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West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospital staff were told in early March that Don Richards had left his role as trust finance chief, according to an internal message seen by HSJ. His departure was not announced in board papers, despite him having held the position for 10 years.

HSJ has learned two senior trust individuals sent chief executive Matthew Coats a letter on 22 February that said they had “lost confidence” in the CFO, in an apparent row over planned cuts to staff. 

The letter said: “A blanket 3% reduction of clinical staff is not a logical approach to ensuring that safe care can be delivered, but our proposals to review each are individually met with derision, and allegations of bias towards him.”

Mr Coats received a letter from Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB six days before this – also seen by HSJ – saying it had lost confidence in the trust’s financial leadership and raising “increasing concerns” over transparency.

Sources told HSJ Mr Richards is taking legal advice over the matter. Sources have also suggested the allegations made in the letters about Mr Richards are contested.

Both the trust and Mr Richards declined to comment.

 

NHS veteran bows out

A long-serving chief who led hospital trusts, regional teams and held high-profile roles in the national NHS and government is retiring after five decades in the health service.

Sir Neil McKay, currently chair of the troubled Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin integrated care board, departs later this summer. He had been in the position since the ICB was created in July 2022, having chaired the sustainable transformation partnership in Shropshire before that.

Also during his career he was CEO of hospitals in Leeds and Sheffield, and national chief operating officer for the NHS at the Department of Health. 

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin is the smallest of the 42 integrated care systems and is dealing with several big problems, particularly performance and finance, for which it has been in NHS England’s most challenged tier since its creation in 2022. It has a very large financial deficit relative to its size.

Announcing his departure, Sir Neil said: “As we see in a new government and the organisation embarks on the implementation of a new operating model, after 54 years of working for the NHS I feel the time is right to take my retirement and hand over the reins.”

Also on hsj.co.uk

We report that turnover and profits are down at the NHS’s biggest supplier of agency staff. And in Comment, Ash James says first-contact physiotherapists should not be unfairly targeted when NHS funds are cut.