal merger and both ICBs will remain separate legal entities. Formal merger may come at a later date.
Prior to becoming CEO of NHS Birmingham and Solihull in November 2021, David spent over a decade at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust as Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer as well as Interim Chief Executive on three separate occasions. He led various major change projects, including the merger between Birmingham Women’s and Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the development of Waterfall House, accommodating cancer, rare diseases and surgical services for children. A qualified accountant by background, David has previously worked as a senior manager at KPMG in health and education sectors but was attracted to the variety and challenges of a senior role within the NHS. He has experience in various Director of Finance roles in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire before moving to Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT where he was Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive. David also helped establish a social enterprise in Birmingham – the Health Exchange – that provides health promotion advice to disadvantaged and hard to reach communities. He is a Board Member and Chairs its Finance Committee. He was awarded the NHS Finance Director of the Year in December 2011 by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and has chaired the West Midlands Finance Staff Development Committee, West Midlands Procurement Staff Development Committee and the HFMA Digital Council. David is the Chair of the NHS Midlands Procurement Board and a member of the national Procurement Customer Board.
Chair of NHS Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull, Danielle Oum said: “The next few months and years will see major changes in how the NHS is run both locally and nationally as we deliver the Government’s 10-year plan. David is an outstanding appointment for the cluster and has a track record of bringing partners together from across health and social care to deliver meaningful transformation. But we will only succeed if we continue to nurture partnerships and build trust and confidence in our communities in our NHS. I know David will lead our teams to do exactly that.”
David said: “It has been a real privilege to lead NHS Birmingham and Solihull since its inception and I’m delighted to be able to lead both integrated care boards forward as we move into our new cluster. This is a fundamental reset of what integrated care boards do and that means approaching things differently and, in a leaner, more focused way. We will shift to become a strategic commissioner and already have the building blocks in place to deliver on the Government’s ambitions for a neighbourhood health service. Our approach will be rooted in openness, inclusivity and compassion. This is not change for its own sake. It is change with purpose: to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, to ensure public resources are used wisely, and to build a system that listens to those it serves.
“I would like to express my thanks to the former CEO of the Black Country ICB, Mark Axcell. Mark has been a valued neighbour and colleague for a number of years and he has been instrumental in leading a great number of successes in the Black Country. He will be sorely missed and I hope to respect what has come before while building a new clustered integrated care board aligned to the Government’s 10-year plan.”
