Surgeon appointed as minister
Story from BBC NEWS:
/6254724.stm
Published: 2007/06/29 15:11:44 GMT
Ara Darzi
Professor Sir Ara Darzi, KBE, MB, BCh, BAO, LRCP&SI, FRCSI, MD, FRCS,
FACS is one of the world’s leading surgeons, specialising in the field
of minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery, having pioneered
many new techniques and technologies.
Professor Darzi joined Imperial College London in 1994, becoming Head
of Division in 2004. During this time he has also served on the
Department of Health’s National Modernisation Board, the NHS Executive
and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence. As well as
pioneering robot-assisted surgery, he has helped develop new training
methods, involving the use of virtual reality to allow surgeons to
practice their skills.
Professor Darzi was born in Armenia but spent much of his childhood in
Ireland. In 2003 he became a British citizen. He was awarded a
knighthood in 2003 for his services to medicine and surgery.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed a practising surgeon as a minister
at the Department of Health.
Professor Sir Ara Darzi, who is charged with improving patient care, has been
promoted from his previous role as National Advisor on surgery.
Sir Ara, chair of surgery at Imperial College London, supports government
plans to reconfigure NHS services.
When he took over as prime minister, Mr Brown said he planned a broad-based
government of "all the talents".
My working life has, is and will continue to be centred on patient care
Sir Ara Darzi
But the Conservatives have criticised the appointment, accusing Sir Ara of
having a poor record of supporting access to services for patients and
rubber-stamping the demands of the Department of Health.
In a report published earlier this year Sir Ara said 80% of operations should
be carried out on patients in their local area, with the remaining complex
cases undertaken at specialist centres by highly skilled surgeons.
Ministers have already embarked on a policy of reconfiguring services along
these lines – leading to controversial decisions about individual NHS units
which have been bitterly opposed by critics.
Sir Ara will combine his ministerial duties with his research and clinical
commitments, including the supervision of students.
Sir Ara, 47, said: "It is a great honour and privilege to be asked by the
Prime Minister to continue that work for patients across the country.
"I will be working closely with Alan Johnson to map out the next steps of the
reform agenda that has achieved so much in the last 10 years. But we can do
better."
Frontline experience
He said he would draw on his experience from the frontline to fulfil his new
responsibilities.
"I am not a politician by profession. My working life has, is and will
continue to be centred on patient care."
Sir Ara is internationally respected for his innovative work in the
advancement of minimal invasive surgery and in the development and use of allied
technologies including surgical robots and image-guided surgery.
Dr Jonathan Fielden, chair of the BMA’s consultants’ committee, said: "Having
a focus on improving patient care is a positive step forward.
"We will be looking forward to him listening to our concerns and working
closely with him to ensure that the concerns of the profession and the public
are utilised to improve patient care."
Mr Bernard Ribeiro, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "I am
delighted that a practising surgeon, who deals with patients on a regular
basis, has decided to take such a high position.
"It is an opportunity for government to engage directly with the profession."
The prime minister’s spokesman said Professor Darzi would work Monday to
Thursday as a minister – being paid for three days – and continue to work as an
NHS surgeon, unpaid, on Fridays.
Any income from his international private practice will be paid direct to
Imperial College to fund research, the spokesman said.
* * * * *
Brown appoints ex-Met chief as reshuffle continues
Deborah Summers, Hélène Mulholland and agencies
Friday June 29, 2007
_Guardian Unlimited_ ()
Lord Stevens, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, has been
appointed the prime minister’s adviser on international security, Downing
Street said today.
Gordon Brown’s spokesman also confirmed that the former head of the Royal
Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West, had been made a junior minister in the Home Office
with responsibility for security issues.
And Sir Digby Jones, the former director general of the CBI, has been made a
minister of state for trade and investment in the new Department for
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The Tories welcomed the appointment of Lord Stevens who will continue to
head the Conservative party’s UK border police taskforce. Shadow home secretary,
David Davis, said: "We welcome this appointment. We hope it will lead to a
more measured response to the security threats we face."
