CEO who led trust through scandals announces departure

The chief executive of a trust mired in maternity and emergency care scandals has announced she is leaving after four years at the helm.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust CEO Louise Barnett will step down later this year, the trust announced on Monday (5 August). It did not say when or what role she was moving on to.

Ms Barnett joined the trust in 2020, when it was already grappling with major care quality problems, and just before it was hit by the first of two high-profile reports into deaths and harm at its maternity services. She also led the response to a second report by senior midwife Donna Ockenden in March 2022.

The news comes just weeks after Dispatches exposed instances of poor care at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital’s accident and emergency department, which prompted an NHS England letter to trusts urging that corridor care “must not be the norm”.

Her departure comes after chair Catriona McMahon departed the organisation in June, following the announcement SaTH wanted to appoint a joint chair with neighbouring Shropshire Community Health Trust.

SaTH said Ms Barnett helped deliver quality improvements during her tenure, which recently resulted in the Care Quality Commission upgrading the trust’s overall rating from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”.

Ms Barnett, who was previously CEO of Rotherham Foundation Trust, said: “I have been chief executive at [SaTH] for over four years and feel that now is the right time for me to stand aside and allow the new chair, who will be appointed shortly, to appoint a new leader to take the trust forward into the next chapter towards further improvements.”

She said the trust had been on a “journey of improvement” and added: “There is still more work to be done but I know I am leaving the trust in capable hands.”

SaTH chiefs said Ms Barnett also guided the trust through its response to the pandemic, and approvals for the trust’s £312m planned emergency care revamp — the final stage of which was green-lit in May — although it remains controversial locally.

Interim chair Trevor Purt said: “I would like to thank Louise for her hard work and dedication throughout her time at the trust. It has been a very challenging period with intense public scrutiny but her energy and commitment to improving the services delivered to the public served by the trust has been exceptional.”

Elsewhere in Shropshire, last month integrated care board chair Sir Neil McKay also announced he was leaving the health system, after five decades in the NHS.