The NHS Commissioning Board today announced interim arrangements for the post of Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive.

Later this year the Board plans to advertise for a permanent replacement.

Dame Barbara Hakin, currently the Board’s National Director for Commissioning Development, will take up the role on a temporary basis from the second half of April

Rosamond Roughton, the Board’s Director of Commissioning Systems and Strategy, will serve as interim National Director for Commissioning Development.

The current Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Ian Dalton CBE announced last month that he is to leave the NHS to be President of Global Health at BT Global Services.

The role includes leadership of the Board’s Operations Directorate.

The Directorate, which includes the Board’s four regional and 27 area teams, is responsible for direct commissioning of some services including primary care.

It is also responsible for the ongoing assurance of the GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that will replace NHS primary care trusts from April 1 2013.

Currently Dame Barbara oversees the development of the new commissioning system, including CCGs and commissioning support units (CSUs).

Previously she spent over 20 years working as a GP in Bradford.  She was chief executive of a strategic health authority and a primary care trust.  She has held several senior positions with the Department of Health.

Ms Roughton was Director of Strategy at NHS Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority and a director of the Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.