Professor Chris Drinkwater CBE, FRCGP, FFPH (Hon)

I was an inner city GP in Newcastle for 23 years and I am now emeritus Professor of Primary Care Development at Northumbria University. I led the establishment of HealthWORKS Newcastle as a City Challenge project in the early 1990s. The organisation now operates from two centres with over 70 staff. More recently, I led the development of, and now chair, Ways to Wellness, a charitable foundation established to deliver social prescribing at scale through a social impact bond in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Along the way I have been President and Public Health lead for the NHS Alliance, Deputy Chair and Chair of the Philanthropy Committee for Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Community Foundation, and the Sir Roy Griffiths/Age Concern/RCGP Prince of Wales, Educational Fellow for Older People. I was at different times Head of the Department of Primary Health Care at Newcastle University and Head of the Primary Care Development Centre at Northumbria University. In 2011/12 I chaired the Newcastle, NESTA funded People Powered Health social prescribing programme.

At Well North, I’m Chair of the Blue Stone Consortium, Well Newcastle Gateshead Committee which is the accountable body for Well Newcastle Gateshead.

I’m passionate about making connections, plus the North East and in particular the North Pennines, Hadrian's Wall and the Tyne Valley.