Chief Medical Officer, HUC

HUC (formerly Herts Urgent Care) is a clinically led, values driven social enterprise delivering a wide range of integrated urgent and primary care services. Since our beginnings in 2007 as a GP-led out-of-hours provider, we’ve grown significantly to provide NHS 111, out-of-hours GP care, urgent treatment centres, dentistry, and clinical assessment services across both the East and South West of England.

We now support over 4.5 million patients annually through a committed team of around 1,400 employees and 370 GPs and clinical professionals. Our culture is defined by our values, caring, dynamic, innovative, and respectful, and by a shared commitment to putting patients at the heart of everything we do.

Dear Applicant,
Thank you for your interest in joining HUC as our Chief Medical Officer - a pivotal leadership role at the heart of our organisation. As we continue to grow and evolve, this role will help shape the future of our clinical services and culture, ensuring we remain focused on what matters most: delivering safe, high-quality care to the patients and communities we serve.
HUC is a clinically led, values-driven social enterprise delivering integrated urgent and primary care across a wide geography. Our clinical workforce includes GPs and our expanding workforce of nurses, allied health professionals and other colleagues working across services such as NHS 111, urgent treatment centres, out-of-hours care and clinical assessment.
The Chief Medical Officer will lead our clinical directorate and play a vital role in embedding strong, compassionate clinical leadership across the organisation, bringing together governance and innovation in a way that balances assurance with a culture of learning, development, and continuous improvement. You will be instrumental in shaping our approach to medical and clinical education, strengthening our focus on workforce development, and supporting the recruitment and retention of skilled professionals for the future.
We are strengthening our clinical leadership model to reflect the scale and ambition of the organisation. For the first time, the Chief Medical Officer will be supported by two new roles: a Director of Nursing and Quality, and a Deputy Chief Medical Officer. This reflects our commitment to building sustainable, multidisciplinary leadership that supports safe, inclusive and high-performing services.
This is a strategically important role with a strong outward-facing focus. As the senior clinical voice of HUC, you will represent the organisation across systems and partnerships. You’ll build strong relationships; help shape services and share learning and good practice and contribute to a culture of collaboration across organisational boundaries. Innovation and integration are central to our approach, and you’ll help lead how we use technology to improve access, enable smarter ways of working, and deliver better outcomes for patients and the system as a whole.
Our evolving clinical structure is designed to reflect and respond to the voices of both patients and our clinical workforce. The Chief Medical Officer will help us strengthen how we listen, learn and act on that feedback, fostering a culture of openness, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
You’ll be part of a committed executive team, helping to shape the next phase of HUC’s journey. We value transparency, curiosity, and shared responsibility, and we’re building a culture that rewards clarity, ambition, and integrity. We’re looking for someone who leads collaboratively, inspires confidence, and is committed to developing people and services in a way that reflects our values and puts patients at the centre of every decision.
If you're a senior clinical leader with the experience, vision, and integrity to help lead an organisation with real purpose and impact, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
Thank you again for your interest in HUC. We look forward to learning more about what you could bring to this essential role.
Warm regards
David Archer
Chief Executive Officer
HUC
HUC is a clinically led, not-for-profit social enterprise delivering integrated urgent and primary care services to more than 4.5 million people across the East and South West of England. Since our origins as a GP-led out-of-hours provider in Hertfordshire in 2007, we’ve grown into a regionally diverse organisation delivering services such as NHS 111, urgent treatment centres, community hubs, intervention vehicles, dental urgent care, out-of-hours GP care and clinical assessment.
Our growth has been shaped by the needs of the communities and systems we serve. Over the past year, we’ve deepened our role in Somerset and Cornwall, expanded infrastructure with a new contact centre in Bedford, and strengthened our clinical governance with the introduction of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. We were proud to receive a 'Good' rating from the CQC for our Integrated Urgent Care services in the East, recognising the quality, professionalism and compassion our teams bring every day.
Click here for the full candidate pack and job description
Salary: £167,000 pro rata
Working Pattern: Four days per week.
The CMO will serve as HUC’s most senior clinical leader and a statutory member of the Board. This is an existing role with an interim in post who will not be applying for practical reasons around location, with the previous post holder moving on. The CMO will lead the clinical strategy and governance agenda, be the figurehead of the clinical workforce and act as an outward facing ambassador for HUC’s clinical credibility and innovation.
Given HUC’s culture of being a clinically led organisation, the CMO plays a critical part in shaping the tone, standards and ethos of clinical care. Going forward, the role is being repositioned to allow more focus on strategic leadership and system influence. A Deputy CMO is being introduced to provide greater operational bandwidth and ensure the CMO can devote time to developing the strategic future, outward facing leadership, innovation and stakeholder engagement.
The CMO will have oversight of clinical governance, quality improvement, patient safety, and regulatory compliance. They will lead the multidisciplinary clinical team, oversee professional standards and provide visible leadership across dispersed clinical services. HUC’s workforce includes a wide range of professionals beyond GPs, including nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, dental professionals and others delivering unscheduled care, so the CMO must have a genuine MDT approach.
Externally, the CMO will engage with commissioners, regulators, NHS England, ICBs, LMCs, and other system leaders. They must represent HUC’s values while promoting its capabilities, offering assurance, and supporting the development of new partnerships and service models.
In terms of profile, the successful candidate will likely:
- Be a senior registered clinician, preferably a GP, with significant leadership experience in urgent or primary care.
- Have a proven record of leading clinical governance, quality improvement and service innovation.
- Be experienced in a board level role and demonstrate strategic acumen and political awareness.
- Be a natural team player, with a collaborative leadership style and high emotional intelligence.
- Possess the energy, humility and presence to engage credibly with colleagues, clinicians and stakeholders.
The CMO must bring a sophisticated understanding of integrated urgent care and out of hospital services, and ideally have worked within or alongside organisations delivering NHS 111, out of hours GP care or urgent treatment centres. A passion for innovation, digital health and workforce transformation is also important. Candidates should be able to translate clinical insight into organisational improvement and strategy.
All applications must include:
- A full curriculum vitae/resume
- Quoting the relevant role reference number: A040960
- A covering letter highlighting the aspects of the job description and HUC that particularly attract you to the post (Microsoft Word document)
- Contact details for three referees, these will not be contacted without your permission. (References should validate a minimum period of six years employment)
- A completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (which you will be redirected to once you have submitted your application) *
Right to work checks
If you are successfully shortlisted, our partner, Yoti, will contact you to complete an online right to work check. This is a quick and secure process, ensuring that all necessary legal requirements are met before proceeding further in the recruitment process.
Monitoring
One of Alumni Global’s and HUC’s objectives is to ensure that its workforce is reflective of the local community and therefore we actively encourage applications from under-represented groups. So that we can successfully achieve these aims, while it is not mandatory we would encourage every applicant to complete the “Equal Opportunities Monitoring form” so that we can measure the effectiveness of our efforts. The Recruiting Manager does not have access to the Monitoring Information Sections of the application form at any stage of the process and the information provided will be kept entirely confidential.
For a confidential discussion on this role please contact:
Thomas Patterson, Managing Director or Michael Earnshaw, Director of Research on +44 77 1905 59 71.
Candidate adjustment
If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made as part of the recruitment process please can you advise us so that we can ensure this is accommodated.
Closing date: 28th August 2025 - TBC
Final Interviews: TBC
Please ensure you have made a note of the final interview date(s). We recommend that you bookmark this microsite, as any potential updates regarding the role will be posted online.