In a separate move, armed forces minister Adam Ingram stepped down from the
government today in order to head a review of the military’s role in tackling
the global terrorist threat
He was asked by the prime minister to carry out the year-long investigation.
The aim is to maximise the defence contribution to counter-terrorism,
including efforts to tackle terrorism overseas before it reaches UK shores.
In a letter to Mr Brown, Mr Ingram, who has been a minister for 10 years,
said: "This is an area of particular interest to me and I’m pleased to accept
your offer."
In other appointments from outside the normal political arena, leading
surgeon Sir Ara Darzi becomes a health minister and former Treasury adviser Shriti
Vadera becomes a junior international development minister.
Mr Brown has also recruited two Liberal Democrat peers to take up advisory
roles. Lady Neuberger will work with the prime minister on voluntary sector
issues, while the leading lawyer Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC will advise Jack
Straw, the new justice secretary, on constitutional reform.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem leader, previously rejected an offer from
Mr Brown for members of his party to serve as ministers in the government,
although the Lib Dem veteran Lady Williams is still considering whether to take
a post as an adviser.
Earlier today, Mr Brown today met his cabinet to discuss constitutional
reform and plans to restore trust in politics and make the government more
accountable.
However, the discovery of a suspected car bomb in the early hours of the
morning outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus in London’s West End hashad
a big impact on Mr Brown’s second day as prime minister.
It has caused a delay in announcing the rest of the junior ministerial
appointments and forced a change in Mr Brown’s plans.
Jacqui Smith, the new home secretary, briefed the cabinet meeting and then Ms
Smith and new minister Sir Alan held a private session with Mr Brown to
discuss the terrorist threat. Ms Smith also chaired a meeting of the government’s
emergency committee, Cobra, earlier today.
In other moves, it emerged that the transport minister, Gillian Merron, had
moved to the Cabinet Office after she appeared on the government frontbenchin
a Commons debate on opening up Whitehall jobs to foreigners.
The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, who was a key member of Mr Brown’s
campaign team, went on television to announce that he was keeping his existing
job.
It also appeared that the former Treasury adviser, Shriti Vadera, was being
lined up for a ministerial post at the Department for International
Development.
Jim Murphy was last night named as the new Europe minister, a post previously
filled by Geoff Hoon until his promotion to chief whip yesterday.
The decision to include Mr Murphy, the ultra-Blairite MP for East
Renfrewshire, was seen by some as a test of Mr Brown’s promise to lead a government of
"all the talents".
The BBC claimed today that Jon Cruddas, the backbench Labour MP who came
third in the deputy leadership race, turned down a junior post.
Clare Short, who quit the government in 2003 in protest at the Iraq war and
last year became an independent MP, said she hoped Mr Brown’s arrival would
herald a "new beginning".
She reportedly told the BBC: "Who knows? I might take the whip back before I
leave parliament."
The full shape of Mr Brown’s government is expected to be clear by the end of
the day.
Jack Straw, the new justice secretary, indicated ahead of this morning’s
cabinet meeting that moves would be made to redress the balance of power between
the government and MPs.
Mr Brown plans to make good on his commitment to give parliament a say in
declarations of war and to take intelligence assessments out of the hands of
press officers.
The plans, trailed before Mr Brown became prime minister, will be seen as a
symbolic break with the Tony Blair era dominated by the controversy over Iraq.
Mr Straw said: "There isn’t any doubt that one of the reasons why trust in
politicians and the government has been reduced is because of what happened
over Iraq."
It was a matter of "profound regret" that intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s
alleged weapons of mass destruction turned out to be inaccurate, he said.
The need for reform and to re-engage a public disillusioned with the
political process was one of the key themes of Mr Brown’s campaign for the
Labour
leadership.
Sir Digby, who declared when appointed government skills envoy last December
that he was committed to remaining independent of government, could find the
concept of collective responsibility under a Labour government a challenge.
