With Tony Blair regularly popping round for drinks, South Durham Healthcare trust's Paul Trippett is possibly the best connected trust chair in the country.
So is he a media tycoon? A member of Cherie Blair's chambers? A Liberal Democrat grandee even? No, Mr Trippett manages a Labour club in Trimdon where he has pulled pints for the past 13 years.
While this striking addition to the trust chairs' club hardly in itself represents a sea change in the social make-up of the NHS quangocracy, it does symbolise the government's commitment to broaden the board catchment area. Mr Trippett, who was appointed last March, is used to the disbelief that his appointment engenders among people who assume that such jobs are the exclusive preserve of business executives, retired senior doctors or lawyers.
That's on top of the snide comments that he is a Labour placeman, rewarded for loyalty (and presumably his skill in serving pints) by a local MP and bar customer who also happens to be prime minister.
'Being paid£19,000 a year has caused problems,' he says. 'Being close to the PM has caused even more problems.
'They think some of us 'new boys' are too close to politicians and they think we are being given a pay-off for being loyal.'
He applied for the job in the usual way, and successfully navigated the interview process. 'He (Mr Blair) had nothing to do with my appointment. It's really hurtful that people say I only got the job because of Tony.
'If someone asked would I do the job for nothing, of course I would. The money comes in handy, but it is not the thing that drives me. I'm a socialist and I believe the NHS is the greatest socialist achievement in this country, and I'm proud to be a part of it.'
He says his critics forget - the local paper dubbed him a 'Blair babe' on his appointment - that he has a long track record of health service activism, albeit from the other side of the fence.
A decade ago, Mr Trippett was a key figure in a campaign to delay the closure of Winterton Hospital, a massive, 150-year-old mental asylum that was earmarked for a swift shutdown and the dispersal of its patients into the Sedgefield community.
Mr Trippett, then a parish councillor, argued that community support services were inadequate and that too quick a change of environment could have adverse effects on patients' health.
The campaign - which got the support of the then backbench Mr Blair - was successful in that the hospital's closure was delayed by eight years.
After a spell on the community health council he became a county councillor, and even made it on to the board of the now defunct South West Durham Mental Health trust for a nine-month spell.
But how did the poacher-turned-gamekeeper progress to running a£90m hospital?
'I told my interview panel I wanted to show a bit more of a public face on the board, to show that every decision is not just based on money.
'Of course there's a number-crunching implication, but there's now a human implication. If I bring that to the trust, I will have brought something that I believe was not there in the 1990s.'
But what about management, leadership, experience of running big organisations? Mr Trippett points out he is the sole manager of a club that employs nine people and turns over£250,000 a year. 'It's not like running a trust, but the principles are the same. The difference is that it is a bit easier running a trust with a£90m turnover, having trained accountants giving you reports, than it is to run a club on my own. I do know something of finance and I must admit I have got a very good team. Part of management is putting people around you who will help you achieve what you want to achieve.'
He accepts that at some point he will face the 'hard choices' promised so regularly by Mr Blair.
'If at the end of the day a ward needs closing, the public would understand why it's being done, and hopefully it would not just be done to save money.'
And would he have a quiet word with the PM?
'I have never asked Tony Blair for anything. To be fair, we may not always agree. I'm not sure I agree with the Labour Party on everything. But he's very radical and wants change, and that's what I want.'
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