Hospital trust chief quits

The chief executive of the NHS trust that runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton has quit.

George Findlay emailed all staff at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust this morning (Wednesday 9 July) to announce his departure.

As well as the Royal Sussex, the trust also runs the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and the Sussex Eye Hospital, in Brighton.

It also runs Worthing Hospital, St Richard’s Hospital, in Chichester, the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, and Southlands Hospital, in Shoreham.

Dr Findlay wrote: “This is a time for new directions: for the NHS and for University Hospitals Sussex.

“Last week the government published its 10-year plan for the service. It sets out how it aims to achieve its three strategic shifts in how we care for the nation’s health: from hospital to community, analogue to digital and treatment to prevention.

“We’ll also soon be launching our new trust strategy for 2025-30. This is a major, important piece of work for everyone at UHSussex and for everyone who uses our services.

“It’s been developed with colleagues, patients and partners in the context of those three national shifts and will set out how we can realise our potential as one of the largest trusts in the country to provide consistently excellent care across all our hospitals.

“Given that this strategy is for the long term, it’s right that I consider my role in what will be five years of dynamic change and improvement.

“I’ve worked in the trust for more than 10 years and I’m very proud to have been its chief executive for the last three.

“However, leading such a large, diverse organisation is a hugely demanding job and I do not anticipate continuing to do so for a further five years.

“I believe it’s in everyone’s best interests that the strategy’s delivery is led by someone who is committed to being here through to 2030, rather than have to change leadership part way through.

“I’ve therefore told our chair, Philippa Slinger, that I propose to stand down as chief executive so she and the trust board can oversee the appointment of a successor for the long term.

“Leading UHSussex – and more importantly the people who make it what it is – has been a genuine privilege for me so this is a difficult decision but it is the right one.

“It’s also right that I step aside from decision making during the transition period so I will begin a practical handover of my duties from mid-July.

“As well as looking to the future, I’d also like to take a moment to remember the impressive progress we’ve made together in recent years and thank you for the hard work and dedication behind it.

“For example (and this is merely scratching the surface) we’ve seen the successful merger of two large NHS trusts into a single organisation with single patient and staff systems and harmonisation of policies and procedures.

“Major changes have come to the Royal Sussex County Hospital – the completion of the Louisa Martindale Building, a start to the rebuilding of the Emergency Department (ED) and acute floor and major improvements to our surgery service including the recruitment of additional consultants, the return of surgical trainees and the development of a more positive culture and training environment. This has led to the GMC removing the enhanced monitoring in place since 2016.

“A new centre of excellence for colorectal cancer surgery has been created at Worthing Hospital and we’re starting to develop our new specialist stroke centre at St Richard’s. Progress is also being made to finally deliver the new specialist cancer centre in Brighton.

“A major maternity improvement programme has been rolled out and significant progress recognised by the National Maternity Safety Support Programme. We’ve recruited more staff and have virtually eliminated vacancies in our midwifery workforce. We now have some of the best neonatal outcomes in the country and our ‘friends and family satisfaction rates’ are among the best too.

“We’ve also made massive progress on planned care waiting lists – last year we brought these down by 40,000, a remarkable one fifth of the total national reduction – and on waiting times for cancer diagnosis and care.

“And in the ED we’ve halved the number of people waiting for more than 12 hours and become the best trust in the region for rapid ambulance handovers.

“Our forthcoming five-year strategy builds on this impressive progress and seeks to fully unlock the great potential we have as a single, unified trust.

“It will set out our key, overarching ambitions – including how we transform access to care and the way we support you in your workplace.

“It will be specific about what we want to deliver by 2030 – whether that’s major investment in buildings and facilities, significant progress in IT or our ambitions to become a major centre for research and innovation.

“I truly believe that our new strategy, delivered by the brilliant people working in all our hospitals, provides the blueprint for a very bright future.

“I wish my successor and all of you the very, very best for the years ahead.”