Scrap metal man to chair health board

Hans J Marter

18 July, 2009

Ian Kinniburgh. IMPROVING health services for islanders in an increasingly tough financial environment is the challenge the new chairman of NHS Shetland has pledged to tackle.

Ian Kinniburgh was yesterday (Friday) confirmed in the post for four years as of 1 August.

He will replace Betty Fullerton who has chaired the local health board for the last eight years.

Mr Kinniburgh, who is managing director of metal recycling company 60North, has been a member of the board for the last six years and its vice chairman for the last four years.

Yesterday he said he was looking forward to the job of being involved in shaping health care in the islands.

“I have worked on the board for six years and now feel I can contribute more. Being chair of the board gives me the opportunity to do that.

“The government have published an agenda for health ‘Better Health, Better Care’, and that sets out a series of challenges for all boards, such as the 18 week referral to treatment standard and making the health service more accessible to everyone.

“Being smarter in the way we do things is another

challenge. We have already a good team of very clever people working for the health service here in Shetland and they keep coming up with ways of meeting the new challenges. We need to carry on with that.

“But the big issue in the background we all have to be aware of is that with the present world economic situation inevitably the government will have to pay off all these debts that have been accumulated, and that will put increasing pressure on all public services.

“It is going to be difficult times trying to balance the aspirations of providing better health service and being more efficient at a time of increased financial pressure,” he said.

Paying tribute to his predecessor, Mr Kinniburgh continued: “I am positive that we can do it. NHS Shetland has performed very well under Betty’s chairmanship.

“Keeping in mind the difficulties we face as a very rural and a very small scale health board, I think we have been doing very well in delivering high quality health services in Shetland. The challenge is to carry on doing that and, if anything, try to improve that.”

Making the appointment, health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “I am very pleased to announce this appointment. Mr Kinniburgh will bring a valuable range of skills and experience which will be of great benefit to NHS Shetland.

“He has shown a strong commitment to public service over many years and has demonstrated a clear understanding of the issues being faced within NHS Shetland."

This post is part-time with a time commitment of three days per week for which the annual remuneration is £26,988.

Mr Kinniburgh said he had reorganised responsibilities at his company to free up time that would enable him to chair the health board.