13th February 2026
Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, has announced the appointment of a Non-Executive Chair to the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
Professor Stuart Elborn has been appointed as the Non-Executive Chair. His appointment will commence on 1 March 2026 and will end on a date not later than 28 February 2030.
Professor Elborn is a leading clinical academic with more than four decades of experience spanning healthcare delivery, higher education, medical research and senior leadership. His career includes senior clinical and academic roles at Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital. He led major clinical services in Respiratory Medicine and clinical trials in the development of transformative therapies now benefiting people living with cystic fibrosis and other chronic respiratory diseases. His work has shaped evidence-based clinical guidelines for the management of cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.
Professor Elborn has driven strategic transformation initiatives to strengthen clinical and research and innovation infrastructure and has consistently championed interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians, scientists and industry. He also brings significant governance and regulatory experience through his work with the Regulatory and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), advocating for safe, high-quality, evidence-informed care.
Having retired from his substantive university roles in 2024, Professor Elborn now holds a number of non-executive positions, including with RQIA, Northern Ireland’s healthcare regulator, LifeArc, a foundation supporting translational research in rare diseases and QUBIS, Queen’s University Belfast’s technology transfer company. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and serves as the Academy’s Northern Ireland Champion, supporting excellence in biomedical and healthcare and research.
Professor Elborn was awarded a CBE in 2013 for services to healthcare in Northern Ireland and received the British Thoracic Society Medal in 2024 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to respiratory medicine.
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