National Council For Palliative Care Announces New Chair

The National Council for Palliative Care has announced the appointment of Baroness Ilora Finlay as its new Chair of Trustees.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, an internationally renowned expert in palliative medicine and an independent cross-bench member of the House of Lords, will take up the post in September 2015. She will take over from Professor Mayur Lakhani, a practising GP and former Chair of the Royal College of GPs, who has been NCPC’s Chair since 2008, having served a full two terms.

Baroness Finlay is President of the British Medical Association 2014-15 and a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine. She was a general practitioner in inner-city Glasgow before returning to Cardiff to work full time in palliative medicine. She was the first consultant in Palliative Medicine in Wales in 1987, has developed palliative and hospice services across Wales and chaired the Palliative Care Strategy Implementation Board for Wales. She has also been an active independent crossbench peer in the House of Lords since her appointment in 2001.

Baroness Ilora Finlay said:

“I am thrilled to be taking on this important role at the National Council for Palliative Care, a charity that I have long respected. It has exciting and ambitious plans for the future.  I look forward to helping the organisation to take on an increasingly important role to influence and ensure the provision of high quality end of life care for all. 

With many challenges ahead in health and social care, and a continued need to support people to talk more openly about end of life issues, the work of NCPC is needed more than ever.”

Welcoming the appointment, Claire Henry, Chief Executive of the National Council for Palliative Care said:

“We are incredibly excited to welcome Baroness Finlay as our Chair of Trustees. Her knowledge, experience and unwavering commitment to transforming how we care for and support dying people make her the ideal person to lead our Board. 

We have no doubt that she will be a tremendous asset as we seek to ensure end of life care is high on everyone’s agenda and as we take forward our work through the Dying Matters Coalition to get more people talking about dying, death and bereavement and making their end of life wishes known. 

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank and pay tribute to Professor Mayur Lakhani for the outstanding contribution he has made as NCPC’s Chair.”