07.09.16
Southern Health under fire over new position for former CEO
The former chief executive of Southern Health NHS FT has transferred to a new job at the trust to provide strategic advice for which she was the only candidate, it has emerged.
Katrina Percy announced in August that she was stepping down because of “the effect the ongoing personal media attention has had on staff and patients” and would take up a new job “providing strategic advice to local GP leaders”.
In a BBC documentary, ‘Broken Trust’, due to be broadcast tonight, Tim Smart, the trust’s chair, admits that Percy’s new post did not exist before her appointment and that she was the only candidate considered.
However, he says: “The case is that over the next few months, the work that we’ve asked Katrina to do needed to be done in any event.”
Percy faced calls to resign in Parliament after it emerged that between April 2011 and March 2015 the trust experienced 1,454 unexpected patient deaths, of which it investigated just 13%.
Smart was appointed as the interim chair by NHS Improvement after a CQC inspection found that the trust was still failing to implement recommendations on patient safety.
In May, the board of governors attempted to hold a meeting Smart had cancelled and issue a vote of no confidence in the current board.
Mark Aspinall, who resigned as a governor in April, told the BBC: “The health service is usually very rigorous in terms of recruitment, so the idea that a new role has been created purely to move Katrina sideways seems very surprising.
“The whole board has to look at itself and the policies it has put in place that have led to reports that have slated leadership at the trust, and the failures to investigate the deaths of patients in its care.
“But Katrina should have taken responsibility for this a long time ago.”
5.15pm UPDATE
In a statement, Smart said:
“As I have already made clear, the task of joining up care between GPs and the wider NHS is a vitally important transformation project supported by NHS England, commissioners and NHS Improvement. It is crucial for patients and the local NHS that this is completed.
“Katrina’s resignation as Chief Executive Officer left a significant gap in terms of her experience and proven track record in leading this work over the last 18 months. She is uniquely qualified to finish this work, which is exactly what her new role is designed to achieve. From the outset, this has been a finite role for a 12 month period, after which Katrina’s employment with the Trust will cease.”
(Image c. Peter Facey)
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