THE new man in charge of running Dartmouth Comm­un­ity Hospital has spoken about developing a health and social care system to meet challenging times.

Dr Rob Dyer has been appointed medical director of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s recently formed integrated care organisation.

He will play a key role at board level and as part of the executive team in influencing and shaping the trust’s strategic direction and in driving improvement in quality and safety.

The trust provides acute health care services from Torbay Hospital, community health services and adult social care, and runs nine community hospitals, including Dartmouth.

It has around 500,000 face-to-face contacts with patients in their homes each year and sees over 78,000 people in its accident and emergency department annually. The trust serves a resident population of about 375,000 people, plus about 100,000 visitors at any one time during the summer holiday season.

Only recently it has been instrumental in recruiting more staff to run the Dartmouth minor injuries unit, which was forced to close this the summer due to a shortage of nurses.

Consultant physician and endocrinologist Dr Dyer trained in Birmingham and Newcastle and has been a consultant since 1994, first in Northumberland and New­castle and for the past 17 years at Torbay Hospital.

His clinical specialisms are in diabetes, endocrinology and thyroid problems.

Dr Dyer also holds the position of associate medical director for long-term conditions and transformation and has a long-standing interest in integrated care models, patient self-management and prevention in long-term conditions. He has experience of management of acute medical admissions and sub-specialty endocrine and thyroid cancer management.

He takes up the role at the beginning of December, succeeding Dr John Lowes who has held the position since 2009. Dr Lowes will stay on as an acute physician.

Chief executive Mairead McAlinden said: ‘Having interviewed some very high calibre candidates, I am delighted that Dr Rob Dyer has been appointed as medical director for our new integrated care organisation.

Rob has provided clinical leadership in many of the ICO care model projects, and has an excellent understanding of both hospital and community medicine. He has the knowledge, experience and commitment to be a key member of the leadership team which will drive forward the next step of our integration journey.’

Commenting on his appointment, Dr Rob Dyer said: ‘I am very proud to be taking on this role. I have great respect for the people who work in our new organisation who show such dedication to providing the best possible care for the population of south Devon.

‘With the support of all of our partners in the Clinical Commissioning Groups, the councils, GPs and the voluntary sector, I think we have the chance of developing a really new and exciting health and social care system that will help us get through what is a very challenging time in the NHS.

‘I know that I will depend on the efforts of many colleagues in making a success of my new job.’