Mr Brown’s big-tent approach has already raised eyebrows, with the choice of
Sir Mark Malloch-Brown, the former deputy secretary general of the United
Nations and an outspoken critic of American foreign policy, as Foreign Office
minister covering Africa, Asia and the UN.
Mr Brown’s spokesman was forced to stress his commitment to strong relations
with the United States and the White House, pointing to Sir Mark’s commitment
to reconstruction in Iraq.
* * * * *
Profiles of Gordon’s five new talents
Daily Telegraph/UK
L30/06/2007
Sir Alan West
Some recruits to Gordon Brown’s new-style, non-partisan Government
share one thing – a record of fierce criticism of the previous
administration.
Admiral Sir Alan West, the former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval
Staff, has spent much of the last 12 months turning his guns on Labour.
advertisement
Just before he stood down as head of the Navy last year, Sir Alan, a
war hero whose ship was sunk in the Falklands conflict, warned that
cuts to the service under Labour would make it incapable of protecting
Britain’s coastline.
"I don’t think anything should ever be sacred but we do have to be
careful that we do not reduce the Navy to a level that makes recovery
difficult," he warned.
Last December, he told The Sunday Telegraph that the Ministry of
Defence’s lack of investment could turn Britain’s Armed Forces into a
"tinpot gendarmerie" incapable of defending the nation’s interests.
"I suppose we could retire to our island and hope that no one gets to
us," he said.
And as recently as April, he condemned the decision to allow Royal Navy
hostages held by Iran to sell their stories.
"It does leave a slightly tacky taste in one’s mouth. It is not good,"
he said.
Sir Alan, 59, joined up before his 18th birthday and spent most of his
career at sea, serving in 14 different ships and commanding three of
them. In the successful retaking of the Falklands, his ship, the
frigate Ardent, was sunk. He was subsequently awarded the Distinguished
Service Cross and led the Victory Parade through the City of London.
Knighted in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List, he was First Sea
Lord from 2002 until last year.
By Brendan Carlin
—————————————– ——————————–
Sir Digby Jones
A big, bluff Brummie, Sir Digby Jones has put aside past criticisms of
Labour to enter Gordon Brown’s big tent as a peer and trade promotion
minister.
In 2002, the then CBI director-general was so critical of the
Government that Margaret Thatcher bumped into him and said: "I know
you, you’re the official opposition."
In March 2000 he said: "I have to say that [reassuring business] is not
even on [Brown’s] radar and that worries me considerably."
Three years later, Sir Digby, 51, savaged Labour over pensions policy
and business taxes, and spoke of a "seam of discontent" among business
leaders which the Tories could capitalise on.
But at the CBI from 2000 to 2006 he built a good relationship with Mr
Brown.
Last December, Sir Digby was appointed "skills envoy" for the
Government but felt no need to pull his punches. In January, he said
standards of adult literacy were a "national disgrace".
He began his career at corporate law firm Edge & Ellison in 1978,
becoming a partner in 1984, and made a name for himself in corporate
finance and client development.
Labour sees him as proof of Mr Brown’s desire to reach out beyond
traditional politics.
The appointment is also designed to upset the Tories on the flimsy
basis that Labour thinks every businessman has voted Conservative since
birth.
But Sir Digby, who was of no known political affiliation, has
disappointed his new colleagues by refusing to join the Labour Party.
He will be bound by the Labour whip in the Lords in an arrangement
described by one Labour MP last night as "odd".
By Brendan Carlin
—————————————– ——————————–
Shriti Vadera
If Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair’s real deputy, Shriti Vadera has
been the real number two at the Treasury.
But rather than remain the power behind the throne, the publicity-shy
former investment banker has entered the limelight by becoming an
international development minister.
The Tories said her appointment showed that Gordon Brown, like Mr
Blair, hands jobs to "cronies".
