Bill Shields has been appointed chief financial officer of the Bermuda Hospitals Board after “an extensive local and international recruitment process”, BHB announced today.

Mr Shields’ designation comes at a time of “major challenges” for BHB to rein in healthcare costs and improve its financial condition, according to Venetta Symonds, its CEO.

A high priority for the new fiscal year will be the creation of a clinical services plan to help in “critical decisions” about hospital services, Ms Symonds said.

“BHB needs a financial executive who understands hospital finances and how they connect to the health system, and has experience in optimising financial and operational performance to support clinical quality on the front line of patient care,” she said.

“Mr Shields comes with an impressive record within the National Health Service and we look forward to him bringing this expertise and experience to the team.”

Coming from the UK, Mr Shields joins BHB after over a year working as executive director of EY, a health advisory practice that focuses on performance improvement and optimisation.

In this role he worked with numerous NHS hospitals to transform and improve financial and operational performance.

Prior to this position, he worked in the NHS for almost 29 years, most recently with the Imperial College NHS Trust, where he led a recovery of the trust’s financial and operational performance, and subsequently served as CFO and CEO.

Mr Shields said that BHB had worked “very hard over the last few years to improve their financial stability”, adding that “together we will be able address the current challenges to support BHB’s stated triple aim goals of improving the patient experience, improving population health and reducing the per capita cost of care”.

Having gained his professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Mr Shields also has an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Glasgow. He has won numerous awards, including the HFMA Finance Director of the Year, 2013, HFMA Governance Award, 2013, and Health Service Journal Finance Team of the Year 2013.