The Government of the Virgin Islands continues to receive support from the United Kingdom in its COVID-19 vaccine campaign and will be hosting a visit from the UK Healthcare Ambassador to the Overseas Territories Professor Ian Cumming.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Irad Potter stated that Professor Cumming’s visit will assist with providing more information and answering questions from residents as needed given the Territory’s current situation with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Professor Cumming has an extensive schedule of media interviews, stakeholder meeting and community meetings to further support the Public Health initiative.

The UK Healthcare Ambassador’s career began in the National Health Service (NHS) working in coagulation disorders before moving into a healthcare management career in 1990. He has held a variety of general management posts including over 11 years as the Chief Executive of a large hospital group, three years as the Chief Executive of an NHS healthcare commissioning organisation, and three years as the Chief Executive of the NHS in the West Midlands region.

In parallel with his NHS career, Professor Cumming has a long history of working with the education sector including as the NHS lead for establishing Lancaster University Medical School, and developing and running leadership and management development programmes for clinicians.

Professor Cumming also has extensive experience in major incident leadership and management having led at either tactical or strategic level the response to a large number of incidents including several multiple trauma incidents, the UK’s largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires Disease (2002), the ‘flu pandemic in the West Midlands in 2009 and the Birmingham riots in 2010. He was also the NHS lead for the response to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust quality of care scandal from 2010 to 2012.

The Ministry of Health and Social Development aspires to provide a caring and integrated system of health and social services that facilitates human development and quality of life in the British Virgin Islands.