Chair forced to step down after ‘intervention from London’

Sue Musson has chaired Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust since 2019, and trust governors, system leaders and NHS England’s regional team are all understood to have supported her reappointment for another three years.

However, multiple sources have told HSJ the reappointment was blocked nationally. NHSE and the Department of Health and Social Care have not responded to questions around this.

One source, who asked not to be named, said it was “intimated” to governors that the decision had come from health secretary Steve Barclay, although this is not confirmed.

LUH is a FT, but is in segment four of NHSE’s oversight framework, which effectively means it is in special measures. Governors were told this enabled national leaders to intervene in the reappointment.

One governor said: “We all supported Sue and her reappointment was all approved locally, including by the regional team. But the chief executive attended our meeting last week and read out a statement which said her appointment had not been supported. It’s clearly come from people in London, and it was intimated to us that this was a political intervention from the secretary of state.”

LUH has been struggling on multiple fronts over the last year, performing significantly worse than average on key performance indicators for emergency, elective and cancer care.

It was rated “inadequate” for leadership by the Care Quality Commission last year, which sparked the departure of former chief executive Steve Warburton, who Ms Musson had appointed in 2019.

It also missed its financial plan for the seven months to November by £6m, while a report by accountancy firm PwC, commissioned by the Cheshire and Mersey Integrated Care System earlier this year, has flagged various issues around financial governance at the trust.

PwC said the trust’s underlying financial deficit had deteriorated by £73m since it was formed three years ago, which was largely due to a “substantial increase in the trust’s recurrent cost base during the pandemic, with no clear plan on existing costs which were funded through non-recurrent income”.

The trust has declined to comment beyond statements that were issued to staff on Thursday last week, in which Ms Musson said: “It is with great sadness that I will not be undertaking a second term as chair of Liverpool University Hospitals from the end of January…

“I can honestly say that I have put everything into this role. I am so grateful for the encouragement and support I have received along the way from colleagues right across the organisation. It has been an immense privilege to witness for myself the way you care for patients, families and each other despite the immense pressures and challenges you face.”

CEO James Sumner told staff: “Having been appointed by Sue as LUHFT chief executive and having had a chance to work with her over this last year, I am so disappointed that we will not be able to continue this next stage of [the trust’s] journey together. On behalf of the trust, I would like to thank Sue for her incredible personal commitment and service to the trust over the last three years.”