Trust chiefs sacked ‘only in extreme circumstances’, says government

The government has admitted that many ‘vulnerable’ hospitals ‘suffer with a lack of permanence of leadership’, but said that chiefs are only sacked by NHS England ‘in extreme and exceptional circumstances’.

The comments were included in the government’s response to the independent investigation into major maternity care failures at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, which highlighted how the practice of repeatedly hiring and firing leaders  had contributed to its problems.

The investigation said successive chairs and CEOs at the FT were “wrong” to believe it provided adequate care, and urged that they be held accountable. But it said senior management churn had been “wholly counterproductive”, and that it had “found at chief executive, chair and other levels a pattern of hiring and firing, initiated by NHS England” which would “never have been an explicit policy, but [had] become institutionalised”.

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Source: HSJ, 21 July 2023