Appointment: New name at digital health consultancy

Andy Kinnear is to join not-for-profit digital health firm Ethical Healthcare Consulting.

The former chair of BCS Health and Care and director of digital transformation at NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, will become partnerships director at Ethical, which is expanding by bringing together high calibre like-minded experts.

Andy joins Anne Cooper, the former chief nurse at NHS Digital, who is Ethical’s clinical director.

Kinnear said: “I am really looking forward to getting started. I like what Ethical and the people who work for it stand for: they have real public sector values, and an emphasis on delivering value for health and care that I find very attractive.”

Ethical Healthcare Consulting was founded by its chief executive, Thomas Webb, who previously worked for the NHS and wanted to provide a different consultancy offering more in line with NHS values.

The community interest company is focussed on supporting digital transformation projects across healthcare, from strategy through to business cases, procurement and implementation. It specialises in EPR, clinical imaging, enterprise infrastructure and data strategies as well as clinical safety.

Kinnear said: “Most of our work is focused on the real problems that the NHS needs to address today. We all know that a new wave of innovation is coming, with AI and robotics and other technologies that will have a lot to offer health and care in the future.

“But we will only be able to realise their potential if we get good, digital foundations in place now.

“We need to create a framework for the exciting world that is coming. That is what I spent my career in the NHS doing, and what I am joining Ethical to continue to do.”