Interim hired after trust's sudden CEO departure

Katie Fisher joined Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Trust last week, it has announced.

The trust’s former CEO, Julie Smith, left suddenly in March, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family and do an MBA. It has since been led by two acting CEOs.

Ms Fisher is a former chief executive of West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust, which she left in 2018, and then of independent mental health provider St Andrew’s Healthcare.

She left St Andrew’s in 2022, saying: “I’m still a nurse by training and my heart remains in the acute physical healthcare sector where I have spent much of my career.” Since then she has worked as divisional managing director of McCarthy Stone, which develops retirement properties.

Ms Fisher joined St Andrew’s after it had been placed in “special measures”, amid criticism of its leadership by the Care Quality Commission. It cut its bed base to help improve its inpatient services and was taken out of CQC special measures under her leadership.

She started her career as a nurse and later joined the NHS general management training scheme, before working at a senior level across both commissioning and provider organisations.

Ashford and St Peter’s chair Caroline Warner said: “Katie’s substantial experience and healthcare leadership expertise will be invaluable to the trust.”

The trust has been criticised over maternity care quality over the past year, and had major problems with an electronic patient record implementation.