‘A compelling view’ from DH speaker

Addressing a sizeable audience as the keynote speaker on Day Two of this year’s Healthcare Estates conference in Manchester, David Williams, director-general of Finance at the Department of Health, gave a candid assessment of the current state of NHS finances, and presented his own view on how the healthcare estates and facilities community can contribute effectively to the drive to ‘constrain cost growth’ – in the process putting the service on a more sustainable financial footing up to the end of the decade and beyond. He said IHEEM and the other key professional engineering Institutes had a considerable role to play.

David Williams was introduced as the keynote speaker at the beginning of the second day of Healthcare Estates 2016 by newly installed IHEEM President, Peter Sellars, who is a close colleague of his at the Department of Health. Having joined the Department in March 2015, David Williams had, Peter Sellars explained, taken over the responsibilities as director-general with responsibility for finance at the DH from April that year. A ‘career civil servant’, and a member of the Government finance profession, he currently chairs the ‘pan-Whitehall’ Finance talent committee, and is the sponsor of the Government Finance Academy. Before joining the DH, he was director-general of Finance at the Ministry of Defence, where he served as the primary adviser to Ministers and the Board on the MOD’s financial position and financial management in general. At the MOD he also worked as director for Financial Planning & Scrutiny, director, Equipment Resources, and director,Financial Management. Outside the MOD, his previous experience had included working for the NHS in an acute hospital Trust in East Sussex, alongside various roles in the local government association as lead for policing, fire and rescue, and safer communities policy.

Sizeable audience