Director of Integration appointed to join-up care in Croydon
A doctor who has overseen plans to modernise the NHS has been appointed in Croydon to help join together health and care services in one of London’s largest boroughs.
Dr Neil Goulbourne will join Croydon Health Services as the NHS Trust’s Director of Integration to help local people get more seamless care and make it easier for staff to work together with GPs, mental health services and social care to look after the community’s health and wellbeing.
Neil spent five years caring for people as a GP in London and the West Midlands. Prior to this, began his training in hospital in specialities including emergency care, paediatrics and general medicine.
Building on this experience, Neil’s career has taken him from senior roles in the capital to NHS England, where he was responsible for implementing the NHS Five Year Forward View – an ambitious plan to improve the health and care of local people, published ahead of the 70th anniversary of the NHS.
Announcing Neil’s appointment, Matthew Kershaw, Chief Executive and Place Based Leader for Health in Croydon said:
“Croydon is leading the way for the NHS is trying to change to look after not just the care but also the health of local people. With our One Croydon Alliance we are shrinking the gaps between services our staff to work together with the local authority, mental health services, GPs and the voluntary sector to offer all-round care for Croydon people – focused as much on keeping people well as it is treating when they’re ill.
“Neil’s insight and expertise as a hospital doctor, GP, and more recently quality care improvement is exactly the addition we need in Croydon. Our partnership with NHS Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is one of the first of its kinds in the NHS. This will help us make the most of the expertise and the resources we have in the borough. Neil’s contribution to the team will help us take this to the next stage.”
Dr Neil Goulbourne, Director of Integration at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, said:
“Croydon is an exciting place to be. Services like LIFE (Living Independently For Everyone) are already benefiting thousands of patients by helping to care for people in hospital and at home. By breaking down organisational barriers between the Trust and social workers, general practice and pharmacists we are able to give people the multi-disciplinary care that traditionally would have only been seen on a hospital ward.
“There are so many more positive examples of integration that Croydon has already developed and I am looking forward to taking this further with the fantastic teams in the borough.”
Neil will join the team in Croydon on a twelve month secondment from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, where he is currently the Deputy Director of Improvement leading on quality improvement and service transformation.
He will take up the new role on 1 February 2020. Neil will be responsive for service integration, planning and performance oversight of the services provided by the Trust across the borough.
Profile of Dr Neil Goulbourne
Neil is currently the Deputy Director of Improvement at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust where he is the lead for quality improvement and service transformation. This includes ‘Fit for the Future,’ an extensive plan to further improve quality at the Trust whilst increasing the efficiency of services. A trained doctor by background, Neil spent five years as a medical trainee at King’s College Hospital before caring for people as a GP in London and the West Midlands. In 2012, Neil was the head of service development at Virgin Care Plc. After three years in this role, Neil went to NHS England to support the national programmes and implementation of the NHS Five Year Forward View.