The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) has announced the appointment of four additional Non-Executive Directors, as it takes up the role of the independent Information Organisation for private healthcare, as appointed by the Competition & Markets Authority.

The four are leading figures who will be recognised across healthcare. They are:

• Professor Sir Cyril Chantler
• Professor Nancy Devlin
• Professor Sir Norman Williams
• Dr Gerard Panting

PHIN was approved as the Information Organisation in December, and is charged with overseeing the implementation of the CMA’s information remedies as set out in its Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014. The remedies address the CMA’s concerns about a lack of good information to help patients to understand and choose their specialist consultant and hospital. The sector is required to make significant improvements by April 2017.

The four join PHIN’s existing Board, which comprises PHIN’s Chairman Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen and Chief Executive Matt James, and non-executive directors Don Grocott and Fiona Booth. Mr Grocott is Director of the Private Patients’ Forum, while Ms Booth is Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Healthcare Organisations.

PHIN’s Chairman, Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, said; “We are delighted to be joined by four extremely capable Non-Executive Directors as we assume this public role. This should give patients, the industry and all stakeholders confidence in PHIN’s independence and capability.”

The Information Organisation is required to have a Board that is broadly representative of interests in the sector, and includes directors with significant experience and expertise in the collection and processing of healthcare performance data.

All four new appointments will act in a personal capacity. Professor Chantler, Professor Williams and Professor Devlin are wholly independent NEDs chosen by PHIN, whilst Dr Panting was nominated by the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations, representing consultants, in accordance with the CMA’s Order.

The CMA itself is entitled to nominate two directors to PHIN’s Board, for which expressions of interest were sought in November 2014, with appointments expected shortly. The private medical insurers will also be invited to nominate a Director.

Professor Sir Norman Williams is an honorary consultant surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust and leader in the field of bowel disorders, and a former President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is Co-Clinical Director of the National Institute for Health Research’s Healthcare Technology Cooperative (Enteric),
Professor of Surgery and Director of Innovation at Queen Mary University of London Academic Surgical Unit, part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Director of the National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation, and President of the charity Bowel & Cancer Research. In 2013, Professor Williams was instrumental in leading broad professional support for the publication of individual surgeons’ outcomes data based on national clinical audits, by NHS England.

Professor Sir Cyril Chantler is a retired consultant paediatrician and pediatric nephrologist, and an advisor to the Associate Parliamentary Health Group. He was formerly Chairman of the Quality and Clinical Risk Committee of NHS England, UCL Partners Academic Health Science Network, The King’s Fund, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, and the Standards Committee of the General Medical Council, and was Dean of the Guy’s, King’s College and St Thomas’ Hospitals’ Medical and Dental Schools. In 2013 Cyril led the Independent review of standardised packaging for tobacco that recommended the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes.

Professor Nancy Devlin is Director of Research at the Office of Health Economics in London. Nancy is an advisor to the NHS England PROMs programme, and has been working with health care organisations in Canada, China, Sweden and New Zealand on the use of routine outcome measurement to improve health care quality. Her principal areas of research expertise are the measurement and valuation of patient reported health outcomes; the cost effectiveness thresholds used in making judgments about value for money in health care; priority setting in health care; methods for evaluating the performance and efficiency of hospitals; and the determinants of patient choice. Nancy holds honorary chairs at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York; Cass Business School, London; and in the Economics Department at City University, London. She was for two terms the elected Chair of the EuroQol Group, the international network of researchers that developed the EQ-5D.

Dr Gerard Panting qualified in medicine and has over 25 years experience in all aspects of medical law and regulation. Following approximately 20 years at the Medical Protection Society, latterly as Head of UK Medical Services and then Communications and Policy Director, Gerard left to develop a medical education and risk management consultancy. In 2010, through that company, he was instrumental in creating alternative professional indemnity schemes for a range of surgical specialties. He is a Foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians.