Vice President election 2019 results announced

The RCPCH is pleased to announce the results of the recent Vice Presidential elections. Dr Simon Clark has been elected Vice President for Health Policy and Professor Nick Bishop has been elected Vice President for Science and Research. They will take up their posts on 6 March 2019. ​​​​​​​

Dr Simon Clark - Vice President for Health Policy

Dr Simon Clark is a Neonatal Consultant at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he is currently the clinical lead for the department. He qualified from the University of Southampton Medical School and has worked in Hampshire, the West Midlands, Mersey and now in Sheffield.

Since 2014, Simon has been the Workforce Officer at the RCPCH, where his work has included re-framing RCPCH policy to increase training numbers and career grade doctors and being involved in efforts by the College and other professional bodies to successfully lift the tier 2 visa cap for health workers. A spokesperson for the College, Simon has highlighted paediatric workforce data on national television and radio and presented evidence to MPs in Westminster.

As Head of School for Paediatrics in Yorkshire and Humber from 2009 to 2015, Simon managed 400 doctors across 23 training sites and led the recruitment and training of the next generation of paediatricians. Whilst Head of School, he developed a six monthly rotation with Chogoria Hospital in Kenya and for 3 years rotated doctors there as part of ST4/5 training.

Commenting on his election, Dr Simon Clark said:

I am delighted and excited to have been elected to the Vice President role for policy. I shall endeavour to do my best to represent the constituency of paediatricians from all four nations of the United Kingdom. I hope to engage with policy makers, providers, clinicians and commissioners to promote the RCPCH view, which could be summarised as the children are our future, so let us invest in them, across all levels of social and health care for the long term benefit of the United Kingdom.

Professor Nick Bishop - Vice President for Science and Research

Nick Bishop is Professor of Paediatric Bone Disease and Head of the Academic Unit of Child Health in the Department of Oncology and Metabolism at the University of Sheffield, and the honorary consultant at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. He graduated in medicine from Manchester University in 1982 and trained as a paediatrician in Manchester, Cambridge and Canada before moving to Sheffield and establishing the Children’s Metabolic Bone Disease Service, now the largest service of its kind in Western Europe.

He is Director of the Sheffield Children’s Clinical Research Facility, Associate Director of the Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre for Children, co-lead of the Clinical Trials Working Group of the European Reference Network for Rare Bone Diseases, and the immediate past-President of the Academic Paediatric Association of Great Britain and Ireland.

Nick’s research has a particular focus on experimental medicine/early phase studies in osteogenesis imperfecta and hypophosphatasia, and he continues to explore the long term effects of diet in early life, particularly in relation to vitamin D. He is particularly keen to improve access to academic careers for trainees, and was part of the group that created the College’s Academic Toolkit.

Commenting on his election, Professor Nick Bishop said:

I am both delighted and very humbled to have been elected to this important role - I will do my best to deliver on the commitments I set out in my election manifesto. I’m keen to hear from you about what would make a difference to you in terms of getting research done where you are, and what you think I, and the College, can do about it. Thank you for electing me.