Two acute trusts to appoint ‘group CEO’

Kettering General Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital Trust already have a joint chair, and plan to appoint the new chief executive by April, with other joint executive roles to follow.

The trusts have stated that, while they will have shared directors and bridge services, they are not planning a formal merger.

The Kettering trust is currently led by Simon Weldon, and Northampton by Sonia Swart. The trusts did not address questions about whether they would both apply for the new role.

Alan Burns, who was appointed joint chair in December 2018, told HSJ: “We are creating a group chief executive, clearly both chief executive posts are at risk.

“We have also said that in due course we will create a group finance director, a group people officer who we already have an interim for, and a group director of strategy. Those are the obvious things you would do as a group in order to make your offer to patients and to the clinical commissioning group better.”

Mr Burns said while each hospital would continue to have their own trust boards, joint decision making would be crucial to improvement.

He added the trusts had occasionally worked together but faced some difficulties doing so.

In July 2018, the Care Quality Commission said there was a lack of trust between the area’s healthcare organisations, which was hampering system integration and causing patient harm.

Both trusts are currently rated “requires improvement” by the CQC. However, Kettering’s leadership is rated “good”, while Northampton’s is rated “requires improvement”.

The news follows similar moves elsewhere in the country. In April, East Lancashire Hospitals Trust’s chief executive was asked to lead Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, while Salford Royal FT and South Warwickshire FT have also taken over the leadership of struggling neighbours in recent years.