NHS Confederation appoints Matt Tee to lead comms

He is taking the new role of chief operating officer at the membership body, which represents NHS service providers, from hospitals to GPs.

Tee, who has been running his own PR firm Reputate since leaving his government position in April 2011, will join after Easter and will report to chief executive Mike Farrar. He said he would continue to work with Reputate 'where appropriate'.

Tee told PRWeek: ‘We are at a time when there is less money available to the NHS and difficult decisions need to be made about where services are concentrated.’

He added that his main responsibilities would concern member engagement, identifying issues within the health service by visiting hospitals and GPs, and providing a ‘credible link’ to communicate those issues to journalists, government ministers and important stakeholders.

Tee will also be responsible for building commercial partnerships.

He said the NHS had been slow to ‘rise to the challenge of digital’ comms so far, which he intended to change. Digital is no longer an ‘optional comms channel’ but an ‘absolute core part of how the NHS does its job’, Tee added.

He also confirmed that the organisation would ‘play a part’ in the Department of Health’s new joint proactive comms strategy.

In addition to hiring Tee the confederation has appointed its associate director, Dr Johnny Marshall, as director of policy.

This article was first published on prweek.com