Mike Durkin OBE, MBBS, FRCA, FRCP, DSc

Dr Mike Durkin was the NHS National Director of Patient Safety from 2012-2017. He holds Visiting Professor appointments in Patient Safety at Imperial College London and the University of the West of England and is currently the Senior Advisor on Patient Safety Policy and Leadership at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College. He is an Associate Non-Executive Director at NHS Resolution. He qualified in Medicine at The Middlesex Hospital Medical School and has held clinical, research and teaching appointments in cardiovascular anaesthesia and critical care in London, Bristol and Yale Universities.

He started his 25 year medical management and leadership career as Executive Medical Director at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in 1993 and held successive Executive Medical Director positions for Strategic Authorities between 2002-2012 culminating as the Medical Director of the NHS across the South of England supporting a population of 16M. He has led performance and clinical governance reviews in the UK and overseas. He was the UK Department of Health National Clinical Director for Venous Thrombo-Embolism, an appointed Expert by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare and on the core team for the Patient Safety Campaign for England.

He led the National Patient Safety Programme for England developing the 15 Patient Safety Collaboratives across England and the Q Fellowship to build a community of 5000 quality improvers in partnership with The Health Foundation. He continues to support international development of patient safety systems with the World Health Organisation. He convened the Berwick Advisory Board in 2013 to advise on creating conditions to improve the safety of patients in England and in 2015 he was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health to Chair the Expert Advisory Group to advise on the establishment of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch.

He led the establishment of Ministerial Inter-Governmental Summits on Patient Safety which have now been held in the UK (2016) and Germany (2017), and to be held in Japan in 2018. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West of England and in 2017 he was awarded the highest accolade of the Royal College of Physicians of London for services to Patient Safety, their Honorary Fellowship. He is Chair of the Management Board of NICE National Clinical Guideline Centre and sits on national and international research, policy and patient safety boards.