Bernie joined NHS Somerset ICB in September 2022 to become their Chief Medical Officer. He has enjoyed working across the system and with colleagues in Primary Care, for which he has executive responsibility. This has affirmed the perspective he formed while working in secondary care, which is that too often we look for solutions in the wrong parts of the system, and that we need to shift what he calls the centre of gravity for innovation and service design imperatives closer to communities and primary care. This ultimately led him to the ICB. He also leads on developing strong and engaged system wide clinical and care professional leadership, one of his passions, as well as population health and health inequalities. His experience across primary and secondary care has played well to his work supporting teams to reimagine services and redesign care pathways.

He has spent most of his career as a neonatal and general paediatrician. He qualified in London in 1992 and initially joined a General Practice Vocational Training Scheme in Salisbury before switching to paediatrics. He worked in several hospitals in Wessex before undertaking a Neonatal Fellowship in Vancouver. In 2004 he was appointed as a Consultant Neonatologist and Paediatrician at the RUH in Bath. During this time, he completed a Masters in Medical Law and Ethics. He became Medical Director at the RUH in 2017, continuing in this role until his appointment to NHS Somerset.