Tim Kelsey is an English-Australian business executive. He is Managing Director of Hunter Healthcare, an international health company. He was appointed in September 2025."Tim Kelsey to lead Hunter Healthcare's transformation", PulseIT news
He was formerly CEO of Beamtree, (formerly PKS), an Australian health technology company (ASX:BMT) "PKS appoints internationally regarded digital health expert", Medianet
Previously, he was inaugural chief executive of the Australian Digital Health Agency. In 2018, he co-founded and was appointed chair of the Global Digital Health Partnership, which brings 21 countries and the World Health Organization together in a collaboration to support implementation of digital health services worldwide.
He was previously the first National Director for Patients and Information in NHS England. The role - which he served between 2012 and 2015 - combined the functions of chief technology and information officer with responsibility for patient and public participation and communications."Tim Kelsey quits open data role to take on NHS Informatics post", Guardian, London, 25 May 2012 Before his appointment in July 2012, he was the United Kingdom government's Executive Director of Transparency and Open Data leading on the development of national public data policy."New Executive Director of Transparency and Open Data announced", "Cabinet Office", London, 23 January 2012 "Transparency Tsar could spark a revolution", "Health Service Journal", London, 31 March 2011 www.hsj.co.uk/comment/leader/transparency-tsar.../5027944.article
He was appointed National Information Director in health and care and chair, the National Information Board, in April 2014.
He started his career as a journalist and went on to co-found Dr Foster in 2000, an organisation for publishing comparative hospital death rates and other measures of health quality. The Department of Health's acquisition of 50% of Dr Foster in 2006 was strongly criticised by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which described it as "favouritism""Dr Foster Intelligence: A Joint Venture Between the Information Centre and Dr Foster LLP", UK Parliament Press Notice, and a "hole and corner deal"."UK health department criticised for secret deal", British Medical Journal, 8 February 2007
Kelsey is an activist for transparency and digital empowerment in public services.Tim Kelsey "Britain’s 500 most influential", "Sunday Times", London, 26 January 2014; The Influence 100 "Private Players", "The Guardian", London, 10 September 2003; HSJ50 , "Health Service Journal", London, 14 Nov, 2006 He was appointed visiting professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London in November 2015 and is co-author with Roger Taylor of "Transparency and the Open Society", which makes the case for transparency in public services and argues that it improves social and economic equity. It was published in June 2016 by Policy Press and the University of Chicago."Transparency and the Open Society" , Policy Press, Bristol, June 2016
In 2007, Kelsey was the architect and launch programme director of NHS Choices. He has also worked for HIMSS, Telstra, the Australian telecoms company, and for McKinsey & Company.
Early career and education He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, between 1978 and 1983. In 1984, he won an Exhibition to study history at Magdalene College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1987, Kelsey worked as a freelance newspaper and radio journalist in Turkey and Iraq for The Independent, BBC and The Sunday Telegraph. His investigation into illicit kidney trafficking between Istanbul and London in 1989 triggered a change in British law. He also documented the use of chemical weapons against civilians during Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq in a series of articles in The Independent.For example, Turkey slips 20,000 Kurds into Iran", "The Independent", London, Oct 13 1988, cited in "Whatever Happened to the Iraqi Kurds", UNHCR He joined the launch staff of The Independent on Sunday in 1989 and covered the 1990 Gulf War as a combat pool reporter with British forces. During this period he also presented a number of TV documentaries including "Frontline" for Channel 4 (1994), a documentary in which he escorted Queenie Fletcher, mother of murdered policewoman Yvonne Fletcher to confront Col Gaddafi in Libya"BFI: Film and TV database" and "You Only Live Once" for the BBC (1996), an investigation into anti-ageing science. In 1995 he joined the Sunday Times and became deputy editor of the Insight Team before being appointed news editor in 1998. Kelsey is author of Dervish: The Invention of Modern Turkey, a portrait of the country in the mid-1990s which was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1996 and Penguin Books the following year. Jan Morris, the noted travel writer, commented in her jacket review: 'An excellent travel book, offering startling and vivid insights, social, historical and political, into a Turkey that most visitors can hardly imagine.' Others described it as 'dystopian' and 'no standard travel narrative'.
