A leading doctor has been appointed to run a new urgent and emergency care network set up after a government report highlighted a need for improvement across the NHS.

Annet Gamell, the chief clinical officer of NHS Chiltern Clinical Commissioning Group, has now been appointed as the chairman of The Thames Valley Urgent and Emergency Care Network, which held its inaugural meeting last month.

The group, which is made up of members from across the health and social care sectors, was started following a recommendation from Sir Bruce Keogh’s review, which pushed for different areas to work together to link up their urgent care services.

In the report, Bucks was put under the microscope over governance, urgent care, patient experience, patient safety, staffing levels and clinical and operational effectiveness, with a series of recommendations made.

The network overseen by Dr Gamell will oversee and guide the way services operate across their region.

The new group was set up with a long-term goal to see the creation of a 'clinical hub' that will have the NHS 111 number as the main point of access for the public.

Dr Gamell said: “It is a privilege to be chair of this new organisation and it was very exciting to see so many parties working to achieve this joined up idea of coordinated care working.

“There was lots of enthusiasm from the delegates.

"Our aim is, where possible, to be proactive and change cases of urgent care into planned care by ensuring the root causes of patients’ conditions are identified early and treated accordingly.

“The Thames Valley Urgent and Emergency Care Network has a huge role to play in bringing more clarity and simplification to the way our urgent care systems work."

“We also want to create some standardisation, and guidelines for terminology and broad rules for what different services can offer so that the public can understand what different service options offer.

“The TVUECN also gives us the chance to coordinate a lot of care centrally, without different areas overlapping and doing essentially the same thing, increasing health service efficiencies.”

Around 80 delegates attended the launch event at Lane End Conference Centre.

The event came about after the inaugural meeting of the network last month.

Representatives from a arrange of organisations attended, including health providers, service commissioners, GPs, acute hospitals, mental health services, social care, pharmacies, medical committees and the Healthwatch group.