Member Article

Priory Specialist Director appointed Chair of influential eating disorder advisory group

• Kris Irons appointed as Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network for Eating Disorders (QED) Advisory Group

Priory Healthcare is delighted to announce that Specialist Director Kris Irons has been appointed as the new Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network for Eating Disorders (QED) Advisory Group.

QED is a peer network, set up by the Royal College. It is responsible for regular peer reviews and the awarding of accreditations to promote high quality care across the public and independent health sectors, and works with both inpatient and community services to ensure the best support for eating disorder patients and their carers.

Kris’ appointment reflects her experience and expertise in the area of eating disorders. She is the Professional Lead for CAMHS, Eating Disorders, Acute & PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit) at Priory and is also a member of the Quality Network for Inpatient CAMHS (QNIC) Advisory Group, another Royal College of Psychiatrists’ peer network.

As Chair, Kris will ensure that QED works together to optimise the quality of advice it gives to eating disorder services, and she will act as spokesperson, representing the interests of all the services that form part of QED.

Kris says: “I am delighted to be taking on the role of heading up the QED Advisory Group.”

Explaining the importance of QED to Priory, Kris adds: “All our EDs are members of QED and take part in the accreditation process. I have been involved in eating disorder services for a large part of my career, having worked with patients with eating disorders on inpatient units and as a community psychiatric nurse. I have also set up and managed eating disorder services and have had a long involvement with QED, working with services to achieve accreditation - and as part of the QED accreditation team.”

Priory Group’s Chief Operating Officer Paula Stanford says: “We warmly welcome the appointment of our Specialist Director Kris Irons to the position of QED Chair of the Advisory Group. From her extensive work with Priory Healthcare, and her huge experience in the area of eating disorders and mental healthcare more widely, she is so well-placed to lead the charge and to protect and improve EDs for patients and carers. We are proud that all Priory EDs are accredited to QED, as we are committed to providing first-class care and support to all our patients.”

Kris’s career in healthcare began when she took up a healthcare assistant (HCA) role, on leaving university, at Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal. Soon after, she began her nursing training at the hospital and progressed from there, ultimately becoming Cheadle’s Hospital Director. Kris has been working at Priory since 2010 and has worked as a Hospital Director for three separate Priory Hospitals, and has also worked in risk management and quality and as a Specialist Director. The Priory Group, which treats more than 30,000 patients a year, is in the process of integrating with MEDIAN, Germany’s largest provider of rehabilitation, neurology and orthopaedic treatments which operates 120 clinics and facilities with 18,500 beds and places across Germany.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Imogen Daldy .