Long-serving CEO switches to teaching hospital

Mel Pickup will step down from Warrington and Halton Hospitals Foundation Trust in the autumn to become chief executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals FT and “system leader” for the Bradford area.

Ms Pickup, who is from Yorkshire originally, will also step down as leader of Cheshire and Merseyside Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.

An announcement was made internally to staff this morning.

BTHFT is currently led by acting chief executive John Holden, after the previous post-holder Clive Kay joined King’s College Hospital FT in February.

WHHFT is currently rated “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission, but HSJ understands that it is expected to receive a “good” rating in an imminent inspection report.

It has recently come under fire for introducing self-pay services to patients who did not meet the NHS threshold for common procedures such as hip and knee surgery. At a Parliamentary committee hearing last week, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens described the marketing around the scheme – which linked the service to new commissioning policies that had raised the thresholds for various treatments – as “misguided”.

BTHFT has a “requires improvement” CQC rating.

In a statement, WHHFT chair Steve McGuirk described Ms Pickup as a “highly motivated, focussed and energetic chief executive with a strong track record of achievement”.

He added: “She has been an inspirational leader who displays commitment, authenticity and passion and I speak on behalf of the whole TeamWHH family when I say that she will be sadly missed.”

Professor Simon Constable, currently deputy CEO and executive medical director, will become acting CEO at WHHFT.