The interim Chair of the new Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group (NWUHG) has been announced as Professor David Roberts, a healthcare executive who has worked across government, public and private sectors in the UK and internationally. Professor Roberts will assume his role later this month for a one-year term.
The NWUHG was formed in May 2025 and brings together the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn and the James Paget University Hospital. Each hospital will continue to operate under its own name.
Past roles
Professor Roberts’s previous roles include Chief Executive of University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, Director General of Health and Human Services in Tasmania and as a board member for the largest hospital in the Middle East, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Saudi Arabia.
He has also contributed to international health reform initiatives and continues to advise organisations on governance, digital strategy and system improvement.
‘An experienced leader’
Announcing the appointment, Antonia Hardcastle, Lead Governor for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, said: “We are delighted to have secured such a highly regarded, well respected and experienced leader to chair our new hospitals Group through the first year of its operations.
“This is a critical period for the Group, requiring urgent action to turn around performance in key services and develop and refine with others an ambitious clinical strategy that will clarify and define the future role of our hospitals going forward and deliver the transformations required by the Government’s 10-year plan for the NHS.
“While welcoming David’s experience at strategic level, we noted also his deep understanding of and commitment to protecting local delivery and supporting each of our hospitals to develop even closer links with their local communities.”