Movers and shakers news roundup

The latest edition of Movers and Shakers features a number of new leadership roles within troubled trusts, including Norfolk and Suffolk FT, Bradford Teaching Hospitals FT and York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals FT plus a trio of new clinical hires for Ascom UK. 

Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust is to lose its fourth CEO in five years, as Stuart Richardson stands down following continued criticism over the leadership team’s ability to turn around the troubled trust.

Richardson took the role two years ago, having previously worked in the trust as chief operating officer. Recently the beleaguered trust has seen an independent review raise concerns over poor quality mortality data and then been on the receiving end of a BBC Newsnight investigation into editing those reports to remove criticism of its leadership.

Caroline Donovan, former chief executive of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, has been announced as Interim CEO. She is set to take the reins from 23 October.

Will  Warrender, chief executive of South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, has announced his resignation. Warrender joined the trust in June 2020 after 30 years in the Royal Navy.

“I feel it is now the right time for me to move on and hand over the reins to my successor to lead the organisation through the next chapter of its development,” he said in a note to staff.

His date of departure has not yet been announced.

NHS England has split the role of medical director for transformation and secondary care into two roles. Vin Diwakar, who held the post on an interim basis, will remain within the organisation as national director for transformation, while Stella Vig will become medical director for secondary care and quality.

Vig, who will retain her existing role at NHSE as national clinical director for elective care, will take on the new role on a six-month fixed term contract. In addition, Erika Denton, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust’s medical director has taken a six-month secondment as medical director for transformation.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust has appointed Martin Barkley as chair. Barkley will be the third chair at the trust in less than two years, with the trust’s leadership rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission.

There have been a number of changes recently within the leadership team, Barkley being the most recent. The new chair has previously held leadership roles at Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust.

Disputes amongst leaders at Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust have resulted in the chair quitting and publicly airing a report outlining the breakdown of his relationship with the trust’s CEO.

Max McLean resigned from his role as chair, after outlining his concerns over trust CEO Mel Pickup, and the board deciding to throw its support behind Pickup. McLean has called for a change of leadership. In his resignation letter, he wrote that he “cannot, in good conscience, work with a CEO who has fallen so short of the standards expected of her role that there is a genuine safety risk to patients and colleagues”.

Sonrai Analytics has appointed Paul Jones as chairman of its board of directors to support the company’s plans to accelerate drug discovery and development using artificial intelligence.

Jones was the founding CEO of Genomic Enterprises, part of Genomics England, and currently serves as the chief executive officer of Vortex Biosciences.

Stuart van Rooyen is to lead a new UK division of Clanwilliam. The global healthcare technology group’s new division will bring together five UK brands: Bluespier, Dictate IT, Maxwell Stanley, Medisec Software and Informatica Systems, with van Rooyan as managing director.

van Rooyen said: “It is a privilege to be taking on this new role and driving forward our new strategy for Clanwilliam in the UK. The people and products that make up our division have great potential to work closely together, leverage synergies, and share solutions to problems for the benefit of our healthcare customers.”

Ascom UK has expanded its clinical team with three new clinical hires. Julia Spindler is joining as clinical sales consultant, working across London and the South East. Shabiha Azam takes on the same role, working across the North of England.

Finally Nick Hammond has joined as a clinical pre-sales consultant. The new hires have bolstered Ascom UK’s network of clinical consultants, which is made up of seven healthcare professionals, including registered nurses, medical technology and IT experts.

More appointments and departures can be found on Digital Health Intelligence.