But relief agencies and charities were pleased by the arrival of Miss
Vadera, the brains behind many of the Government’s flagship policies
for Africa and debt relief.
Oxfam, where she was a trustee, lauded her "extremely strong commitment
to poverty eradication and international development".
Miss Vadera, 44, was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda to
an Indian family. She came to the UK in 1974 and read politics,
philosophy and economics at Somerville College, Oxford, where Margaret
Thatcher and Indira Gandhi studied.
She has a formidable reputation and is said to be capable of reducing
junior officials to quivering wrecks.
After 14 years at the investment bank UBS Warburg, she joined the
Treasury in 1999 and became as indispensable in advising Mr Brown as
the better-known Ed Balls.
Miss Vadera was involved in the renationalisation of Railtrack and the
part-privatisation of the London Underground.
She dismissed Railtrack shareholders as "grannies" who had "added no
value to the company", which came to light during the investors’ High
Court case against the Government.
By Brendan Carlin and Martin Beckford
————————————— ———————————-
——-
Ara Darzi
The surgeon drafted into the Brown government to help boost the NHS is
one of Britain’s leading experts in keyhole surgery.
But Sir Ara Darzi has already crossed swords with ministers,
recommending in vain two years ago that two hospitals in Hartlepool and
Stockton should remain open.
Sir Ara, 47, has pioneered techniques for making operations less
invasive, including surgery for cancer patients.
Already a government adviser on the NHS, Sir Ara, who was born in
Armenia, has taught minimal access surgery at the Royal College of
Surgeons and set national guidelines for education and training in this
area.
He pledged to stay on the "front line" and said that it was a
"privilege and honour" to be able to work in Gordon Brown’s
administration.
Sir Ara said yesterday that he would work from Monday to Thursday as a
health minister – although he is paid for just three days.
He will work for free as an NHS surgeon on Fridays. The professor is
the current holder of the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial
College London, where he is head of surgery, oncology, reproductive
biology and anaesthetics.
He is also honorary consultant surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital and The
Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Sir Ara’s team has developed the use
of surgical robots and image-guided surgery, and he has called for more
research in this area. In 2001, his team won a Queen’s Anniversary
Prize in recognition of their achievements in pioneering techniques and
in addressing training requirements.
Sir Ara said of his appointment: "My career has been dedicated to
improving the health of patients.
`It is a great honour and privilege to be asked by the Prime Minister
to continue that work for patients across the country. `
By Brendan Carlin
—————————————– ——————————–
Lord Stevens
Since retiring from the most senior police job in the country two years
ago, Lord Stevens has never been busier.
The 64-year-old peer and former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
has headed both the Operation Paget inquiry into the circumstances
surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Premier
League investigation into alleged football bungs.
Now "Captain Beaujolais", as he is nicknamed because of his love for
fine wines and vintage champagne, will bring his wealth of experience
to Gordon Brown’s government.
Born in Kent, educated at boarding school in Ramsgate, he began his
policing career in Hammersmith, west London where he received no less
than 27 commendations for his detective work. Top postings with
regional forces followed. He was appointed commissioner in 2000,
receiving a knighthood in the process.
Admired by his fellow officers he was regarded as a "copper’s copper"
and was universally popular.
With a reputation for outspokeness, he has never been afraid of
delivering unpalatable truths and has been entrusted with several of
the most sensitive and high-profile inquires. These included the
investigation, begun in 1989, of collusion by the Royal Ulster
Constabulary and loyalist terrorists in the murders of republicans in
Northern Ireland. The longest and most complex such investigation in
British history, it resulted in some 98 convictions.
His relations with Labour politicans have not always gone smoothly. He
accused David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, of being anti-police and
was furious when reports that Mr Blunkett had given him a "real
roasting" appeared in the media. He laid the blame at Home Secretary’s
door. "There were only three people in that office – myself, the Home
Secretary and his dog," he wrote in his autobiography. "And it [the
leak] didn’t come from the dog".
By Caroline Davies