Rupert Davies - Director of Finance

Rupert joined the Trust in June 2011 as the new Director of Finance in succession to Keith Wood.  He previously worked for Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust where he was Director of Resources.  He has 16 years experience in finance within the NHS having worked for foundation trust, mental health, acute and health authority organisations.  He has a BA (University of Kent), an MA (University of Leeds) and a PhD (University of Leicester) and is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Sandy Brown - Director of Nursing and Quality

Sandy joined the Trust after having worked for North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust in Carlisle where he was Director of Nursing, Governance and Quality.  In that role he was Trust lead for areas as child protection and safeguarding, patient experience and strategic leadership.  He has previously had experience of working across the health economy in the area developing pathways with clinical teams to improve patient care and experiences.  Sandy was one of the first nurse consultants in the country and specialised in critical care and trauma.

Dr Andrew Carson - Medical Director

The Trust’s Medical Director is Dr Andrew Carson who has been a GP at Belle Vue Medical Centre in Birmingham for 26 years.  He is also an Associate Dean for GP Training for the Workforce Deanery in the West Midlands where he has been heavily  involved in the training of GPs for around 15 years.  He has also been a Clinical Director for Summerfields Urgent Care Centre.  Dr Carson is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and has a strong track record for innovative and strategic thinking.  He has been involved in a number of research products that have resulted in papers being published in the medical press.

Barry Thurston - Director of Service Delivery

Barry started working in the ambulance service over 25 years ago, initially as a call taker in the control room in Birmingham, before joining the IT department to support the organisations move to its first computerised control system which had been developed by in house staff. Initially his role was to join the software development team and assist in writing the code to extend the functionality of the system. He then project managed a number of control room system deployments around the country, installing the software developed at West Midlands into a number of other ambulance Trusts.

Barry was Director of IM&T for the previous West Midlands Ambulance Service and oversaw the projects to relocate the Birmingham and Black Country control room to its current location in Millennium Point and the West Midlands NHS Direct at Navigation Point. Barry continued in that role with the newly reconfigured West Midlands Ambulance Service in July 2006 and has been involved in the work to reconfigure the controls rooms in the Region including a new build in Tollgate in Staffordshire. More recently he successfully ran the Department of Health’s project to implement the new national digital radio system for ambulance services into the 11 ambulance Trusts in England.

In August 2009 Barry’s role expanded with his new position of Director of Service Delivery. This role means he is in overall control of all operations for the Trust as well as Fleet, Estates IM&T and Supplies. He made an immediate impact with a number of important projects being brought on line that have helped the Trust improve its clinical and operational performance.

Kim Nurse - Director of Workforce and Organisational Development

Kim joined West Midlands Ambulance Service in October 2006 and had led a workforce transformation programme including the standardisation of the agenda for change terms and conditions and pay arrangements for operational staff to bring parity across the region. She has recently completed an MBA, which added to her Masters in HR Management.

Kim started as a Careers Advisor in London before holding a senior post within human resources of a large local authority and acting as a HR consultant for two large Regeneration Partnerships which brought Private / Public / Volunteer groups together. After a career in Local Government she joined the NHS as Head of HR Strategy at Southend Hospital before becoming the Director of Human Resources at Essex Ambulance Service where she was part of the executive team that led the Trust from zero to a three star organisation within two years.

Peter Murtagh - Commissioning Director

Peter took up his current role in August 2008 and leads for the Trust in Commissioning negotiations with the Primary Care Trusts and Specialist Commissioner. He also leads on business planning and day to day management of the Trusts bid for Foundation Trust status. Prior to this role he was Locality Director for Staffordshire. It was Staffordshire where he first joined the ambulance service as Director of Distribution where he was in charge of the emergency operations centre.

Peter’s background is in engineering; he worked for companies such as GEC and GE where he was Managing Director for Creda Domestic Appliances and then the Vice President of the Floor Care Division of Hoover.