Regional Medical Director

NHS ENGLAND; Leeds; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS England North East & Yorks Region seeks a Regional Medical Director to provide senior strategic leadership of the NHS across the region, supporting Medical Directors in providers and commissioners to deliver high‑quality care and regional standards. The role covers governance, performance oversight, and professional standards across the region.

You will lead the regional Medical Directorate, manage statutory duties for Controlled Drugs and antimicrobial stewardship, and drive innovation

Job description

NHS England supports NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for patients and communities, working to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and driving improvement across the NHS. The national level of NHS England works through seven regional teams that provide strategic leadership and oversight of their regional health system. The North East & Yorkshire Region is one of these teams and works to ensure that the NHS organisations within their geography are high performing, sustainable and delivering reform in line with the requirements of the 10 Year Health Plan. Regional teams are also accountable for regional health system performance - covering quality, access, delivery of national standards, finance, productivity, strategy and improving population health. Reporting to the NHS England Regional Director and working as part of the collective Regional Executive Team, the Regional Medical Director will:

• provide senior strategic leadership of the NHS across the region
• support senior leaders (including Medical Directors) in providers and commissioners as they carry out their organisation responsibilities
• contribute to the regional quality, planning, performance, regulatory oversight and improvement processes that form the core of NHS England Regional Team functions, The Regional Medical Director is also directly responsible for:
• leading the regional Medical Directorate Senior Management Team
• Undertaking the Higher Level Responsible Officer (HLRO) role and be accountable for the Professional Standards function for the North East & Yorkshire region
• Providing senior clinical leadership in emergency preparedness and incident response
• Managing the Regional Chief Pharmacist function which has statutory accountabilities in relation to Controlled Drugs and oversight of Anti-microbial Resilience Stewardship
• Leading the assurance, engagement and support for Health Innovation Networks within the region in their role to engender and spread innovation
• Lead the oversight of the implementation of Modern Service Frameworks that fall within the RMD portfolio including (but not limited to) Mental Health, Learning Disabilities & Autism, Cardiovascular Disease (including Stroke), End of Life & Palliative Care and Sepsis
• Supporting the promotion and utilisation of research to improve health and care outcomes NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services. In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department. If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process. Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices. Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.