James Foster is manager at St Stephen’s Gate Medical Practice in the centre of Norwich. The practice has a varied population, reflecting the challenges that Norwich faces in terms of social inequality and growing mental health needs. The practice is also a unique provider of consultant-led surgery providing cataracts, hernias and hand operations. The team at SSG have been nominated for three national awards for their high performance in the last few years. We are also recently invited to present our unique achievement of increasing surgery activity during Covid lockdown at a national conference.

James is part of OneNorwich Practices because of a passion to share ideas across all health and social care services in Norfolk. James considers staff wellbeing and development the core foundation for the health service now and in the future.

James is a former editor of daily newspapers and switched to health management after achieving a prestigious Masters of Business Administration at the UEA. An amuse bouche from his media career is that driving the Flying Scotsman steam engine with pop impresario Pete Waterman in the cab is only his second favourite experience as a journalist. He is married, with two children and does not live in Surrey.