Profile of Mr John Connaghan
John has over 30 years experience of both the private and public sector. He spent the early part of his career in the printing and publishing industry with responsibility for manufacturing plants in Scotland and the USA, introducing the concept of quality circles and “lean” in a factory environment. During his NHS career in Scotland, John held three different Chief Executive positions with responsibility for some of the largest teaching hospitals in Scotland.
John joined the Scottish Government in 2006 as Director of NHS Delivery - with the remit to improve overall NHS performance. John left the Scottish Government as NHS Chief Operating Officer having spent some time as interim Director General and Chief Executive of the NHS with accountable officer status for £12.5bn and 156,000 staff.
John’s experience in the NHS has included formulating acute services strategy at local and national level and chairing National Boards for efficiency, productivity, e-health and the modernisation of outpatient services. John’s current interests extend to ‘Flow Process’ across the whole health system, shifting the balance of care from acute services to the community – demonstrating how transformational leadership can be used to support staff and patient interests in times of change.
Outside the work environment John was one of the founding directors for the Maggies centres (cancer charity) now one of the UK’s biggest cancer charities. He served on the Board of the charity for a period of ten years as a non-executive director. John has over 50 caps at Masters level playing hockey for Scotland and was part of the squad representing Scotland at the Masters World Cup in Sydney in 2016.
In 2015, Queen Elizabeth awarded John the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to health.
John is a visiting Professor at Strathclyde University.
John has deep Irish connections with both parents originally from Donegal and specifically from Arranmore Island.
In his new post in Ireland, as Deputy Director General and Chief Operating Officer, John has responsibility for operational services on behalf of the Health Service Executive. This covers 7 Acute Hospital Group Chief Executives, 9 Community Health Organisation Chief Officers (incorporating Community, Social and Primary Care). These functions report through 3 National Directors to John on a day to day basis with an operating budget of €12bn and 110,000 staff.
John is a member of a number of National and HSE Boards including the National Public Health Emergency Team tackling CPE, he chairs the National Steering Group for the creation of the Children’s Hospital and he also chairs the Value Improvement Programme for the HSE in Ireland in pursuit of efficiency, productivity and quality in the delivery of healthcare services.
