The Board of the Belfast Trust is responsible for the strategic direction and management of the Trust’s activities. It is accountable, through the chairman, to the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety, and ultimately to the Minister for Health.
It is made up of a Chairman, four Non-Executive Directors, five Executive Directors and seven other Directors. The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety appoints non-executive directors, with the approval of the Minister for Health, Social services and Public Safety.
The Trust Board meets approximately 6 times per year and anyone can attend.
In addition to the Chief Executive Cathy Jack and the Chairman Mr Ciaran Mulgrew, the following people are members of Trust Board.
Non-Executive members of Trust Board
Professor Martin Bradley
Professor Bradley was appointed as an Non-Executive Director with effect from 18 May 2015. He has previously held the positions of Chief Nursing Officer in the Western HSS Board from 1997 – 2003, Director, Royal College of Nursing (Northern Ireland) 2003 – 2005 and Chief Nursing Officer within the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety 2005 – 2011. Prof. Bradley is also involved in voluntary work as the Chair of the Down & Connor Committee of the Irish Bishops Drug Initiative, Trustee of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and a Trustee of the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy. He is a visiting Professor of Nursing at the Ulster University, a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and a Fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute. In 2013 he was awarded the OBE for services to nursing in the UK and is a Deputy Lieutenant for the County Borough of Belfast.
Ms Miriam Karp
Miriam Karp works in Health Regulation as a Tribunal member of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service and the General Optical Council, Fitness to Practise Chair for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Social Work England, Panellist for the Exceptional Circumstances Body, Department of Education and she is a Lay Member of the Secretary Of State for Transport’s Honorary Medical Advisory Panel. She has previously been a Non-Executive Director of the Public Health Agency; the Northern Ireland Social Care Council; and the Northern Ireland Teaching Council.
Mr Gordon Smyth
Gordon Smyth was appointed as Non-Executive Finance Director to Belfast Health and Social Care Trust with effect from 5th April 2016 for a period of four years. He spent most of his career in the banking sector where he gained 28 years management experience from working in both Head Office and the branch network. He has a strong commitment to the voluntary sector where he has had a number of leadership roles. Gordon is a former board member of the Medical & Dental Training Agency ( NIMDTA ) and holds a public appointment as a non-executive financial board member at the Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) where he has been Chair of the Audit Risk and Governance Committee since October 2014.
Professor Carmel Hughes
Professor Hughes was appointed as an non-Executive Director on January 1st 2022. Carmel is a pharmacist and Professor of Primary Care Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast. She was the first pharmacist to have been appointed to a Harkness Fellowship in Healthcare Policy, the only pharmacist to receive a Primary Care Career Scientist Award and a former Cochrane Fellow. Her research interests centre on prescribing in older people, intervention development and evidence-based healthcare. She is a Senior Editor for the journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies. She is a Trustee of the Dunhill Medical Trust, a charity which funds research focusing on older people and she also chairs the Trust’s Research Grants Committee. She is a member of the National Institute for Health (NIHR) Programme Grant for Applied Research funding panel. Carmel is currently a member of the International Scientific Council (ISC) of the Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI,) the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences External Advisory Board and the International Advisory Board of the School for Primary Care Research (funded by NIHR).
Executive Members of Trust Board
The Executive Team are also members of Trust Board. Read about the Executive Team here.
Code of Accountability
A Code of Accountablity for board members of Health and Social Care bodies. These codes provide a basis on which Health and Social Care bodies should seek to fulfil the duties and responsibilities conferred upon the by the Department of Health.
Click here to read the full Code of Accountability.
Code of Business Conduct and Code of Accountability 2018-19 – Non Executive Directors
Code of Business Conduct and Code of Accountability 2018-19 – Directors