Professor Will Pope and Dr Ed Garratt OBE have been appointed as Interim Chair and Interim Chief Executive of NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB), with immediate effect.
The appointments follow the recent retirement of Rt Hon Dame Patricia Hewitt as chair of Norfolk and Waveney ICB and the departure of Tracey Bleakley as Chief Executive, who has announced that she will be pursuing new opportunities within the NHS.
Will Pope has been Chair of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB since it was established in 2022 and will continue to fulfill that role alongside his new appointment. Ed Garratt OBE is currently Chief Executive of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, and he too will continue in that position alongside leading Norfolk and Waveney ICB.
Will said: “I am really pleased to be taking on this role and to be supporting NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB through the inevitable challenges and change over the coming period.
“There is a lot of excellent and innovative work taking place in Norfolk and Waveney that will be great for me to learn more about, and I want to thank Patricia and Hein for all the work they did as Chair and Acting Chair respectively.
“As ever, the challenges and changes in health and social care are not only local but also face the NHS as a whole and our local authority colleagues too.
“There are many talented people working in health and care in Norfolk and Waveney who I look forward to working with as we navigate these interesting waters.”
Ed added: “I want to thank Tracey for everything she has done to improve the health, wellbeing and care of people living in Norfolk and Waveney as Chief Executive of the ICB.
“I look forward to carrying on the really good work being done by the organisation to tackle the issues that matter most to patients, like cutting waiting times and making it easier for people to get the care they need.
“There are lots of changes being made at the moment to how the NHS is organised, and a priority for Will and I will be to support staff through this.”
Tracey said: “I am really proud of what we have achieved here in Norfolk and Waveney over the past few years.
“Will and Ed are experienced leaders and I want to thank them for agreeing to take on these roles and for sharing their expertise with Norfolk and Waveney.
“My thanks also go to Hein van den Wildenberg, who has been excellent as the ICB’s Acting Chair for the past few months.”
Clare Panniker, Regional Director for NHS England in the East of England said:
“I am very pleased to welcome both Will and Ed as the new Interim Chair and Interim Chief Executive of Norfolk and Waveney ICB, respectively.
“They each bring a wealth of experience in running a high performing ICB in the region with similar challenges to Norfolk and Waveney, which will benefit patient care across the whole region.
“I would also like to thank Tracey for her relentless hard work in her time as CEO and wish her the best for the future.”
