Farewell to health champ, Gideon
ALEADING light in the fight to improve health and well-being in Liverpool has stepped down. Gideon Ben-Tovim has bowed out as chair of the Innovation Agency – an NHS body dedicated to accelerating new developments in the region’s health – after 10 years at the helm.
He was chair of the NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, before helping to set up the Innovation Agency in 2013.
As an academic and activist in Liverpool in the 1980s, he was a researcher and author in race relations, later being elected to Liverpool City Council and then appointed Labour Leader.
His passion for equality, health and wellbeing led him into the NHS.
Gideon said: “I was born in Wallasey though I grew up in London and returned to
Liverpool as a student. Our home was also a GP surgery – my father was a GP; my mother was the triage nurse, practice manager and receptionist; I used to arrange the Lloyd George envelopes (patients’ medical records) on a Friday night, so I grew up feeling part of the NHS!
“It has been a privilege to be part of the Innovation Agency since its inception and I would like to pay tribute to the excellent staff and leadership team; and to the brilliant colleagues in the NHS, universities, businesses and the charity and voluntary sector who I have come to know in the last 10 years. I wish them all well for the future.”
Gideon will continue his work with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, where he chairs the Climate Partnership.
Also calling an end to his tenure at the Innovation Agency is vice chair Bruce Ash, who joined in 2014.