Hospital appoints new managing director

Saturday 23 December 2017

A new Managing Director has been appointed at Jersey's General Hospital to take over from Helen O'Shea, who is due to live February after five years in the role.

The incoming MD is Robert Sainsbury, who has been Chief Operating Officer at Northern, Eastern and Western (NEW) Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, which covers a population of 1.1 million, since November 2014.

A former senior nurse and ward manager, Mr Sainsbury will take up his new role at the end of February 2018. He has worked in the NHS in both England and Wales since 1995 in roles both in provision and commissioning at clinical, managerial and Executive Director level.

Developing ‘out-of-hospital’ services has been a key part of Mr Sainsbury’s work and this will continue in Jersey where such services form a major part of the developing health and social care model. He also has experience of working in adult social care, with both NHS Wales and Newport City Council, and in the important field of commissioning services.

Speaking about Mr Sainsbury's appointment, Julie Garbutt, Chief Executive for Health and Social Services, said: "We are delighted to have attracted and secured a
candidate of Rob's calibre to this essential post. Helen O'Shea has done a fantastic job of leading our staff at the Hospital through a time of immense pressure and
change as we waited for a decision about the island’s Future Hospital. I pay tribute to Helen and all she has achieved with her senior team.

Pictured: The current managing director, Helen O'Shea will be leaving the hospital in February. 

"Rob joins us to take us on the next stage of this journey, at a time when we are continuing to change and improve health and social care services in Jersey to ensure they are the best they can be for Islanders. We have never had a time when health and social care and what is provided in the hospital and out in the community have been more closely linked. Rob's experience will stand him in good stead as we continue to deliver what we know Islanders need and want from their health and social care services and continue with our transition plans for the new hospital."

Mr Sainsbury commented: "I am pleased and proud to be joining the Hospital team, and the wider Health and Social Services family, in Jersey at a time of such great change and optimism for the future, particularly with the plans agreed by the States Assembly to allow funding to build the Future Hospital.

“I am passionate about working in partnership to deliver high-quality patient care and, in particular, integrated health and social care. I am looking forward to moving to
Jersey, meeting new colleagues and working together to build on Helen's excellent work and what has already been achieved."

Helen O'Shea, who was appointed managing director in July 2012, announced in August that she would be leaving her position after learning her husband had been diagnosed with "a life shortening condition."