CQC appoints deputy chief inspector

The Care Quality Commission has appointed Dr Kevin Cleary as deputy chief inspector of hospitals and lead for mental health.

He will join the regulator next month and report to the chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker.

Dr Cleary trained in New Zealand and has held posts in the UK, as chief medical officer at East London Foundation NHS Trust, deputy chief executive officer and medical director at North Middlesex University Hospital and medical director at the National Patient Safety Agency.

Before that he held clinical posts at West London Mental Health NHS Trust between 1997 and 2007 as a consultant child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist.

Dr Cleary, who is taking over from Dr Paul Lelliott, was most recently deputy director of mental health and quality improvement lead for mental health at New Zealand’s largest district health board, Waitemata District Health Board.