5 Boroughs chief exec warns white paper has robbed his area of strong PCT leadership

Newly published minutes for 5 Boroughs’ 29 November board meeting show that chief executive Simon Barber told the board that none of the four primary care trusts they worked for had chief executives that were both in post and at work.

The chief executives of both Wigan and Knowsley had taken jobs at the Department of Health, Halton and St Helens’ chief executive was on sick leave, and Warrington had ‘no substantive chief exec’ in post, with Helen Bellairs from NHS Western Cheshire covering Warrington ‘in addition’, he said.

The minutes conclude: “Mr Barber was concerned that we are currently lacking substantive leadership across each of our PCTs.  This was felt to be a consequence of the recent changes proposed in the White Paper.”