OHPA appoints chief executive

A chief executive has been named for the health professional body which will adjudicate on fitness to practise cases from 2011.

The Department of Health said that Stephen Shaw CBE has been appointed as the first chief executive of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA). He will be responsible for establishing the new independent body, which will adjudicate on cases bought before it by the General Optical Council (GOC) and the General Medical Council.

The GOC will continue its role of setting standards of practice, investigating complaints and deciding whether to refer concerns about a professional's fitness to practise to an OHPA panel for a hearing.