Independent healthcare company Spire Healthcare Group has appointed Sir David Sloman as a non-independent non-executive director.

Professor Dame Janet Husband is stepping down as a board member at the company’s annual general meeting on 14 May, after 10 years as a non-executive director.

Sloman will become a member of the company’s clinical governance and safety committee on appointment and will replace Husband as chair on 14 May. He will also take on the role of vice-chair from this date.

Sloman has had a career in healthcare management, predominantly in the NHS. He has held several chief executive roles at several NHS trusts, including the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust and NHS Haringey Trust. From December 2021 to August 2023, he was the chief operating officer of NHS England and was responsible for overseeing all NHS operational delivery, including the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sloman is a non-executive director of AXA UK and Ireland, a board member of Health Data Research UK, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a senior fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a trustee of the Royal College of Radiologists. As a result of his appointment with AXA UK and Ireland, the company doesn’t consider him to be independent.

Jill Anderson will join Spire as an independent non-executive director and will become a member of the company’s audit and risk committee and becomes chair from 14 May. She will also become a member of the remuneration committee. Anderson has 30 years’ experience in the healthcare sector, including executive responsibility in finance, commercial, research and supply chain functions across large multinational organisations principally with GSK. She is a trustee of Amref UK, a non-governmental organisation focused on healthcare in Africa, and was an associate non-executive director of London Ambulance Service until 2022.

Sir Ian Cheshire, Spire Healthcare’s non-executive chairman, said: ” The breadth of [Sloman and Anderson’s] expertise and experience in healthcare will be a highly valuable addition to our board and the company.”

“I would also like to thank Dame Janet for her considerable contribution to Spire since the Company listed in 2014 and also Debbie White for chairing the Audit and Risk Committee on an interim basis.”