Claire Burden Chief Executive NHS Ayrshire and Arran

At our Tuesday evening meeting, we were delighted to have Claire Burden, Chief Executive of NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

Claire began her career as a practicing paramedic with the East Anglian Ambulance Service. She took up her first operational management post as associate director for Unscheduled Care with Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust, having gained experience in procuring the Digital Network for NHS Direct for London and Anglia.

Claire quickly developed a desire and motivation to reform unscheduled care and has developed skills and experience in managing all aspects of unscheduled and scheduled care including the integration of care across acute and community.

She established an interest in service redesign and performance improvement and has held director roles in productivity and reform at Kingston NHS Hospital and latterly the post of deputy chief operating officer at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Thereafter leading the transformation programme for the redesign of emergency medicine, inclusive of radiology and diagnostic services, as well as being an operational sponsor for new hospital builds to extend services at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

After joining NHS London in 2015, Claire worked across London hospitals as hospital director at the Royal London Hospital delivering performance and governance outcomes, as well as leading a multi-agency programme aimed at supporting care delivered at home or close to home.

More recently, as Director for Emergency Care Improvement at Barts NHS Trust, she led a quality improvement programme to achieve emergency department, referral to treatment and cancer targets, improving access and Trust performance. Then from her previous role, as the executive lead for emergency planning, site operations and operational governance within Whipps Cross in the Northwest of London, the opportunity to join Ayrshire and Arran as Chief Executive beckoned.

After a very informative presentation where she laid out her vision and aspirations for NHS Ayrshire and Arran health body, from Claire’s large audience, questions and observations abounded. Retired GP Jimmy Begg, retired secondary head teacher Hugh Millar and retired surgeon Howard J Stevenson all made relevant and sage contributions to the succeeding question and answer session. Retired GP Neil Beattie gave a worthy vote of thanks.