North East hospital boss named as the 6th most influential person in UK health

Sir James Mackey - chief exec at the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust - has been listed as the sixth most influential person in the country when it comes to health.

Sir James is also the NHS England elective recovery director. He is one of the highest-profile North East figure on the prestigious HSJ100 list, collated by the Health Service Journal and judged by a range of senior figures within the health and care sector, and by placing sixth he is ahead of figures including shadow health secretary Wes Streeting and just behind Jeremy Hunt.

Unsurprisingly, the list is topped by Sajid Javid, with NHS England's Amanda Pritchard - who went to school in Durham - second. NHS England's regional director for the North East and Yorkshire Richard Barker is 19th.

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The chief executive of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) Sam Allen also makes the list, but only the top 20 are given a specific ranking. Newcastle Hospitals boss Dame Jackie Daniel - who featured in 2021 - is not included this time around.

Sir James has been an outspoken figure in recent months, including at an event where he was an early voice calling for Covid restrictions to be reduced so hospitals could better manage extensive pressure on beds. He said at an event: "We need to test less and worry less about distancing etc and get back to local, risk-based decision-making as soon as possible and get beds open where safe to do so because we are now taking too much undifferentiated risk at the front door (and even before the front door with ambulance delays), and we cannot get patients out the back door."

Under his leadership, the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust is also planning to be the first NHS trust in the country to offer in-house social care provision.

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