Dr Foster In 1999, Kelsey, then news editor at the Sunday Times, founded Dr Foster with Roger Taylor, a former Financial Times journalist, and Roger Killen, a Stanford graduate. The organisation was set up to promote information on the quality of local health services to patients and the public. Kelsey explained his motives in an article in the New Statesman magazine in 2001.Tim Kelsey "New Statesman Essay – Which doctor?", New Statesman, London, 15 Jan, 2001
In 2001, Dr Foster – named after an English nursery rhyme character - published the first annual Good Hospital Guide in the Sunday Times. It revealed widespread variation in adjusted death rates between English hospitals and was the first time such a comparative measure of quality had been published for a national health economy. The methodology was developed by Prof Sir Brian Jarman, director of the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College, London. It prompted widespread media interestBBC News "Postcode lottery in death rates","BBC", London, 14 Jan, 2001; see for full media references and stimulated a national debate over quality in healthcare. Alan Milburn MP, then secretary of state for health, told the BBC in response to the publication: "The NHS has acted like a secret society. It has to recognise that people now expect to be treated like consumers".BBC News "Postcode lottery in death rates","BBC", London, 14 Jan, 2001
The Dr Foster Hospital Guide is published annually and remains an important independent publication on quality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. In 2011, it identified a number of underperforming hospitals in England and a higher risk of avoidable mortality at the weekend.Anushka Asthana and Denis Campbell "Eleven more NHS Hospitals at centre of safety scandal", "The Observer", London, 29 November 2009; BBC News "Twelve NHS hospitals underperforming, report claims, "BBC", London, 29 November 2009; Other media reports , "Dr Foster Intelligence", London, November 2009
Since 2001, Kelsey has overseen publication of a series of similar consumer guides to individual hospital consultants,The Times "Some hip patients wait four times longer than others","The Times", London, 19 November 2002; The Times [The Times , "A Fatal Break?"],"The Times", London, Nov 1, 2003 maternity services,The Times, "Looking after sexual health","The Times", London, Jan 15 2005 and complementary therapistsThe Times "Who is Dr Foster?", "The Times", London, 10 Jan, 2004 among others.
Kelsey was chief executive of Dr Foster between 2000 and 2006 during which time it was reported the 9th fastest growing private company in the UK by the Sunday Times.Sunday Times "Sunday Times Fasttrack 100 2005" , "The Sunday Times", London, 2005 In 2006, a public body - the NHS Information Centre - purchased 50% of the company and Kelsey became chair of the Executive Board of the new organisation – Dr Foster Intelligence. This public sector investment in a private company was criticised by the National Audit Office on the grounds that it had not been put out to tender."Press Release - Dr Foster Intelligence: A joint venture between the Information Centre and Dr Foster LLP", "NAO", 6 February 2007 Besides publishing information to the public, Dr Foster Intelligence also provides analytic services to around 85% of NHS hospitals in England and works with health organisations in Europe and the US.
In 2008, Kelsey won the HealthInvestor award for Outstanding Contribution as an Individual to Healthcare for his work with Dr Foster.
In 2006, he was appointed to design the NHS online information service, NHS Choices, by the UK Department of Health. The project, an online information service which publishes comparative data on NHS performance and is designed to promote greater patient choice in healthcare, launched in 2007.
Kelsey was a trustee of the Nuffield Trust, a leading British policy think tank, and a commissioner of the 2020 Public Services Trust.Health Service Journal,"Commission on future of public services launched" "Health Service Journal", London, 9 December 2008; 2020 Public Services Trust He chaired the 2020 public technology group which published a report arguing for more transparency in public services – Online or Inline – in March 2010.Public Services Trust "Online or In-line" London, March, 2010
In 2009, Kelsey was appointed a lay member of the National Quality Board of the NHS.Health Service Journal, "NHS Quality Board members announced", "Health Service Journal", London, 16 March 2009
Kelsey left Dr Foster in May 2010 and joined McKinsey & Co where he led development of information strategies in international public services, based in London.
Controversy surrounding Department of Health acquisition of Dr Foster The circumstances of the £12m joint venture between Dr Foster, the company co-founded by Tim Kelsey, and the Department of Health, were criticised in an official report from the National Audit Office, following a report by an anonymous whistleblower who raised concerns about the legality of the arrangement."Dr Foster Intelligence: A joint venture between the Information Centre and Dr Foster LLP", National Audit Office report, 6 February 2007
The acquisition was strongly criticised by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Committee chair Edward Leigh commented "The seeming degree of favouritism in the choice of company and the haste with which the deal was concluded show a disregard for the rules governing the use of public money". Leigh described the Department of Health's acquisition of 50% of Dr Foster as a "hole and corner deal" and said the department may have paid some £4m more than its share was worth."NAO kicks DoH for Dr Foster move: Tendering process under scrutiny", The Register, 6 February 2007 He also claimed that of the £12m paid by the DoH, £7.6m "went straight into the pockets of Dr Foster’s shareholders"."MPs slam "backroom deal" with Dr Foster for NHS data analysis", CIO, 18 July 2007 /
However, the Department and the NHS Information Centre disputed the findings of the NAO, stating: 'Dr Foster Ltd clearly represented the best possible prospect for a joint venture, given the benefits they were seeking to attain... to harness private sector dynamism, efficiency and effectiveness to public sector expertise in the health informatics field'. The Department of Health said it 'acted on advice given by its Commercial Directorate and legal and professional advisers'.