Robert Checketts
Executive Director, Corporate Communication
Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar
With a background in journalism and the third sector, Rob has almost 20 years’ experience working in health communications. Throughout that time, he has worked at a local, regional and national level and in primary, acute and specialist care. A former advisor to the then UK NHS Chief Executive, Sir David Nicholson, he became the Executive Director of Corporate Communications at Hamad Medical Corporation in January 2016.
Key Achievements
Played a key role in establishing the NHS Trust Development Authority, which accounts for the performance of over 90 NHS Trusts with a combined budget of more than £25 billion. A key focus of the role has been to support local communications professionals, chief executives and NHS Trust Boards to manage communications issues and improve how they engage with staff, patients, communities and stakeholders.
He has developed a range of improvement programmes specifically for NHS communications professionals, including the first NHS Aspiring Communications Leaders programme in partnership with New Bucks University, a mentorship scheme for new entrants to health communications and monthly improvement events focused on supporting local teams to improve engagement with staff, patients and communities.
In 2015, he led on the creation of a health improvement partnership between The Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle, USA, and the NHS in the UK- creating a five year improvement programme to bring the learning from the Virginia Mason Production System to five NHS Trusts. Working with Virginia Mason CEO, Gary Kaplan, he designed a programme that supported NHS Trusts to improve their management processes, supporting them to become safer, more effective and more efficient.
