10.09.13
Farrar leaving NHS Confederation in three weeks
Mike Farrar has announced he is to stand down as chief executive of the NHS Confederation on September 30.
Instead of applying for the role of chief executive of NHS England, as many expected, he will leave the NHS to launch a healthcare consultancy. Farrar will continue to work on a number of major projects for the NHS Confederation, such as the Bureaucracy Review.
His responsibilities will be taken on by chief executive of NHS Employers, Dean Royles, while trustees recruit his replacement. The NHS Confederation stated that Farrar will not receive any form of severance payment.
Michael O'Higgins, chair of the Confederation said: “Mike Farrar has reinforced the NHS Confederation as the voice of the NHS. His NHS career marks him out as one of the leading public servants of his generation.
“We are sorry to lose him as chief executive of the Confederation, but very pleased he will continue to oversee some of our most important work. We are confident that the Confederation will attract the highest quality candidates for Mike's role.”
Farrar said: “It has been an enormous privilege to work in the NHS for more than two decades. I have had the opportunity to lead work at the NHS Confederation, in the north west and nationally in the Department of Health.
“The real sense of career satisfaction is to have been able to shape and see real improvements in patient care, delivered according to need and never ability to pay. In particular, the pioneering of work on primary care, the Advancing Quality programme, the NW Clinical Trials Exemplar and supporting Patient Opinion not only represent many of the things that the NHS must adopt in the future but have also, as in the case of Advancing Quality, been evaluated in the leading medical journals to be truly world class examples of quality improvement with thousands of lives saved as a consequence.
“I am looking forward to creating a range of new opportunities to improve healthcare provision in the future in the UK and overseas and delighted that I will be able to continue with some major NHS Confederation projects.”
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN, said: “Mike Farrar has been an excellent champion of the NHS, and a committed and tireless public servant throughout his time working in the health service. Nurses will be particularly thankful for his work placing quality care at the heart of what the NHS does, and his recent work to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. We wish him well with his next move in which he will no doubt continue to make a hugely positive contribution for patients.”
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(Image of Mike Farrar copyright NHS Confederation)