Daily Insight: Happy with how fit you are?

If you want to challenge the information kept on how “fit” you are to carry out your job, your time starts… now.

NHS board directors have less than two months to raise any concerns, before the data is then stored on their employer’s electronic staff record, as part of an overhaul of the fit and proper person test by NHS England.

The changes come nearly five years after Tom Kark QC’s review of the regulations in November 2018. Not a moment too soon, then.

Mr Kark was commissioned by then health minister Steve Barclay to look into the FPPT following high-profile episodes of poor NHS management and patient care.

NHSE announced the introduction of a new standard reference for individuals leaving NHS boards, for any reason, which will be held on file until their 75^th birthday.

Data fields in the ESR will also be updated to record board members’ fit and proper person tests, while the scope of the framework will now include NHSE and the Care Quality Commission.

Mr Kark’s call for the Health Directors’ Council to be established, with powers to disbar individuals guilty of misconduct, were not taken forward.

The changes come into force from October.

Game of thrones reaches its season finale

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals has finally managed to appoint a new chair.

The trust had two false starts in replacing Ebrahim Adia, who departed last summer, twice failing to find a candidate who was deemed suitable.

HSJ understands some senior figures in the patch wanted LTH to be jointly chaired with one or more of the other acute trusts in Lancashire and South Cumbria, in a bid to accelerate clinical reconfiguration.

It’s understood the LTH board has previously resisted the idea of shared leadership, but in the latest process they unanimously agreed to appoint Peter White, who already chairs North West Ambulance Service. Mr White will continue at NWAS until the end of his term in January 2025.

Asked what had changed to make the latest recruitment successful, the trust suggested it was simply a timing issue.

Mr White, a former assistant chief constable at Lancashire Police, said: “As a long-time resident of the area covered by the trust, I, my family, and friends have relied upon the care and treatment provided by the staff at the trust, this role for me is therefore a very personal one and it is a great privilege to serve in this way.”