The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) – the independent, government-mandated source of information on privately-funded healthcare in the UK – has announced the appointment of three new non-executive directors.
A PHIN spokesperson said that two of the appointees been asked to join because of their “experience and expertise as consumer and patient advocates”.
Kay Boycott joins PHIN’s board having recently stepped down as the chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation.
She is also a NED for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a general advisory council member for the King’s Fund.
Nina Hingorani-Crain has served on numerous national boards, and is currently a NED of the Charity Commission for England & Wales, and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
Nigel Mercer is a plastic surgeon with a private practice based in Bristol. As the former president of the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations, and chair of the Surgical Forum of Great Britain and Ireland, Mercer has worked alongside PHIN on several initiatives.
PHIN chair Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen (pictured) said the organisation had been approached by “an extraordinarily strong field of applicants” he is “really pleased to have such esteemed colleagues to bring fresh ideas and commitment to the board”.
Dr Vallance-Owen said: “Over the past 5 years PHIN’s focus has been on working with the private healthcare sector to build transparency, improve national data standards and produce high quality information. Over the next five years we will focus much more on publishing information from the data we hold – and getting this in front of consumers and patients where it can be used to help make informed choices. Kay and Nina bring a wealth of experience from which PHIN can benefit in this area.
He added: “Nigel Mercer is well known to me, and I’m sure to many in the private sector, not only as leader in his clinical field, but as a champion of better standards in healthcare. I look forward to working with them.”