Birmingham Professor Appointed National Chief Medical Officer in New Zealand
It has been announced today that Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard DBE has been appointed to the position of Chief Medical Officer for Health, New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, and will leave University of Birmingham to start her new role in October 2024.
Helen is currently a Non-Executive Director at NHS England, a Professor of Medical Education at the University and a frontline NHS GP. She also sits on the External Oversight Group to the National AI Security Institute.
She was the Chair of the UK Academy of Medical Colleges (2020-23), throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as remaining a frontline NHS General Practitioner and was awarded a DBE for services to General Practice in 2022.
Helen is also a trustee at Macmillan Cancer and founding Chair of the National Academy for Social Prescribing, where she is actively involved in shaping the direction of social prescribing — establishing an academic foundation for the movement and forming alliances to increase its impact globally.
Helen has worked at the University of Birmingham for many years and her expertise in general practice and in all aspects of the NHS have proved to be essential for shaping how and what we do as educators.
This is a truly fantastic opportunity for Helen illustrating the highest international regard, in which she is held. And what an adventure! I’m thrilled she wants to maintain links with us as well as develop new ones. I look forward to our collaborations with fellow educators and healthcare providers in New Zealand. It goes without saying she will be greatly missed by her friends here in Birmingham; I was certainly touched by the warmth of her welcome towards me on arriving last September. I’m sure we all wish her every success and good luck in this new, hugely influential role.
Professor Neil Hanley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham.
I am hugely grateful to the University of Birmingham for the training, experiences and opportunities it has given me over the past 24years. I have so many dear friends and colleagues here and I really do look forward to developing new joint ventures with them when I am settled in New Zealand.
Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, University of Birmingham.