Brighton’s biggest hospital looks increasingly unlikely to have a new chief executive this year.
Interviews to replace Duncan Selbie at the Royal Sussex County Hospital are due to be held in late November or early December.
Mr Selbie left the trust in the early summer to head a new national watchdog, Public Health England.
Finance director Chris Adcock has been appointed acting chief executive while the search continues.
Julian Lee, chairman of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex and other local hospitals, said: “The more I look into this the more I find other hospitals are in the same position.”
A first search for a replacement for Mr Selbie by specialist headhunters failed to find a candidate acceptable to the trust board.
Mr Lee said that Mr Selbie’s successor could have an NHS background or could come from the academic world, given the trust’s involvement with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School which is run jointly by Sussex University and Brighton University.
Mr Lee told the trust board this morning (Monday 24 September): “It’s not something I want to get wrong. We are fishing in a pool that other people are fishing in at the same time.”
Mr Lee paid tribute to two directors who are leaving the board.
Alex Sienkiewicz, director of corporate affairs, is to join Mr Selbie at Public Health England as his chief of staff. Potential replacements are due to be interviewed this afternoon.
Carole Nicholson, a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee, is stepping down after three and a half years.
Mr Lee paid tribute to her terrier-like tenacity which he said was vital in an audit committee chairman.
Carole Nicholson said that since joining the board the governance structures had become simpler and better.
She said: “It’s been a big team effort.”
She said that she was leaving as the trust introduced a human resources (HR) strategy – something that she had long wanted to see.
Another non-executive director, Julie Nerney, welcomed the HR strategy and put doctors and senior managers on notice about their behaviour towards fellow staff.
She said: “There must be sanctions if people fall short which can be hard in an organisation like this.”
Her comments came as the debate continues over the conduct of the coalition government Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell.
Mr Mitchell is under pressure to resign after an expletive-laden outburst directed at a Downing Street policeman.
