NHS Emergency & Urgent Care 2024

National Ambulance Lead: NHS England Net Zero Travel and Transport team

With 20 years of NHS experience (including 16 years as a frontline Paramedic), I’m now part of the net zero travel and transport team leading the transition of the entire NHS fleet to zero emission vehicles by 2040.

Louis is an award-winning Architect, Lecturer, and Educator. With more than a decade of experience in international practice, he has led the design and delivered mixed-use developments around the world ranging from sensitive Grade-II-listed restorations to city-centre skyscrapers and urban-district masterplans. He is currently the Principal Architect at Darwin Group, specialising in designing healthcare solutions for the NHS and striving to further what best-in-practice looks like.

Louis graduated from The Bartlett, UCL for RIBA Parts 1, 2, 3 and was awarded the RIBA Silver Medal Commendation at the RIBA Presidents Medal 2014. He is passionate about the future of Architectural Education: he is regular guest critic and lecturer across the country, has taught Architecture at Universities for more than half a decade, aspiring to inspire the next generation of Architects.

Rachel Clarke has over 25 years of experience working for the NHS. She has worked in various roles within diagnostics, clinical services, planned care, and most recently as the operational lead for urgent and emergency care for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals. Under her leadership, an urgent treatment centre was opened in 2021 and soon after medical same-day emergency care services across both hospital sites. Rachel is also responsible for transforming urgent and emergency care pathways in preparation for the move into the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospitals in October 2024. With her wealth of knowledge and expertise, Rachel has helped improve patient access, experience and outcomes across Sandwell and West Birmingham.

Chris has over seven years of NHS experience, five of which have been dedicated to Operational Management, giving him a deep understanding of Planned Care, Unplanned Care, and Community Services. His extensive experience has allowed him to significantly shape patient care delivery. Currently, he serves as Deputy DGM for Urgent Community Response Services at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, where he leads the development of pre-hospital services and manages the Virtual Ward initiative through the Hospital at Home Services. He is also involved in the strategic planning for his Directorate.

Additionally, Chris co-leads the Streaming and Redirection project at the front door of the Emergency Department (ED). In his previous role as Service Manager at SWB, he led operational efforts in SDEC, Acute Medicine, and Toxicology, focusing on pathway optimisation, length of stay reduction, workforce management, and the successful launch of a new SDEC Modular Build.

With a background as a divisional director for three large NHS Trusts, Martin has held wide-ranging responsibilities across urgent and emergency care services, leading system-wide improvement programmes for bed and ward management, emergency flow and patient pathways, reducing length of stay and admissions avoidance. 15 years on, having stepped away from the NHS into an independent sector role, Martin now has the perspective and the flexibility to develop fresh approaches to building true system resilience.

This has led to a new partnership between Darwin Group and Medacs, and a suite of capacity solutions that aim to address bed and staffing shortages simultaneously.

With over 15 years’ NHS leadership experience, Lee has a wealth of operational experience in acute hospital settings through his roles at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and Whittington Health as an Operations Manager.

Lee’s current role as a Head of Programmes for North Central London (NCL) ICB sees him lead on multiple collaborative programmes across NCL, which includes the implementation of the ICS wide collaborative staff bank.

Passionate about patient care, Lee uses his operational management experience to ensure his programmes are fit to deliver and have a positive outcome for patients and staff.

Matt is a consultant acute physician and visiting professor at Hampshire Hospitals and the University of Southampton and Clinical Director for Digital Innovation at Wessex AHSN.

His roles at NHS England are as National Clinical Director for Infection Management, AMR and Deterioration; National speciality advisor for sepsis, National clinical lead for COVID pathways/oximetry@home/virtual wards and the Deterioration and Sepsis CQUINs.

He has led the development of a standardised national methodology for assessing the burden of infections and sepsis, their outcomes and improvement.

He co-developed and co-led the implementation of NEWS2 across all hospitals and ambulance trusts nationally, and the deterioration CQUIN that has been implemented across 114 acute trusts and represents a global first in incentivising the optimal management of acutely ill patients most at risk of death.

