A native of the Black Country, Tony took an External London degree in Economics at Bournemouth College. He joined the health service in 1969 as a National Administrative Trainee. His initial training was done at the Royal and New Cross Hospitals in Wolverhampton, Lea Castle near Kidderminster, and the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board. He attended UMIST for the academic part of the course. He completed his professional qualifications in 1975.
His NHS posts included Deputy Hospital Secretary, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham; Hospital Secretary / Sector Administrator, Kidderminster Acute Hospitals; Assistant District Administrator, North Devon Health District; Planning Officer and then Chief Executive of West Glamorgan Health Authority; Chief Executive Morriston NHS Trust.
He left the NHS in 1997, joining the Welsh Institute of Health and Social Care at the University of Glamorgan where he remains a Visiting Professor. He has worked in Saudi Arabia and Georgia and has visited the U.S.A, New Zealand, and Russia to study aspects of their health care systems. He was a special adviser to Edwina Hart, Welsh Health Minister in 2007/8.
He is a season ticket holder for Wolverhampton Wanderers and sings with Baggyrinkle, Wales’ finest sea shanty group.
Tony talking to BBC Wales about the difficulties of managing the NHS
Tony Beddow’s posts on this site