Professor Derek Bell OBE

Professor Derek Bell OBE is Chair to the Board for both North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s as part of a group model of care.

Professor Bell is a physician by background, with over 40 years’ experience in the NHS; including service design and delivery as well as research and education. His remit has included working as an external advisor to Government in England, Scotland and Ireland as well as internationally.

Derek studied at the University of Edinburgh graduating in 1980, was appointed as the first professor of acute medicine at Imperial College London and continues to be an emeritus professor. He was elected as the inaugural president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) in 2000, in 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Life Fellowship to SAM.

He has also led a number of initiatives, including the development of a new medical specialty (acute medicine) and the development of a nationally adopted clinical scoring system to assess acutely unwell patients.

Professor Bell has over 220 peer reviewed publications and his research grant awards exceeded £22m.

He was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Unscheduled Care and Quality Improvement and was previously president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (2014 - 2020).