Dr. Spencer is a former Strategic Health Authority Director with extensive senior clinical and managerial experience in primary care and clinical governance.  He spent 14 years as a general practitioner in northeast England before joining the regional training programme in public health medicine in 1990.

After completion of a Masters Degree in Public Health, he was appointed to a senior managerial post in Newcastle upon Tyne and has since held a number of senior managerial posts in health authorities in the North East. In these roles he had a broad range of senior NHS managerial responsibilities including: primary care development and the support and development of primary care organisations; medicines management; patient safety; clinical governance; and a number of public health screening programmes.

Dr. Spencer has a strong personal commitment to patient-focused care and he is strongly committed to initiatives on self-care and the management of minor ailments.  He has a passion for the continued improvement of the quality of healthcare and is a former clinical governance reviewer for the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).

He has provided support to a number of national work streams and has undertaken a national review of the seasonal influenza programme.  He is currently leading the development of a quality assurance framework for the home oxygen service, including a national survey of service users; and supporting the health inequalities programme.

He retired from the NHS in February 2007 and established a healthcare management consultancy.  He is an Associate of the NHS Primary Care Contracting team.