New NHS Highland chief executive appointed
NHS Highland’s interim deputy chief executive will take on the role of chief executive, it was announced this week.
Pam Dudek, who joined the NHS Highland board on secondment from NHS Grampian in April, will officially begin her new role as chief executive on October 5.
Professor Boyd Robertson, chairman of NHS Highland, said: ‘Pam was chosen from a strong field of experienced executive leaders from across the UK and beyond.
‘During her secondment, she strengthened the executive leadership team, made a substantial contribution to the board’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and co-produced its remobilisation plan with colleagues from across NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership.
‘I am confident that Pam’s considerable leadership experience of partnership working across health, care and the third sector will not only enable NHS Highland to deliver our strategic objectives but to keep building a culture of collaboration and inclusion.’
Mrs Dudek began her career as a nurse cadet in 1982 and completed her training as a psychiatric nurse within NHS Tayside in 1987. After a variety of nursing and leadership roles in substance misuse and mental health services across a number of boards, she moved to NHS Grampian in 2009 to lead an improvement programme on the management of long-term conditions across the board area.
In 2012, she took up the role of deputy general manager and subsequently head of healthcare for Aberdeenshire Community Health Partnership, before moving to her most recent role of chief officer for the Moray Integrated Joint Board in October 2014.
In the latter role, she led on the setting up of the new model of health and social care integration and had oversight of primary care services across Grampian and Dr Gray’s Hospital.
Mrs Dudek said: ‘I am thrilled to be joining NHS Highland at this particular time. We have many challenges ahead as we remobilise our services and put into practise what we learned from our response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘I am particularly delighted to be working with colleagues right across Highland and Argyll and Bute, as we renew our focus on how we work differently together to provide better, more accessible care and services to our communities and to help people look after their own health and wellbeing.’