Chair ‘exceeded authority’ when suspending trust chief, investigation finds

A trust chair “exceeded her authority” and “badly handled” the suspension of its chief executive, according to investigation findings seen by HSJ.

Annette Doherty, chair of East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, gave chief executive Tracey Fletcher less than 24 hours to either accept a settlement package or face suspension during a mid-year performance review on 18 November last year.

Ms Fletcher was formally suspended three days later. In December, she raised a grievance concerning the handling of her suspension and the matters leading up to it.

HSJ has seen a draft report into that grievance prepared by a specialist HR consultant firm, dated 15 March. The document says that it “details high-level interim findings based on the evidence gathered so far”, although the author believed further information was “unlikely to change the findings”.

It concluded that on the basis of the evidence, the chair’s actions were “not in line with the NHS values and expectations of a senior leader”.

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Source: HSJ, 13 April 2026