Dr Keith Ridge
The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is the professional lead for pharmacy both within the Department of Health and across Government. The post is a member of the senior management team of the Medicines, Pharmacy and Industry Group (MPIG). MPIG is part of the Medical Directorate of the Department of Health.
Keith’s current interests include providing clinical leadership to:
- the ongoing development and implementation of the pharmacy White Paper, Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths, Delivering the Future, which sets out a clinical vision for pharmacy
- safe medicines use, including recently joining the Patient Safety Forum
- modernising pharmacy careers through the reform of pharmacy education and training and workforce planning
- the development and establishment of the General Pharmaceutical Council - a new professional regulator for pharmacy
- pharmacy aspects of preparing for pandemic influenza
Keith has worked at most levels in NHS hospital pharmacy, his last two posts being Chief Pharmacist at North Glasgow University Hospitals and University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Whilst in Glasgow, he was part of the National Pharmaceutical Forum, which advised the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland.
He was also a founder member of the Scottish Medicines Consortium. In Birmingham, Keith was working on a new patient centred model for pharmacy services before taking up current post on 1 March 2006.
He has also worked in community pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as an earlier spell at the Department of Health as professional lead on prescribing and hospital pharmacy.
