Sarah ScobieThink tank

Biography

Dr Sarah Scobie is Deputy Director of Research at the Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank based in London. She joined the Nuffield Trust in 2018, having previously held senior analytical roles in the NHS, public health, and arm's-length bodies including the National Patient Safety Agency and the Healthcare Commission. Her work focuses on quality of care, evaluation, and developing analytical research methods. She leads the QualityWatch programme, a joint initiative with the Health Foundation that provides independent scrutiny of how the quality of health and social care is changing over time. She has also led work on ethnic variation in elective care, end-of-life care, and is leading the Nuffield Trust's project on assisted dying and lessons from international experience.

References

1. 1.Dr Sarah Scobie | Nuffield Trust — Confirms role title, organisation, joined date (2018), prior career in NHS/arm's-length bodies, research focus areas including QualityWatch, end-of-life care, and assisted dying project
2. 2.Assisted dying in practice: International experiences and implications for health and social care | Nuffield Trust — Confirms Scobie as lead author on the 2025 Nuffield Trust assisted dying research report
3. 3.QualityWatch | Nuffield Trust — Confirms Scobie's named leadership of the QualityWatch programme, jointly with the Health Foundation
4. 4.Sarah Scobie – Sapien Care Group — Confirms PhD in medical geography and MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy; confirms NHS information specialist background including Healthcare Commission and National Patient Safety Agency
5. 5.Contact us | Nuffield Trust

Expertise

Cited on

• A&E & ambulance response
• NHS waiting lists

Stated areas of expertise

• Quality of care measurement
• End-of-life care
• NHS performance and waiting lists
• Health equity and ethnic variation
• Analytical methods for health data
• Assisted dying policy

Notable achievements

• Led the Nuffield Trust's 2025 research report on assisted dying in practice, examining international experiences and implications for health and social care systems ahead of UK parliamentary debates on legalisation. Source ↗
• Leads the QualityWatch programme, a joint Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation initiative providing independent scrutiny of how the quality of health and social care is changing over time. Source ↗
• Holds a PhD in Medical Geography from the University of Manchester and an MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy from the University of Birmingham. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “There has been little respite for the NHS this summer, with one heatwave following another. The Health Secretary is right to stress the need for the NHS to properly plan for how it copes with the extremes of summer like it does for winter.”

  Deputy Director of Research at the Nuffield Trust · A&E & ambulance response · 24 Aug 2026 · NHS records busiest-ever July for A&E as emergency demand surges during summer heatwaves ↗

• “Our analysis found that in recent months, as many as one in three patients who were admitted to hospital in an emergency waited over 12 hours between arriving in A&E and getting a hospital bed.”

  Nuffield Trust deputy director of research · NHS waiting lists · 24 Aug 2026 · NHS waiting list falls slightly despite record demand ↗

Source references

1. NHS records busiest-ever July for A&E as emergency demand surges during summer heatwavesnationalhealthexecutive.com · 24 Aug 2026
2. NHS waiting list falls slightly despite record demandhealthcare-management.uk · 24 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/person/sarah-scobie
• LinkedInhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarah-scobie-84051917
• Websitehttps://bsky.app/profile/sarahscobie.bsky.socialpublished here ↗
• Press office emailpressoffice@nuffieldtrust.org.ukpublished here ↗
• Press office phone020 7462 0555published here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.