Chief quits as CHI report damns trust

The chief executive of the country's first private finance initiative hospital has quit, a week before a damning report by the Commission for Health Improvement was published.

Nick Woods resigned from North Cumbria Acute Hospitals trust last week, ahead of a critical CHI review out today.

According to the CHI review, his trust scored the lowest possible score on four out of seven of the clinical components against which trusts are assessed. One more bottom score would have automatically meant no stars under the criteria laid down in last year's ratings.

A trust spokesman said Mr Wood's departure was not the product of pressure from the Department of Health. And he stressed there were no plans to franchise the trust's management.

Peter Scott - the trust's third finance director since it was formed in April 2001 - has become acting chief executive.He joined the trust in January.

The CHI review says the trust has a 'considerable budget deficit'.

It said 'pre-existing tensions' between the trust's two hospitals - Cumberland Infirmary and West Cumberland Hospital - 'appear to have been exacerbated' since a trust merger in April 2001.

Reviewers expressed 'significant concerns about the evidence of conflict and a lack of co-operation... and poor cross-site working relationships.'

The board had 'no clear achievable' strategy and corporate priorities were narrowly defined, excluding issues that were not related to finance, access targets and acute services strategy development.

'The trust's leadership urgently needs to engage and communicate with staff at all levels.'

The country's first PFI hospital - the£87m Cumberland Infirmary - has been the subject of intense political debate. Anti-PFI campaigners claimed it lacked sufficient bed numbers when it opened, but the CHI review makes just one mention of PFI in relation to problems at the trust.

Trust chair Barbara Cannon thanked Mr Wood for his hard work and commitment during his 17 months at the trust.

She said the past two years had been a 'challenging time for the trust with the merger of two very different hospital services into one organisation'. She said the trust wished him well in 'his decision to pursue a new challenge within the NHS'.

Chief officer of east Cumbria community health council Peter Canham said Mr Wood had faced a difficult job because of the merger, and that PFI had contributed to the trust's financial problems.

He said: 'I do not think the blame rests entirely with him. The problems are deep-rooted and the merger has proven to be a major contribution to the trust's financial difficulties.'