Heartfelt tributes paid to ‘one of the good people’
HEARTFELT tributes have been paid to Bevan Commissioner Professor John Wyn Owen CB who has died at the age of 77 following a long illness.
Prof Owen had a long and distinguished career in the NHS in Wales, the wider UK and overseas, including becoming the first director of the NHS in Wales in 1985 and director general of NSW State Health Ministry in Australia.
His work spanned public, private and charity sectors. He was a leader globally in health development working with the World Health Organisation and the Nuffield Trust.
He was a founding fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, professor at several universities and chairman of the University of Wales Institute Cardiff.
He was a key member of Wales’ leading health think tank, the Bevan Commission, championing prudent healthcare and promoting strong leadership, high quality care delivery and patient safety in NHS Wales.
Born in North Wales in 1942, prof Owen was always extremely proud of his Welsh roots.
As a chapel-goer, he attributed a simple approach to life but also his understanding of the socialist values that underpin health and wellbeing in communities.
His belief in the need to ensure the stewardship of resources, particularly of the human kind, was to feature very prominently in his thinking about the Welsh NHS and beyond.
After graduating at St John’s College, Cambridge, he entered the Ministry of Health’s training scheme at the King’s Fund Hospital in London, followed by a number of posts in Wales in hospital and health services administration.
In 1971, he was appointed to a joint post with the King’s Fund and St Thomas’ Hospital to look at the commissioning of health services research and in 1974 was appointed as the first district administrator of St Thomas’ Hospital and Health District (Teaching).
In 1985, prof Owen returned to his homeland as the first director of the NHS in Wales, chairman of the Secretary of State’s Health Policy Board Executive Committee and chairman of the all Wales Health Services Authority.
In 1993, he became director general NSW State Health Ministry – Australia’s largest organisation – and chairman of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council.
He returned to the UK in 1997 as secretary of the Nuffield Trust and integrated its grants, fellowships and publications to promote independent analysis and informed debate on UK health policy.
Prof Sir Michael Marmot who worked with prof Owen at the Nuffield Trust and the Bevan Commission said: “John always seemed to me to be timeless.
“I always thought of him as a friend, and one of the good people.”
Following retirement in 2005, John held various positions including Wales board member and chairman of the Global Health Committee, Health Protection Agency; chairman Welsh Government’s Health Protection Committee; vice chairman UK Health Forum and chairman 2013 of the UK Canada Colloquium on New Realities for Global Health.
A devoted family man, prof Owen leaves behind his wife Elizabeth, children Sian and Dafydd and grandchildren Tom, Fearne, Pearl and Allegra.
His funeral took place on February 12 at Ramoth Chapel, Cowbridge, and a memorial service will be held in Cambridge later in the year.”