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Chair of £3bn trusts stands down

Published on: 8 Jul 2024

The chair of two large hospital trusts has stepped down after taking up a ministerial job with the new Labour government.

Jacqui Smith confirmed to HSJ this morning that she would leave her role as chair of Barts Health Trust and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, after taking a job as minister of state in the Department for Education on Saturday.

Ms Smith, a former home secretary under the previous Labour government, was appointed chair of the east London trusts in October 2021.

She had previously chaired University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, during a turbulent period for that organisation.

The two east London trusts each had a vice chair dedicated to them and also worked as part of an acute provider collaborative with Homerton University Healthcare Foundation Trust.

Barts vice chair Adam Sharples will take over as acting chair there and his counterpart Mehboob Khan will do the same for at BHRUT.

HSJ has asked NHS England London whether it intends to appoint a joint chair for Barts and BHR again, or even a joint chair with those two trusts and Homerton. NHSE did not respond by time of publication.

BHR moved out of special measures for the first time in six years in May. It has also significantly improved its accident and emergency performance in recent months, after languishing in the bottom decile nationally for the four hours metric for more than a decade.

At the start of the year the trusts “paused” the further merger of Barts and BHR’s executive teams.

The two trusts have a combined turnover of more than £3bn and a group chief executive in Shane DeGaris.

In a joint statement in January the trusts said: “In order to prioritise and deepen this three-way collaboration, we have decided to pause the governance changes and joint executive appointments for Barts Health and BHRUT and take forward work on the scope of the acute provider collaborative.”

In a statement this morning group chief executive said: “We are enormously sad to lose Jacqui and have benefitted greatly from her experience and skills, but we wish her well in her new role.

“Any decision about who will replace her, and when, will be a matter for discussion with NHS England, which is responsible for appointing all trust chairs, and the North East London Integrated Care Board”.

BHRUT chief executive Matthew Trainer said: “It is great to see Jacqui’s experience, insight, and commitment to public service being recognised. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with her and am grateful for having had the opportunity to learn from her”.