Rick Stern

Rick jointly set up the Primary Care Foundation in 2006.  From 2012 to 2016 Rick split his time between the Primary Care Foundation and the role of Chief Executive at the NHS Alliance. Where he was responsible for extending the position as the voice of primary care providers.  This involved influencing the direction of national policy on primary care as outlined in ‘Breaking Boundaries’, its manifesto for primary care and ‘Think Big, Act Now: creating a Community of Care’ and working across both PCF & NHS Alliance to develop ‘Making Time in General Practice’, both forerunners to the Five Year Forward View.

More recently he has led work on the ‘Avoidable Appointment Audit’ funded by NHS England and available at no cost to all practices across England. In doing so helping them reduce the workload on GPs, and an NHS England commissioned review of the impact of the 10 High Impact Actions.

Rick was previously the Chief Executive of Bexhill & Rother PCT until the end of July 2005 where he led a national pilot to develop out-of-hours services and was the lead Chief Executive for the South East within NatPaCT, the national PCT development programme. It was the only PCT in the South East to receive a 3-star award when the new ratings were introduced and consistently featured in the top 10 PCTs in the annual staff survey.

Rick has worked across a range of sectors and in a variety of roles. Including general management, internal consultancy, research and face-to-face with vulnerable clients. He led Access to Health, a Kings Fund initiative in the early ’90s to improve health care for homeless people. Rick was responsible for developing quality standards in a mental health and community trust in Inner London and for developing commissioning within a regional health authority. He is also a practising psychodynamic counsellor.