NHS England has announced the appointment of Andrew Taylor as chairman of the new Provider Selection Regime (PSR) Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel.

The Provider Selection Regime came into force on 1 January and is a new set of rules that relevant authorities must follow when procuring healthcare services.

The rules provide greater transparency and a flexible, fair, and proportionate process for selecting providers, increasing opportunities for collaboration between commissioners and providers, thereby enabling more-efficient use of resources and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.

The panel will help ensure procurement processes for healthcare services are transparent, fair, and proportionate.

With a strong interest in how procurement and choice can be used to improve services for patients, Taylor was director of the NHS Cooperation and Competition Panel (CCP), an independent advisory panel, from 2008-2011.

After leaving the CCP, he worked briefly for McKesson Europe, a healthcare technology business, before establishing Aldwych Partners, where he advised several NHS trusts on merger reviews and procurement related matters.

He is now winding down his role at Aldwych Partners so he can become chairman of the new PSR panel.