Chief Information Officer — Specialist-Clinics Portfolio

The mandate

A specialist-clinics portfolio requires integration of clinical information systems that grew clinic by clinic, leaving local expertise to bridge gaps between incomplete records, delayed result interfaces and inconsistent identity matching. The current CIO is departing; a replacement must stabilise clinical information before deciding which systems deserve renewal.

Approximately 1,200 employees and material partners depend on scheduling, records, diagnostics, imaging, prescribing, billing and communication platforms across London and wider UK clinics. The CIO owns information technology, service management, cyber operations, data platforms, applications, suppliers and change, reporting to the Group Chief Executive or nominated sponsor. Clinical leaders define safe practice; the CIO ensures information supports it reliably.

The opening priority is information continuity. The CIO will trace priority patient journeys and identify where demographic, referral, medication, result or follow-up information becomes incomplete or inaccessible. Interfaces should be assessed by clinical consequence, not only technical error volume. Temporary reconciliation will remain until replacement controls are verified.

Identity architecture needs one accountable design. Multiple patient identifiers and demographic variation create duplicates and wrong-record risk. The CIO will set matching thresholds, exception queues, merge authority and reversal evidence with clinical and privacy leaders. Automated merging must be monitored, and unresolved ambiguity must be visible to practitioners before care.

Results require closed-loop delivery. A successful interface message does not mean a clinician has reviewed and acted. The CIO will connect report release, inbox assignment, acknowledgement, escalation and amendment. Systems must retain original and changed information with an audit trail, while urgent findings receive resilient communications outside a single channel.

Access rights have accumulated through role changes and cross-clinic work. The replacement leader will establish role-based access, prompt joiner-mover-leaver control and monitoring for inappropriate use. Emergency access should remain possible, justified and reviewed. Security cannot create such friction that clinicians share credentials or bypass the record.

The estate renewal decision will follow a capability and risk assessment. Replacing every system at once may create migration and adoption risk; continuing local platforms prolongs fragility. The CIO will define target architecture, transition states and decommission criteria. Clinical data retention, active tasks and consent must survive each migration.

Service management will reflect patient consequence. Incidents affecting identity, medication, results or theatre workflow require different escalation from ordinary office outages. The CIO will build a severity model with clinical input, publish response ownership and reconcile any manual work after restoration. Recovery is incomplete until the patient backlog is addressed.

Cyber resilience must include care continuity. Ransomware, supplier compromise or suspicious access may require system isolation. The CIO will test minimum viable clinical services, offline records, communications and recovery. Exercises must involve clinics, practitioners and external diagnostic partners, not only infrastructure teams.

Supplier governance needs stronger acceptance. Several vendors report availability that excludes interfaces or planned downtime relevant to clinics. Contracts and scorecards will measure the usable service and clinical support response. Major payments should depend on accepted outcomes; vendors must disclose subcontractors and material changes.

Data quality is an operating responsibility. Technology can provide validation and lineage, but clinics own source accuracy. The CIO will create stewardship with named clinical and administrative owners, prioritising fields that drive identity, urgency and action. A central data-cleaning team cannot permanently compensate for poor entry design.

The technology portfolio will shrink. Projects without an accountable clinical or operating benefit owner will stop. Releases affecting patient flow require scenario testing, user readiness, monitoring and rollback. Adoption will be measured through changed work and reduced exceptions, not log-ins or training attendance.

Technology talent must spend more time in clinics. Service managers, architects and analysts will observe work and understand the consequence of design choices. Clinical informatics leadership will bridge professional and technical language without becoming a substitute for either side's accountability.

What you will own

• Clinical information continuity and systems recovery.
• Identity, results, access and audit architecture.
• IT service, cyber resilience and incident recovery.
• Application and data-platform renewal roadmap.
• Supplier, contract and technology investment control.
• Data stewardship and clinical informatics partnership.
• Portfolio prioritisation, release and adoption.
• Technology leadership and succession.

The first 12 months

In the first 30 days, trace information for high-risk cases, identify uncontrolled interfaces and secure immediate reconciliation. Present the board with a clinical-consequence estate assessment.

By month five, stabilise identity and result exception handling, introduce patient-impact service management and decide the target architecture. Complete a live cyber continuity exercise at representative clinics.

At twelve months, reduce unresolved patient-identity exceptions by 60%, cut overdue result-delivery exceptions by 75% and restore 98% of clinical-priority incidents within agreed patient-impact thresholds. Remove 25% of redundant applications, achieve 100% timely privileged-access review and complete migrations with no lost active clinical task.

What the sponsor will inspect

• Practitioners seeing complete, current information.
• Identity ambiguity visible and reversibly resolved.
• Results tracked to accountable clinical receipt.
• Incident recovery including patient backlog.
• Architecture choices reflecting migration risk.
• Technology measures tied to clinical work.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in information technology, including CIO authority across multi-site healthcare or an equivalently regulated clinical environment. Your record includes clinical systems recovery, identity or results architecture, cyber continuity, major vendors and complex migration.

UK healthcare, privacy and clinical-information exposure are essential. You can explain technical risk to a board and listen when frontline evidence contradicts a vendor dashboard. This permanent replacement is onsite in London with substantial clinic presence.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is GBP 250,000–340,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation linked to information safety, resilience, estate simplification, adoption and technology leadership. The permanent appointment is onsite in London and reports to the Group Chief Executive or nominated executive-committee sponsor. Replacement proceeds urgently alongside the current recovery.

Confidentiality

The clinics, patients, practitioners, incidents, systems, suppliers, cyber posture and recovery plan are confidential. Detail follows suitability, conflict and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not approach clinic groups, technology vendors or clinicians to identify the organisation.