Ex-M&S boss to chair new £2.4bn hospital group

Andrew Moore will become group chair of University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, Kettering General Hospital Foundation Trust, and Northampton General Hospital Trust next week. He will take over from John MacDonald, who is retiring after 35 years in the NHS.

Kettering and Northampton have had joint leadership for several years and moved to a joint chair and CEO with Leicester last year.  

Mr Moore has been a non-executive director at UHN since February 2023 and at UHL since February 2024.

Before joining the NHS, Mr Moore held various senior positions in the retail sector, including as a senior director at Marks & Spencer, Asda-Walmart, and as chief commercial officer at Wilko. He also founded his own consultancy in South Africa and is the vice chair of the charity Breast Cancer Now.

Richard Mitchell, who became joint chief executive of the trusts in October, said of the new chair’s appointment: “I look forward to working with him to improve services and the health of the communities we serve… I have no doubt that Andrew’s experience of high-performing international organisations will help us achieve these ambitions.”

Mr Moore said: “We face some tough challenges, which is why our partnership is so important. Our work together as UHN and UHL will help ensure we deliver services in a more sustainable way both now and in the future.”

Kettering and Northampton hospitals first formed what they called a “group model” under joint leadership in 2020. Its first group CEO, Simon Weldon, left after a long-term absence. The trusts then had two new interim CEOs take over in quick succession, before Mr Mitchell was named joint chief last year. NGH’s CEO Heidi Smoult remains off work.

The three trusts combined have a £2.4bn turnover and employ 29,000 people.

*Corrected at 15:55 on 26/06 to reflect Heidi Smoult is CEO of NGH, not UHN.