Professor Iqbal Singh OBE

Professor Singh continues to be a major contributor to healthcare and medical regulation in the UK. An experienced clinician specialising in care of the elderly, pioneer in ethnic health and diversity, combined with board level GMC and Healthcare Commission (HCC) service he demonstrates a track record in regulatory, inspection, education and patient safety experience. He is a medical leader with great credibility in the wider community, particularly in relation to equality and inclusion matters.

As chair of the Expert Reference Group on Patient Safety at the HCC, Professor Singh led the HCC’s strategy on developing criteria to assess safety standards. Working with a team of clinical and lay international experts as members he produced the standards and guidance which formed the basis of the Annual Health Check of the HCC. In addition he led the development of indicators for assessment of safety and quality in issues around BME health.

As a commissioner at HCC and chair of the Expert Reference Group on Patient Safety, he played a significant role in the development and signing of a charter for safety, which was signed by up to 80 organisations in healthcare and health education. This helped raise the profile of safety in healthcare and helped develop a culture of avoiding harm and reporting of incidents.

As founder and chair of the Centre of Excellence for Safety in Older People’s Care, Professor Singh has led on training and education of the workforce within the health and social care sector on issues around improving skills and knowledge and equally focusing on embedding a culture of compassion and respect, through influencing behaviour and attitudes at individual, team and organisational level. Whilst also empowering teams to innovate in developing a culture of learning and professionalism to enable continuous improvement.

As a Commission member of Education & Training for Patient Safety (HEE 2015), Professor Singh ensured the challenges of embedding safety in all aspects of training and education were focused on the whole pathway of care, not only in acute hospital settings, but in the community and various settings of social care, recognising the demographic of the elderly population being cared for in the community.

Professor Singh has made significant contributions in promoting equality, diversity and human rights within the NHS and more widely, nationally and internationally.