Jason Leitch

Jason Leitch is an international expert on health care quality, systems improvement and crisis communications. He is a Director of Leitch Health Ltd. Leitch is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the US based global organization responsible for health systems improvement around the world. Leitch has advised countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Singapore, UAE, Canada and many others.

From January 2015 to May 2024, Leitch was The National Clinical Director for the Scottish Government. He worked for Government from 2007 as the National Clinical Lead for safety and subsequently, for Quality. Leitch was the principal clinical communicator in Scotland to the public, stakeholders and parliament during the Covid pandemic. He was praised for his ability to speak accessibly to many diverse audiences and appeared daily on TV and radio. The National Clinical Director was responsible for quality in the health and social care system, including patient safety and person-centered care, NHS planning, and implementing quality improvement methods across the government and the broader public sector.

He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honors. He was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in 2022, a rare accolade for a non-US citizen. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee and a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He was a 2005-06 Quality Improvement Fellow at IHI.

Leitch is a non-executive Board member of the Medical and Dental Defense Union of Scotland, a Board member of The Nazareth Trust which runs an acute hospital providing care in Northern Israel and the West Bank and a trustee of the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship (UK) which runs a children’s’ home and schools in southeast India. He qualified as a dentist in 1991 and was a clinical academic and Consultant Oral Surgeon in Glasgow. He has a doctorate from the University of Glasgow, a Masters in Public Health from Harvard and is a fellow of the three UK surgical Royal Colleges. He is an internationally recognized speaker and adviser on health and care improvement, public health and crisis communications.