Dr Karl Marlowe to join Oxford Health as Chief Medical Officer

Dynamic medical leader to join Trust this Spring to further clinical excellence, quality improvement and ensuring the Trust’s research and development work receives international acclaim

Dr Karl Marlowe to join Oxford Health as Chief Medical Officer

Oxford Health is to be joined by a new Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in Spring 2021 who has his sights set on clinical excellence, quality improvement and ensuring the Trust’s research and development work receives international acclaim.

Dr Karl Marlowe is currently the CMO at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust where, since April 2018, he has been responsible for the clinical leadership of 6,000 staff across more than 300 sites – including five community hospitals – and a £320m budget.

During this time, he had worked alongside our CEO Dr Nick Broughton and saw Southern Health experience a shift in culture, transforming it from a trust requiring improvement to one rated as ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission.

Oxford Health is already classified as ‘good’ and Dr Marlowe will be joining an executive board which has ambitions to turn the Trust into one that is rated ‘outstanding’ and considered a leading organisation nationally and on the world stage.

A consultant psychiatrist, Dr Marlowe’s extensive training has taken in Liverpool Medical School, Barts and The Royal London, Maudsley Hospital and Guys and St Thomas Hospitals. He holds post graduate qualifications from UCL and the Institute of Psychiatry, as well as Oxford’s Said Business School.

He has previously been clinical director of adult mental health at East London NHS Foundation Trust, and continues to chair the Social Interest Group – a not-for-profit organisation set up to enrich and extend opportunities for people facing social and health exclusion.

He is also passionate about climate change and at Southern Health worked hard to raise the profile of the need to reduce air pollution. He also led on embedding a quality improvement methodology across the Trust.

Looking to his arrival at Oxford Health this Spring, he said:

“I am truly delighted to be joining Oxford Health and to work with you all in achieving the very best standards of clinical care for all our patients. I look forward to supporting a vision of making sure that the Trust is a great place to train, work and have a rewarding career as well as delivering excellent care.

“It’s also a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to influence and enable Oxford Health to further strengthen relationships with the University of Oxford in work that has the potential to have a global, as well as local impact.  Taken together, these are opportunities I simply could not let pass by.”

Dr Marlowe’s role will see him join the Executive Board of Directors and he will be accountable for professional leadership, support, clinical supervision and education of medical, dental and pharmacy staff.

He will also be the Trust’s Responsible Officer for medical appraisal and revalidation, clinical effectiveness, clinical strategy and research and development for the Trust.

Working closely with the Chief Nurse Marie Crofts, the CMO role will see Dr Marlowe play a key role in clinical governance and clinical leadership across the Trust as well as providing strong input to external partnerships across the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) and with regional and national bodies.

Dr Nick Broughton, CEO of Oxford Health, said:

“I am very much looking forward to working with Karl again. He made a huge impact during our time together at Southern Health where he played a key role in helping the trust improve the quality of its services.

“He is a dynamic medical leader with considerable experience and expertise who cares passionately about patient engagement and quality improvement. I have no doubt that he will be a great addition to the Oxford Health team.”

Current Medical Director Dr Mark Hancock will be stepping down from the role when his contract ends in March 2021. However, he will continue as Chief Clinical Information Officer and as a practising consultant forensic psychiatrist working with Karl.

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Published: 17 January 2021