Tracey Batten to lead Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has appointed Dr Tracey Batten, a leading Australian healthcare expert, as chief executive.

Dr Batten has had a distinguished career as a clinician and clinical leader and until recently was the chief executive of St Vincent’s Health, Australia’s largest charitable hospital group. She will take up her new post with Imperial College's partner NHS Trust in early April.

Sir Richard Sykes, Chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: “I am very pleased that we are now able to announce the appointment of Tracey Batten.  We conducted an exhaustive, global search for our new chief executive and in Tracey I am certain we have found the kind of aspirational and inspirational leader we were looking for.  She has a strong record of clinical and managerial leadership and the organisational transformation she achieved at St Vincent’s Health was particularly impressive.  I have always felt that clinicians should be closely involved in the management and leadership of NHS trusts but the best clinical leadership comes from those with both clinical and managerial skills and experience. Tracey Batten is such a leader.”

Fresh ideas

Dr Batten said: “The prospect of leading one of England’s largest and most prestigious NHS trusts is both an honour and an exciting challenge.  I hope to bring fresh ideas from another public health system and to help Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust complete its journey towards Foundation Trust status.  I am deeply committed to ensuring not only the very best clinical outcomes for patients but that their wider experience of the healthcare system is the very best too.  I look forward to meeting my new colleagues and our many patients in the near future.”

Professor Dermot Kelleher, Vice-President (Health) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, said:
“Tracey Batten will bring an outstanding record of professional achievement, exceptional leadership skills and new perspectives to this crucial job. Her combination of clinical and management experience will serve to strengthen the Trust’s position as a world-class centre for healthcare and research excellence.”

Since 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have been designated as an Academic Health Science Centre. The award, which was renewed in 2013, recognises Imperial’s excellence in education, research, translational medicine and patient care.

See the press release of this article