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An NHS baptism of fire: the first 100 days (R W Mann Lecture)

Dr Stephen Dunn, Chief Executive of West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Date/Time: 26th February 2015

On the 3rd November 2014 Dr Dunn took up the reigns of West Suffolk Hospital, as the trust headed for one its most challenging winter period's ever. It was also in the run up to a pivotal election in which the NHS would be centre stage.

In this lecture Dr Dunn sets out how he approached his first 100 days. He will talk about what he did, his experiences and his thoughts on whether small hospitals can have a bright future. He will talk about his baptism of fire at the heart of the NHS battleground of the future.

Speaker biography

Dr Stephen Dunn is a 2003-4 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow and the Chief Executive of West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. From 2012 he was the Regional Director of Delivery and Development for South at the NHS Trust Development Authority, overseeing the 24 Trusts in the region.

Between 2007 and 2012 he was the Director of Strategy at Midlands and East, leading the Patient Revolution and Director of Provider Development at NHS East of England. Prior to that he worked on the Wanless Review and was a principal architect of the flagship “Foundation Trust” policy and Director of Policy on the Our Health, Our Care, Our Say White Paper. Dunn is also the architect of the first competitive NHS acquisition at Bedfordshire and Luton and the innovative operating franchise at Hinchingbrooke.

In 2012 he introduced the Friends and Family Test into hospitals across the Midlands and East Anglia. The test was endorsed by David Cameron for roll out across the rest of the NHS. In 2011, Dunn received the “Outstanding Contribution by an Individual” award from Health Investor, recognising his efforts in transforming the NHS. He also received the Laing and Buisson “Independent Healthcare 2012 Outstanding Contribution” award.

Dunn is widely published in leading economics journals and has previously published The Economics of John Kenneth Galbraith with Cambridge University Press and the four volume reference collection, John Kenneth Galbraith: The Economic Legacy with Routledge.

In 2000, Dunn received the prestigious K.WilliamKapp prize from one of Europe’s largest economics associations.

Follow him on twitter @Stephen_P_Dunn.