A NEW medical director has been appointed by the Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.

David Sims, who was previously the Trust’s deputy medical director, has almost 30 years’ experience in the NHS.

In this Board level role, he has overall responsibility for medical leadership and staffing, pharmacy and the Trust’s research and development activity.

Mr Sims is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and has been a consultant for 20 years, initially in Airedale and currently as an autism and intellectual disability specialist for the Trust’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

He was also involved in the development of a parent training programme about the autistic spectrum, which is now used internationally, and continues to train annually with the autism charity, AWARE.

Mr Sims works with the Care Trust’s CAMHS service to run clinics with special school nurses, moving clinical work into special schools to better support young people, their families and schools.

He will continue to provide a clinic at Bradford’s High Park school.

He has also held a number of education roles for doctors in training, including the training programme director for child and adolescent psychiatrists across Yorkshire.

Brent Kilmurray, Chief Executive, said: “I’m delighted that David has been appointed to this key role that provides senior professional leadership for our medical team. He brings a wealth of experience to the executive team.”

Mr Sims is a tutor for PRIME, a medical education charity that aims to improve standards of health care education worldwide. In this role, he has made a number of short-term visits to Nepal over the last 10 years, teaching mental health as part of multi-national teams.

“I’m excited to be appointed to the role and continuing to work with our clinical teams to develop our in-patient and community mental health services, so they meet our communities’ needs,"said Mr Sims.

"Collaborative working with our partners is central to this, both locally and across West Yorkshire, to ensure that people get the right support, when and where they need it and in the right place.”