Nigel Crisp, Baron Crisp

Edmund Nigel Ramsay Crisp, Baron Crisp, KCB (born 14 January 1952) is a British former senior civil servant in the Department of Health and Senior Manager in the NHS. He was awarded a life peerage upon retirement, and sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords. He works and publishes extensively in global health and international development.

Crisp was educated at Uppingham School and then studied philosophy at St John's College, Cambridge.

Crisp is married with two children and lives in the countryside near Newbury. His interests include the countryside, gardening and painting.

Crisp joined the NHS in 1986 from a background in community work, where he worked in Liverpool and Cambridgeshire, and industry and (from 1981 to 1986) was Secretary and Director of Age Concern Cambridge. He then became the General Manager for Learning Disabilities in East Berkshire and moved in 1988 to become General Manager (and later Chief Executive) of Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals which provided a wide range of general hospital and mental health services in East Berkshire. He moved to Oxford in 1993 to become Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust which at the time incorporated the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals and is one of the largest academic medical centres in the country. Crisp became South Thames Regional Director of the NHS Executive in 1997 and London Regional Director in 1999.

Crisp was appointed as Chief Executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health on 1 November 2000. He is unlike his predecessors or successor in combining these posts. On 8 March 2006 Crisp announced his intention to retire at the end of March, acknowledging the current financial problems of parts of the NHS as a disappointment. He was praised by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for his contribution to British healthcare and was created Baron Crisp, of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham, on 28 April 2006. He was replaced by Sir Ian Carruthers, as acting NHS Chief Executive, and Hugh Taylor, the Director of Strategy and Business Development, as acting Permanent Secretary. He is currently an advisory council member at The College of Medicine

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