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The executive director of an organization championed by Matt Hancock to promote a “digital transformation” in the NHS remains in office a year after the secretary of health appointed him, without an interview, on a temporary basis.
NHSX has been heavily promoted by Hancock, who created it in 2019 to drive digital change in healthcare. During the pandemic, he has assigned you high priority projects as part of the UK’s response to the coronavirus.
Excerpts from a Deloitte audit draft, compiled in January and seen by The Guardian, claim that Matthew Gould, a former diplomat and public official, was appointed executive director of NHSX by the health secretary on a “temporary” basis.
More than a year later, Gould remains in office and his position has not been publicly announced. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said Gould’s position “will be announced shortly” and will be subject to open and full competition.
A senior NHS official said Hancock ordered Gould to be assigned the highest position in the body when it was created. The two men had previously worked together in the culture department, where Gould was digital director while Hancock was culture secretary.
Previously, the British ambassador to Israel, Gould reportedly rose through the civil service after being tasked with collecting evidence of how Brexit would harm the UK, on the advice of George Osborne. The two men have been friends since they attended St Paul’s school together.
Launched in July 2019 to deliver Hancock’s “tech vision” for healthcare, NHSX has been entrusted with responsibility for key pillars of the government’s response to coronavirus, including the first iteration of a Covid tracking app. -19 for mobile phones.
You have also been tasked with creating a “Covid-19 data warehouse” to consolidate large amounts of health data previously distributed across multiple NHS divisions to aid ministerial decision making, and have been assigned responsibility for part of the IT infrastructure surrounding the launch of Covid-19 Vaccines.
The organization’s uncertain status in January, as revealed by the audit draft, raises questions about why Hancock entrusted the essential elements of the government’s response to the coronavirus to a nascent and untested body.
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“The CEO of NHSX was appointed without advertising in July 2019 under temporary arrangements,” according to the audit draft. He said ministerial approval to appoint the permanent position had been obtained and “will be announced.”
The same audit also found that Gould’s contract and responsibilities were not finalized until several months after he had already started his work.
In May, a report by the National Audit Office on digital transformation in healthcare warned that the creation of NHSX had a complicated responsibility for the expansion of digital technologies and that “national governance arrangements for digital transformation continue being confusing, despite attempts to clarify them. “
Gould reports directly to Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, while also reporting directly to Hancock.
A report from the parliament’s public accounts committee earlier this month said: “We are concerned that the governance arrangements for NHSX have not yet been finalized more than a year after they were created.” He added: “There is little transparency about their spending and activity.”
The President of NHS Digital, which manages the digital infrastructure of the healthcare service, has been tasked with overseeing a review of how responsibility for digital transformation is delineated within the various NHS bodies.
Laura Wade-Gery, who was appointed president in July this year, has been supported by a team from consulting firm McKinsey at a cost of £ 588,000.
NHSX became the national spotlight after Hancock tasked it with overseeing the creation of the Covid-19 mobile phone app, which the public would install on their phones to help track exposure to the virus.
A DHSC spokesman said that NHSX had “played a vital role in the department’s response to the coronavirus.”
They added: “The creation of NHSX and the appointment of the executive director followed civil service due process, with the appointment of Mr. Gould approved by the senior civil service leadership committee.”
