As chair of Westminster primary care trust from 2004, Joe Hegarty brought an all-too-rare understanding of local government, and how people can learn to work together, to the NHS.
Every month or so a disparate group of leaders from health, local government, parliament and the independent sector came together in the seminars he ran. They explored each other’s takes on things and found ways to overcome structural and cultural obstacles. There was rare insight and real influence, thanks in large part to Joe, and great progress was made in London towards the kind of collaboration, rather than top-down reorganisation of the NHS, that is still needed.
