Patrick Keady

I have worked with the National Health Service continuously for over 23 years – as director, risk practitioner, chartered safety practitioner and quality practitioner. I joined in 1991, as one the first NHS safety practitioners appointed outside London and Manchester. I was promoted to Executive Director of Strategy and Governance in 2004.

In the intervening years I have actively engaged in a broad range of topics in Trusts, CCGs and SHAs - including health and safety management (early 1990s), achieving the NHS Litigation Authority level 2 risk management standards (1998), leading on quality for a workforce of 35,000 clinicians (early 2000s) and negotiating a series of differences of opinion between the Care Quality Commission and NHS Trusts.

I have led a broad range of inter-organisational reviews including: GP capacity and demand, wrong site surgery, legionella outbreaks, suicides, bullying, sexual harassment and leading teams of nine clinicians reviewing quality safety and risk in 16 NHS bodies

Following nearly 20 years service to the Worlds largest body of safety practitioners (IOSH) - 44,000 members in 105 countries - I was elected Chair of their Board of Trustees in 2013. Previously I served as a founding member of the IOSH Healthcare Group and became Chair in 2006. I am the only NHS-based safety practitioner to win IOSH's Annual Safety Practitioner Award (1996) or one of the BMJ Film Awards (1997).

With a keen interest in public health, I joined the editorial board of the Journal of the Royal Society of Health in 2004. I became Deputy Editor of the peer-reviewed Perspectives in Public Health in 2011.

My first degree is in Chemistry; I undertook two post graduate diplomas in risk management and occupational safety and health; and I hold an MBA in Business. I am a fellow of learned bodies in safety (IOSH), risk (IRM), the arts (RSA), public health (RSPH) and medicine (RSM) - and a member of learned bodies in management (IHM), chemistry (RSC).