The last day of March brought an end to my tenure as Chair of Liverpool Health Partners.

I joined LHP in November 2017 and am delighted to have led its revitalisation into a positive, working partnership that significantly contributes to the development of health sciences research, the health of patients and the wider economy across the city of Liverpool and the wider region.

My final day in post coincided with our March Board meeting and the discussions and decisions taken during that virtual gathering demonstrated how far LHP has come in the last three and a half years. The organisation is now on a sound financial footing with a strong vision, strategy and business plan for the future. Achieving that is largely down to the ongoing commitment and support of our 12 partner organisations, the strengthening engagement of the clinical academics and their teams, and the excellent work of Dawn Lawson and Executive Team.

I am delighted to have played a part in helping LHP reach this point. It has been particularly pleasing to have seen the creation of the programmes and the appointment of a wholly new Executive Team.

The last year has brought particular challenges, not only to LHP and the system but to the people of Cheshire and Merseyside.

LHP and SPARK (the Single Point of Access to Research and Knowledge) have played a vital role in helping our region respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and I am proud of the part they have played in research into new treatments and vaccines.

I have also been impressed by the way we have adapted to the challenges of new ways of working.

As we emerge and reset, LHP is now in a very strong position to meet the challenges of the future – for example securing a Biomedical Research Centre and Academic Health Science Centre designation – and I’m sure that my successor will help the partners achieve LHP’s next level of ambition. 

I wish LHP, Dawn and the team, the partners and everyone at LHP much future success. It’s been a privilege to have worked with them and to have chaired LHP.