Sir David Dalton was appointed as chief executive of The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in April 2016 in addition to his role as chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, a post he has held since 2001.

Sir David has a strong profile, both locally within Greater Manchester, and nationally in the areas of quality improvement and patient safety. His leadership focuses on a disciplined approach of applied ‘improvement science’ coupled with deep staff involvement.

He is currently involved in two strategic developments: creating a fully integrated health and social care system for the City; and developing the concept of standardisation of best practice and seeking to apply this at scale, through a digital enterprise, across multiple organisations.

Sir David has developed national health policy and advised government in the areas of patient safety, new organisational forms and digital development. He was the founder Chair of AQuA, NHS QUEST, and Haelo: each of which support organisations in their improvement activities.

He is also the Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network and a Governor of the Health Foundation.