He co-developed/led on national sepsis, deterioration and COVID clinical pathways in all community/interface settings, developing and then publishing evidence on the home oximetry monitoring strategy (through leading a national community of practice and clinical reference groups) that led to the purchase of 1.2 million oximeters and national implementation within 38 days and across a further 18 countries during the pandemic.

He is currently developing community-based, acute respiratory infection assessment hubs, having published papers demonstrating their effectiveness as integrated care models supporting urgent care and primary care transformation. 363 were set up last winter, seeing over 740,000 patients in 4 months.

HSJ award winner in Sepsis 2019, Deterioration 2020 and Patient Safety 2021

Samantha, a seasoned healthcare professional with over 27 years of extensive experience, stands as a beacon of excellence in clinical management and operations. Over the past decade, she has significantly contributed to the healthcare landscape as Matron for Acute Medical Ward (AMU), as well as medical and surgical wards in one of the largest acute trusts in the West Midlands.

With an unwavering commitment to clinical safety and governance, Samantha places great emphasis on making ethical decisions that resonate with her dedication to transformative initiatives. Having dedicated equal halves of the last ten years to unscheduled and scheduled care settings, Samantha's wealth of experience uniquely positions her as a leader in the healthcare domain.

In her role as General Manager for Capacity across 3 large hospitals in Birmingham; Samantha has honed her skills in ensuring a smooth and efficient patient journey. Her strategic approach to patient flow, capacity management, staff development and wellbeing, and complex discharge processes has been instrumental in achieving optimal outcomes for both patients and the healthcare institution.

Samantha's leadership in navigating challenges within the NHS is underscored by her ability to implement and oversee transformative initiatives. Her patient-centric approach to healthcare has earned her recognition, and her adept handling of complex situations showcases her as a dynamic and innovative leader in the healthcare sector.

As Samantha continues to make invaluable contributions to healthcare, her legacy stands as a testament to her dedication to fostering efficiency, safety, and patient-centred care within the ever-evolving landscape of the National Health Service

Lee is a fellow of the BCS, FEDPI Leading Practitioner, CHIME Certificated Health Chief Information Officer and an alumnus of the Digital Academy.

He has three decades of transformation and programme management experience. His first decade focused on UK military aircraft projects and for the last two decades he has focused on digital transformation in the NHS.  He is currently leading the Yorkshire & Humber Care Record development to provide interweave as an open platform for shared care record and population health systems.  He is also the CIO of Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, Senior Responsible Owner for the mental health digital transformation of Humber & North Yorkshire ICS, member of the PRSB advisory board, member of the National ICS Digital Council and vice chair of Northern, Yorkshire and Humberside Digital and informatics Forum (NYHDIF).

Specialties: Digital Transformation, Portfolio, FHIR, Programme & Project Management, Agile, lean, PRINCE 2, MSP, CHCIO, FBCS, FEDIP.  Lee is likes to read, a keen runner and a children’s football coach and referee. 

Matt is a consultant acute physician and visiting professor at Hampshire Hospitals and the University of Southampton and Clinical Director for Digital Innovation at Wessex AHSN.

His roles at NHS England are as National Clinical Director for Infection Management, AMR and Deterioration; National speciality advisor for sepsis, National clinical lead for COVID pathways/oximetry@home/virtual wards and the Deterioration and Sepsis CQUINs.

He has led the development of a standardised national methodology for assessing the burden of infections and sepsis, their outcomes and improvement.

He co-developed and co-led the implementation of NEWS2 across all hospitals and ambulance trusts nationally, and the deterioration CQUIN that has been implemented across 114 acute trusts and represents a global first in incentivising the optimal management of acutely ill patients most at risk of death.

He co-developed/led on national sepsis, deterioration and COVID clinical pathways in all community/interface settings, developing and then publishing evidence on the home oximetry monitoring strategy (through leading a national community of practice and clinical reference groups) that led to the purchase of 1.2 million oximeters and national implementation within 38 days and across a further 18 countries during the pandemic.

He is currently developing community-based, acute respiratory infection assessment hubs, having published papers demonstrating their effectiveness as integrated care models supporting urgent care and primary care transformation. 363 were set up last winter, seeing over 740,000 patients in 4 months.

HSJ award winner in Sepsis 2019, Deterioration 2020 and Patient Safety 2021