NHS exodus as five board members resign posts

Health chiefs insist board is being run effectively amid fresh concerns

systems. Scottish Labour have demanded Health Secretary Jeane Freeman reveals what those issues highlighted by Mr Hussain were.

Labour MSP Anas Sarwar said: “The people of Tayside have a right to know what concerns a senior member of the health board raised and subsequently resigned over after he felt they were not addressed.”

It emerged over the weekend that Mr Hussain and two other board members were standing down. On top of those departures, Dr Andrew Cowie, a Dundee GP, is not longer on the board saying he “chose not to seek re-election” as chairman of the area clinical forum.

Derek Wann, an Angus councillor, has also left saying his new role in the council’s cabinet meant he “would not be able to give the attention to the position on the NHST board that this important position deserves”.

That means a third of the nonexecutive contingent of the board have moved on or confirmed their departure since the board meeting of June 28.

John Brown, the NHS Tayside chairman, said: “Tayside NHS Board can continue to provide effective corporate governance.

“The full board consists of 20 members and, under NHS Tayside’s corporate code of governance, only one third of these are required for the board to be quorate.

“Arrangements have been put in place to ensure that the board’s standing committees will continue to operate as usual.”

Ahead of today’s ministerial statement, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “The new leadership team at NHS Tayside is reviewing a range of areas to ensure patient care continues to be of the highest standard, now and in the future.”