Barry Thurston has been appointed interim chief digital officer at SCAS following the departure of Jill Lanham as she moves to a new role with Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire police forces. He will join SCAS on Monday (31 July).
Barry has over 20 years of board-level experience, both in operations and technology, and has also led national projects including the delivery of the current ambulance radio system to all UK ambulance services.
During a long career at West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS), which he joined initially as a call taker in in the 1980s, he helped the Trust become one of the first in the country to move onto a computerised system for call taking and dispatch.
He went on to lead teams responsible for innovations including vehicle tracking and address location systems before progressing into the roles of chief operating officer and deputy chief executive.
Since leaving WMAS in 2014, he has worked primarily in technology delivery for ambulance services. This has included the delivery of technical solutions across a number of ambulance services for both 999 and 111 programmes of work.
He is also currently on the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) specialist advisory team for information management technology (IMT) systems.
David Eltringham
Chief Executive