Prof Kevin Fong OBE

Consultant Anaesthetist, UCLH and Chair of Public Engagement & Innovation, UCL

Kevin is a consultant anaesthetist at UCLH, he holds degrees in astrophysics, engineering and medicine and has worked closely with NASA’s Human Adapation and Countermeasures Office in Houston, Texas. He has a special interest in risk management in complex systems.

During the pandemic he was seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Adviser in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response. As part of that role he worked with teams across many facets of the response including Joint Biosecurity Centre, UKHSA’s Joint Modelling Team, NHS England’s Critical Care Transfer Team, Critical Care Capacity Panel and Severe Covid Response Team.

Together with a particle physics/astrophysics team at a Durham University he developed a high resolution mathematical model of disease transmission for Covid-19, which provided useful strategic insight.

The support and well-being of frontline teams was a central part of his role during the pandemic. He set up Peer Support and Rapid Evaluation Teams leading visits into more than 50 hospitals across the country during the pandemic, to gather information and provide support to units in danger of exceeding their surge capacity. He also established a national mental health study, longitudinally tracking the mental health of people who worked in intensive care during the pandemic.