St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has appointed two new Non-Executive Directors and an Associate Non-Executive Director to its Board.

Professor Dame Parveen Kumar DBE and Elizabeth Bishop will join the Trust as Non-Executive Directors, as will Dr Pui-Ling Li as Associate Non-Executive Director.

Dame Parveen is a Consultant in Gastroenterology and a General Physician. She is Professor of Medicine and Education at Barts and the London, Queen Mary University of London. Professor Kumar is the co-founder and co-editor of Kumar and Clark’s ‘Clinical Medicine’, a major textbook for students and doctors. She has also authored and edited several other medical books, and teaches and examines for undergraduate and post-graduate medical degrees.

She has held a number of national roles, including as President of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the British Medical Association, and vice-President of the Royal College of Physicians. She chaired the Medicines Commission UK and was founding Non-Executive Director for NICE. She was awarded a CBE for her services to medicine in 2001, and a DBE in 2017.

Elizabeth Bishop is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Her most recent executive role was as Director of Finance and Resources with the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, having also held executive roles at The Nuffield Trust, as well as charities Shelter and Toynbee Hall.

Elizabeth is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, a role she has held since 2013. She will continue in this role alongside her new position as a Non-Executive Director at St George’s.

Dr Pui-Ling Li is a Consultant in Public Health, with over 20 years of experience in the delivery of health, service improvements and system change. She first trained as a General Practitioner, before completing her training as a public health physician.

Dr Li has been a Fellow of the Faculty of the Faculty of Public Health since 2001, and has held a number of executive director and Board level roles. Most recently, she has been a Consultant in Public Health for Public Health England (August 2017-June 2019), and was Clinical Ambassador for the NHS Getting it Right First Time programme in London (January 2018-June 2019).

Professor Kumar takes over from Professor Sir Norman Williams, who stepped down from the Trust Board in September to take up the role of Chair of the national Independent Reconfiguration Panel. Elizabeth Bishop will take up her position on the Trust Board from Sarah Wilton, who will step down as Non-Executive Director at St George’s at the end of January after nine years in the role.

Dr Li will be the only Associate Non-Executive Director on the Trust Board at St George’s.

Gillian Norton, Trust Chairman, welcomed the appointments:

“I am delighted that we have appointed such high calibre individuals to these crucial roles on the Trust Board. I was struck by the passion that Elizabeth, Parveen and Pui-Ling all showed for St George’s, and their in-depth knowledge of the progress we have made, and the challenges that still remain. I know they will help us on our improvement journey, and challenge the organisation to aim high, for the benefits of patients and staff.

“Finally, I would like to say a special thanks to Sarah Wilton, whose commitment to the organisation since 2011 is clear to all who know and have worked with her. Sarah cares deeply about St George’s, but also has high expectations for the organisation; and this has been clear to me since I took on the role of Chairman in 2017. On behalf of the Trust Board, I would like to thank Sarah, who has gone above and beyond in her role, for which we are very grateful.”

Notes to editors

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest healthcare provider, major teaching hospital and tertiary centre for south west London, Surrey and beyond – and one of the largest healthcare providers in the UK – serving a population of 3.5 million.

Its main site, St George’s Hospital – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals – is shared with St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research.

St George’s is one of 11 adult and children major trauma centres in the UK, one of eight hyper acute stroke units and one of the biggest and busiest of the eight heart attack centres in London.

It is also an accredited centre of excellence for trauma, neurology, cardiology, cancer and blood pressure services and is the national centre for family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases.