NHS Highland Board

Louise Bussell took up the role of interim chief officer for the Highland Health & Social Care Partnership with effect from November 2020, she was formerly the NHS Highland head of mental health services.  Louise relocated to NHS Highland in July 2020, from her most recent role of Deputy Director of Forensic Services at Nottinghamshire NHS Trust.  Prior to starting that position in 2016, she held a variety of nursing and senior leadership positions in mental health across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, having started her career as a Registered Mental Health nurse in 1993.

Alexander Anderson has worked in the highly regulated nuclear industry for 40 years, advising Scottish and UK governments and providing consultancy to the International Atomic Energy Agency. With this, he has the knowledge, business acumen and experience to bring to his appointment to NHS Highland. He has lived and worked in Caithness for more than 40 years and looks forward to serving the Highland community through the work on the Board.

Graham Bell was appointed to the NHS Highland Board in January 2021.  He has lived in Argyll for the past 35 years. Originally from Glasgow, his early career included working as a hospital porter, a youth and community worker and a night care officer with older people. Qualifying as a social worker he spent most of his career in working with young people at risk, initially in the local authority and latterly as Chief Executive of Kibble, a third sector organisation.

Now semi-retired he continues to work in cross-sectoral leadership development. He is also a board member of Community Justice Scotland and Cove Burgh Hall. He has extensive international experience in social and economic development and in 2019 was awarded an OBE for services to residential care, education, and social enterprise.

Alasdair Christie has worked at a senior level of management for over 30 years, primarily in the mechanical engineering industry. In addition, as a local councillor in Inverness he has many years of experience dealing with some of the issues facing local people including the complexities of delivering services across Highland. His term on the Board started in November 2017. In recent years he has been deputy leader of the Highland Council, Chair of the Community Planning Partnership Board and formerly Chair of the Committee which oversees Education, Social Work and Housing. Mr Christie is currently general manager of the Inverness Badenoch and Strathspey Citizens Advice Bureau and a trustee of Culduthel Woods, Eden Court and is involved with several poverty alleviation initiatives. 

In February 2017 Ms Ann Clark was first appointed to the Board.  She has a background in researching, developing and implementing health and social care policy in the Highlands, including as head of policy at Highland Council, as a research fellow at UHI Centre for Rural Health and a director of her own consultancy business. Ms Clark has a life-long interest in community empowerment and user involvement in the design and delivery of public service and was Director of Highland Community Care Forum for four years. Ms Clark is a previous Chair of sexual health charity Highland Brook and served for six years as a Director of Partnerships for Wellbeing.

Bert Donald is a former senior police officer who retired in 2010 after serving almost 39 years across the north east of Scotland. Following his retirement from the service, he was appointed as Independent Chair of several Adult Protection Committees, fulfilling this role until December 2018. He is a Lay Member of NHS Education for Scotland and is a Match Delegate for the football authorities in Scotland. He also undertakes work on an independent basis advising on risk and risk management, as well as fulfilling several voluntary roles in his local community. He brings to the Board experience of leadership in a large public sector organisation, change management and partnership working along with experience of governance, accountability and scrutiny.

Joanne McCoy lives in Inverness and has held several positions within the third and business sectors. Her experience of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis led her to work in the field of independent living and wellbeing for the last 20 years. Joanne has broad experiences along with in depth knowledge of delivering services to people living with long-term health conditions across Highland through her career with both National and Regional Third Sector Organisations throughout the Highlands and Islands. As a person living with and managing a long-term condition Joanne is committed to ensuring service user focus, lived experiences and partnership working are key to developing services and building sustainable change.

Originally from Glasgow, Gerry O'Brien attended the University of Stirling and graduated in accountancy in 1986. He made a decision to develop a career in the NHS and moved to Bromley in South East London to take up the role of finance trainee with the then Bromley Health Authority.  After qualifying as an accountant with CIPFA, where he is now a Fellow, he moved to South West Surrey Health Authority where he remained until 1997 when a return to Scotland beckoned. He joined NHS Borders in January 1998, working in various roles within finance until 2009 when he moved to NHS Orkney as Director of Finance, after a period at the Scottish Ambulance also as Director of Finance, Gerry returned to Orkney in January 2018 as interim and then permanent CEO. Gerry has particular interests in finance and performance, governance, mental health and children’s services.  Gerry retired in June 2020 and lives in Orkney. 

Susan Ringwood has spent her career working in the voluntary sector - always involving work with people and had 13 years as a Chief Executive running the UK wide charity for people affected by eating disorders: Beat.  Susan has served as a Non-Executive of a Clinical Commissioning Group where she had responsibility for the oversight of public and patient engagement and was Vice Chair of the audit committee. She has served on NICE Guidelines committees, NHS task forces for young people’s mental health services and most recently as a lay member of the national Medicines’ Optimisation Committee.  She lives on Mull, having moved there in September 2020.

Elspeth Caithness was appointed as employee director in October 2021. She started her career in Raigmore Hospital qualifying as a Registered Nurse in 1989, working predominately in acute medicine. She has represented Royal College of Nursing Members (RCN) locally at Branch level and nationally on RCN Scotland Board and RCN Council, RCN Safety Representative Committee member for Scotland elected 2021 for a four year term. She brings a broad experience of working across both acute and community settings within her staff-side role and has had several tenures co-chairing NHS Highland Health and Safety Committee. As Employee Director, she shares the position of Chair of the Area Partnership Forum with the Chief Executive. Elspeth will also be a member of the Staff Governance Committee.

Muriel Cockburn qualified as a radiographer for in 1980 in Glasgow. She has worked across Scotland specialising in clinical and research MRI. She held various governance and committee roles within the UK College and Society of Radiographers. She is a past president of the British Association of MR Radiographers, she was an external assessor for City University and guest lecturer at Robert Gordon University and Glasgow Caledonian University. She has been an external adviser on MRI procurement and worked with National Procurement Scotland on radiology contrast agents. She was also part of a multidisciplinary group setting up clinical stroke standards for Scotland. She is proud to be part of the NHS. On retirement she became a Highland Councillor for Badenoch & Strathspey, and is in her second term. Her interests are sports and walking.

Garrett Corner has been a self employed electrical engineer since 1991 and was a special constable for nine years. Previously Garret worked for a Swiss/German company for two years, running maintenance and projects. He is currently studying an Open University Psychology degree. He also has a son who is a fourth year medical student in Aberdeen. He was elected as a councillor for Argyll and Bute in May and is delighted to have been accepted onto the board.

Catriona Sinclair was appointed as chair of the Area Clinical Forum in January 2022, and was subsequently appointed to the board. Catriona is a pharmacist independent prescriber who has worked as a community pharmacist for over 30 years and is currently a pharmacy contractor in Strathpeffer. She has been a board member at Community Pharmacy Scotland since 2013 where she is actively involved in the development of the community pharmacy contract. As chair of the Area Pharmaceutical Committee and Area Clinical Forum in NHS Highland she promotes her profession, patient care and multidisciplinary team working. Elected to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scottish Board in 2021, she is involved in the development of the professional role of pharmacists. Outwith work, Catriona enjoys running, walking and yoga. She is also a board member of the Clyne Heritage Society charity where she is the treasurer.

David Park joined NHS Highland in 2017 as director of operations for acute, mental health, and integrated health and social care services, for the South and Mid areas of Highland.  In 2018 he was appointed chief officer for integrated health and social care for Highland. Prior to the NHS, David worked in the private sector for multi-national companies in health care, electronics, and consumer products.  He has an undergraduate qualification in accounting and a Master’s degree in Lean.

Katherine Sutton originally trained as a diagnostic radiographer and brings a breadth of experience from across clinical, professional and senior management roles of health systems in Australia and New Zealand as well as Ireland and a variety of locations across the UK including the Northern Isles. Originally from Caithness, Katherine is committed to supporting the delivery of local healthcare for the people of the Highlands.