Jag assumed the role of Chair of Royal Papworth Hospital in February 2024, following the retirement of Professor John Wallwork. He had previously been a non-executive director since November 2019.
Jag received his undergraduate training in medicine at Cambridge and London, qualifying in 1986. He received his postgraduate training in general practice and then in paediatrics and neonatology in the East of England and in Melbourne.
Jag was appointed as a consultant neonatologist at Cambridge in 1996 where he was director of the neonatal service for many years as well as a practising clinician. Jag’s leadership and management experience includes nearly 10 years as the Executive Medical Director at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH).
His wide-ranging portfolio as Medical Director included professional medical governance and leadership for more than 1,400 doctors, executive lead for Research and Development, executive lead for Postgraduate Medical Education, lead for patient safety and Director of Infection Prevention and Control. He was co-Chief Operating Officer for over three years and was executive lead for the award winning Electronic Patient Record system and related IT for over 2 years.
He was appointed Director of Digital at Cambridge in November 2017, overseeing extensive development of the IT programmes and then nominated to be chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough STP digital group.
In addition to his acute hospitals roles, Jag has had many years experience of leading, supporting and managing change and leadership and strategy challenges across the wider NHS. He was an elected senior officer for his clinical professional association, the British Association of Perinatal Medicine for six years, the founding clinical lead for the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire neonatal network, chair of Monitor’s Medical Director Advisory Group, chair of East of England Medical Directors’ Forum and vice-chair of NHS Employers’ Consultant Contract negotiating team.
Jag is also a highly experienced teacher and lecturer with a two-decade track record of delivering lectures and training to heterogeneous as well as specialist audiences, nationally and internationally, across the fields of clinical practice, developing future clinical leaders, managing large-scale change, and implementing clinical IT systems. He has published more than 40 articles, including personal research.
Outside of the immediate NHS, Jag currently sits as a Main Board Trustee of Macmillan Cancer Support, is a member of a number of regional forums focused on the interface between healthcare and technology and is an Honorary Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School, focusing on healthcare.
Jag stood down as Director of Digital at CUH in April 2019 to take up a new role as Chief Clinical Officer at the Eastern Academic Health Science Network.
