Nick Harding (born 21 December 1969) is a British general practitioner and Chief Medical Officer at Operose Health.
Harding qualified in medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1994. Before, during and after this time he undertook research in a number of areas which formed a basis for his future interest in continuous improvement of quality and safety in clinical settings. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Harding has worked in inner-city Birmingham for more than 30 years. As a general practitioner and a medical educator, Harding has been an RCGP examiner and trainer for many years, involved in assessing national standards for general practice. He has held a number of national roles, including Senior Clinical Advisor to NHS England and NHS Improvement for RightCare and Integrated Care, [6] a member of the Health Education Advisory Group, member of the Nuffield Trust Leadership Panel [7] [ failed verification ] and co-chair of the Specialised Commissioning task force. [8] He was a member of the General Advisory Panel for the King's Fund and is Chair elect for the Royal Society of Public Health (Sept 2025).
He has had a number of regional roles including being a member of the West Midlands Clinical Senate [9] and was the appointed doctor to the Birmingham Crematorium from 1999 to 2018. [10]
In 2015 he created and sourced funding from Health Education West Midlands to support delivery of a new type of Primary Care Leadership development programme for future GP leaders. [11] More than 120 GPs successfully completed this one-year programme. [12] This programme has been positively evaluated, and has been picked up nationally and implemented across England as the 'Next Generation GP' leadership programme. This has had several thousand participants in 5 years, [ when? ] with further programmes planned using resource support from NHS England and other organisations. Learning from the programme has been featured in a range of publications and podcasts, including a 2017 paper in Innovait, an RCGP journal aimed predominantly at GP trainees. [13]
Harding has published a range of clinical papers on radiation safety, application of cost-benefit analysis, patient communication, and on the threat of measles for the British Journal of General Practice. [14]
Harding was the Chair of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which covers two local authority areas: the whole borough of Sandwell and the western part of the City of Birmingham. [15] The CCG is a membership organisation involving 99 GP practices serving around 547,400 patients across the area. It is broken down further into five Local Commissioning Groups – Black Country, Healthworks, ICoF, Pioneers for Health and Sandwell Health Alliance – that address the needs of the population on a local level. The CCG has won Health Service Journal CCG of the Year 2013 [16] and 2015; [17] and General Practice Commissioners of the Year 2014. [18] It was rated as outstanding under NHS England's Improvement and Assessment Framework in 2016. [19]
Harding was a founding partner in Modality Partnership [20] (formerly known as Vitality), which brings together 49 practices for almost 460,000 patients as of 2025. The partnership has invested in technology so that patients are supported with advice from their healthcare team in a range of ways, including online, over the phone, on their mobile or by Skype.
This new type of super-partnership was referred to in the Kings Fund & Nuffield Trust's reviews of potential primary care models for the future. [21] In 2015, Vitality was one of the vanguards of a new model of care, called multispecialty community providers. [22] [23] The partnership has worked to improve primary care integration and at-scale quality of care in general practice, and it is widening[ when? ] this local model for integration with community, mental health and social care services.[ citation needed ] Professor Harding continues to retain his clinical practice.
Harding joined Operose Health as Chief Medical Officer, his current role, in August 2019. [24] The company delivers primary care through its network of GP practices, Primary Care Hubs, ED Streaming Services and Urgent Care Services. He has overseen growth of Operose Health to cover 700,000 patients at 82 sites as of January 2025.[ citation needed ]
Harding was recognised with a Queen's award OBE in June 2015 for services to primary care, [25] [26] [27] and was awarded an honorary professorship from Aston University [28] [29] for his work in helping to establish the Aston Medical School. He was also named in the Health Service Journal top 100 clinical leaders of 2015, [30] 2016 [31] and 2017. [32] He has an honorary Membership of the Faculty of Public Health and an honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (June 2016). He holds Fellowship of the Royal Society of Public Health and is a trustee.
