£50k boss is still in job six months after he was to quit
QUESTIONS have been raised after it emerged a North East NHS boss is still in his job - six months after he was supposed to step down.
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chairman Kingsley Smith was supposed to stand aside in September after serving the maximum of nine years allowed.
Mr Smith has held the £50,000-a-year post on a permanent basis since 2007.
A spokesperson for NUTH said the Trust had twice advertised the job but has been unable to find a replacement.
The Trust’s Council of Governors, who are responsible for appointing the chairman, has now extended Mr Smith’s term of office to next month.
Leader of the Newcastle Liberal Democrats group Anita Lower called on the Trust to replace Mr Smith as soon as possible.
She said: “There must not be a lot of confidence in the outside view of the Trust if they cannot find a replacement. I hope they are being proactive to find someone for the job. Whatever they are doing must not be right if they cannot find anyone.
“When your time is up you should go. It seems very short-sighted of them. They should have known when they would need to find a replacement for Mr Smith from the moment they installed him.
“For an organisation who are responsible to the public they need to be more open and make proactive moves to replace him as soon as possible.”
The Trust is currently without chief executive Sir Leonard Fenwick, who has been placed on “extended leave” to allow an investigation into “a number of very serious issues”.
On Monday night the BBC’s Inside Out programme claimed the investigation’s findings would be published soon.
Sir Leonard, 69, had been at the helm of the Trust for 40 years and mystery surrounds his sudden departure.
A senior Newcastle Labour councillor said: “The ongoing situation at the Newcastle Hospitals Trust is deeply concerning. Patients deserve better, staff deserve better, and the city deserves clarity.”
Mr Smith was first appointed as chairman on an interim basis in 2006. He took on the role on a permanent basis in 2007 and had his term extended by the Council of Governors in September 2011 and was re-appointed in 2013 but his third and final term was due to end last year.
Mr Smith, the former treasurer and chief executive of Durham County Council, also works as an advisor to Japanese technology firm ASK.
The NUTH spokesperson, said: “The Council of Governors, which is responsible for the appointment of the chairman, was fully aware of the need to replace the chairman at the end of his nine-year term of office. In line with usual practice, plans were in place to recruit a replacement and the Trust has been out to advert on two occasions to seek a suitable replacement. Unfortunately these were not progressed.
“With the advice of NHS Improvement, the Council of Governors agreed to extend the current chair’s term of office for a further three months when they will then review the position. The Trust strongly refutes any suggestion that the inability to progress with recruitment to this post is in anyway due to a ‘poor outside view of the organisation.’
“The Trust has an enviable regional, national and international reputation for the quality of its services, which attracts highly skilled staff from across the world to work in Newcastle.”