Neil Pettinger is a freelance information training consultant, specialising in designing and delivering training courses for NHS staff in how to make better use of data. He has also written articles on health issues for publications such as the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Health Service Journal.
He was born and brought up in Accrington, Lancashire. He has an MA in Sociology from Edinburgh University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Information Science from Warwick University and an MSc in Health Sciences and Clinical Evaluation from York University.
He joined the NHS in Scotland in 1985 as a National Management Trainee and completed training attachments in Stirling, Falkirk, Glasgow and Dundee before moving to London in 1987 to be Information Officer for Community and Priority Services with Islington Health Authority, implementing the recommendations of the Fourth and Fifth Körner Reports.
After a three-year spell as Deputy Medical Records Manager at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, he worked briefly (1991-92) as the Information Officer with the Resource Management Team at Edinburgh's City Hospital before taking up the post of Information Manager at Barnsley District General Hospital (1992-95).
Back to Scotland in 1995 as Performance Review Manager at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. A close involvement with the new hospital planning team helped when he left Edinburgh in 1999 to become Head of Planning at Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, overseeing the moves of two district general hospitals.
Between 2002 and 2008 he worked as a health information consultant in NHS Scotland, spending time in secondments at the Scottish Government, firstly with the National Waiting Times Unit (2002-04), then as the Information Manager for the Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme (2006-08).
He has been a full-time freelance training consultant since March 2008.