The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is the Scottish Government's principal medical adviser, and as such has direct access to Ministers. The CMO is also Head of the Scottish Medical Civil Service. The post has direct involvement in the development of health policy in Scotland, including prevention, health promotion, health protection and harm reduction. CMO also has lead responsibility for issues such as clinical effectiveness, quality assurance, accreditation and research, and covers the spectrum of health related issues ranging from public health policy to NHS operations.
Harry Burns graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1974. Over the next 15 years he worked as a general surgeon and for the last six years of his surgical career was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow.
He entered health care management and was, for a time, Medical Director of the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. Since 1993 he was Director of Public Health for Greater Glasgow Health Board which is responsible for organising health care and maintaining the health of one million people in the West of Scotland. In 1999 he was awarded a Visiting Professorship in Public Health Medicine, University of Glasgow and is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Business and Management in the University.
He took up post as Chief Medical Officer for Scotland in September 2005.
Deputy Chief Medical Officers
Dr Aileen Keel
MBChB FRCP FRCPath MFPH
Undergraduate Medical Education at Glasgow University . Postgraduate training and early career in general medicine and haematology. Practised haematology at consultant level in both the NHS and private sector, London , for 6 years, including a period as Director of Pathology at the Cromwell Hospital. Joined the then Scottish Office Department of Health in 1992. Deputy Chief Medical Officer with responsibility for all NHS related matters since 1999. Honorary consultant in haematology at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Currently Chair of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke Strategy Implementation Group. Has a particular interest in the role of lifestyle interventions in the prevention of chronic disease.
Professor Peter Donnelly
MD HonDSc MPH MBA FRCP FRCPE FFPH
A graduate of Edinburgh Medical School, he joined the Executive as Deputy Chief Medical Officer in February 2004. He had previously been at Lothian Health as Director of Public Health & Health Policy since April 2000. In addition, since 2002 he has held an honorary Chair in Public Health at the University of Edinburgh. Before returning to Edinburgh he was Director of Public Health for four years with Iechyd Morgannwg Health in Swansea. Prior to that, he spent four years as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff. He has also worked in a variety of clinical medical specialties including medicine, surgery, A&E, anaesthetics and psychiatry. Although focused on service appointments, he has remained academically active, and his doctoral thesis was on the topic of CPR training. He has a longstanding interest in health services management and completed the programme for management development at Harvard Postgraduate School of Business Administration in 1994. He has published widely on Resuscitation, Public Health and related matters. He is the immediate past Vice- President of the UK Faculty of Public Health and the immediate past President of the UK Association of Directors of Public Health.