Harding has supported charity work in Malawi, working with local communities to improve health through education and sustained development. [33] He attributes his interest in public health, patient safety and the provision of quality healthcare to his parents and grandfather, all of whom were in the medical profession. Harding's grandfather, Dr Colin Starkie, was the director of public health for Kidderminster [34] and worked with political leaders to introduce the Clean Air Act 1956. [34] His father, Dr Keith Harding, founded the Nuclear Medicine Department at Birmingham City Hospital in 1973. [35]
Harding has written a book on playing the guitar. [36]
Healthcare in the city of Bristol, England and the surrounding area is largely provided by the National Health Service (NHS). Until July 2022, this was provided through the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire clinical commissioning group. Facilities include a large teaching hospital – Bristol Royal Infirmary – which offers nationally commissioned specialist cardiac, cancer and children's services from its city-centre campus to patients in the southwest of England and beyond.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022, they were abolished and replaced by integrated care systems as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022.
NHS England, formerly the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It directly commissions NHS general practitioners, dentists, optometrists and some specialist services. The Secretary of State publishes annually a document known as the NHS mandate which specifies the objectives which the Board should seek to achieve. National Health Service Regulations are published each year to give legal force to the mandate.
Healthcare in London, which consumes about a fifth of the NHS budget in England, is in many respects distinct from that in the rest of the United Kingdom, or England.
The Five Year Forward View was produced by NHS England in October 2014 under the leadership of Simon Stevens as a planning document.
The Modality Partnership is a large GP partnership formed in 2009. Such large practices are often described as a "super partnership". According to the King's Fund in 2016 it was one of England’s largest super-practices. In 2018 it had about 400,000 patients and was thought to be the largest practice in England.
Healthcare in Devon was the responsibility of two clinical commissioning groups until July 2022, one covering Northern, Eastern and Western Devon, and one covering South Devon and Torbay. It was announced in November 2018 that the two were to merge.
Healthcare in Cumbria was the responsibility of Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group until July 2022. On 1 April 2017 32 GP practices left the CCG and merged with Lancashire North CCG to form Morecambe Bay CCG.
Healthcare in Worcestershire was the responsibility of three Clinical Commissioning Groups until July 2022, covering, respectively Redditch and Bromsgrove, Wyre Forest and South Worcestershire.
Healthcare in Kent has, from 1 July 2022, been mainly the responsibility of the Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board. Certain specialised services are directly commissioned by NHS England, coordinated through the South East integrated regional team. Some NHS England structures are aligned on a Kent and Medway basis, others on a South East basis and there is liaison with London to provide many tertiary healthcare services.
Healthcare in Somerset, England was the responsibility of three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) until July 2022. These covered the ceremonial county of Somerset, which comprises the areas governed by the three unitary authorities of Somerset, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset.
Healthcare in Sussex is the responsibility of NHS Sussex, an integrated care system and the NHS Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Through the Sussex Health and Care Assembly, NHS Sussex works with local government in the county to agree strategic priorities for public healthcare in Sussex.
Healthcare in Staffordshire was the responsibility of six clinical commissioning groups until July 2022, covering Stafford & Surrounds, North Staffordshire, South East Staffordshire and Seisdon Peninsula, East Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, and Stoke-on-Trent.
Healthcare in Cornwall was until July 2022 the responsibility of Kernow clinical commissioning group, until it got replaced by Integrated care system, as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022. As far as the NHS is concerned, Cornwall includes the Isles of Scilly.
The "Greater Manchester Model" of NHS health care was a system uniquely devolved within England, by way of close integration with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and local authorities, led by the Mayor of Greater Manchester. In July 2022 the Greater Manchester integrated care system took over responsibility for health and social care in the conurbation. The financial plan for 2022–23 had an initial shortage of £187 million.
Healthcare in the West Midlands was, until July 2022, the responsibility of five integrated care groups: Birmingham and Solihull, Sandwell and West Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, and Walsall.
Healthcare in Surrey, England was the responsibility of five Clinical Commissioning Groups: East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley, and Surrey Heath from 2013 to 2020 when East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley merged to form Surrey Heartlands CCG. The new organisation started with a £62 million deficit.
Healthcare in Essex is now the responsibility of six clinical commissioning groups: Basildon and Brentwood, Mid Essex, North East Essex, Southend, Thurrock and West Essex.
Healthcare in Gloucestershire was the responsibility of two clinical commissioning groups, covering Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, until July 2022. The health economy of Gloucestershire has always been linked with that of Bristol.
AT Medics Ltd. is the largest provider of primary care services to the National Health Service in London, England. It has 37 primary care sites and covers 16 London CCG areas and 270,000 patients.
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