COO to leave after a year at challenged trust

The chief operating officer of one of England’s most challenged trusts is to leave his job after a year because the commute is too much for him.

Rob Hodgkiss joined East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust this January and will leave next January. In a statement released through the trust, he said his daily commute “makes it impossible to remain in the role in the long term”.

He added there had been “sustained improvements and we are in a good position to appoint a long-term chief operating officer for the trust”.

Mr Hodgkiss joined East Kent from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital FT, where he was COO and deputy chief executive. He is thought to still live in London, meaning he would have a significant drive to reach East Kent’s main hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury and Thanet. The trust declined to say if he has another job to go to.

The trust has seen very high senior turnover for a long period. Several executives have left or announced they are leaving the trust recently. Chief executive Tracey Fletcher has been in post since 2022. However, the trust is without a permanent chair after Niall Dickson stepped down in December – non-executive Stewart Baird is filling the role temporarily – chief people officer Andrea Ashman leaves next month and chief financial officer Tim Glenn is due to leave later this year after he was seconded for a year from the Royal Papworth FT.

The trust had a £117m deficit in 2023-24 which it plans to reduce to £86m in 2024-25. However, it faces numerous other issues, including accident and emergency performance – 1,085 patients spent between five and 13 hours in A&E after a decision to admit in July – and long elective waits, with the trust having 82 78-week waiters and 1,656 65-week waiters in June.

The trust’s former leaders were heavily criticised in Bill Kirkup’s 2022 report  into its maternity services. This found that 45 out of 65 babies whose cases it looked at could have survived if care had met national standards, adding successive trust boards had ignored warning signs and attempts to point out problems.

In remarks shared with HSJ, Mr Hodgkiss thanked staff for “hard work and significant progress in reducing patient waiting times”.

“Patients are being seen sooner and are receiving diagnosis faster – across the emergency department, in planned care, diagnostics and cancer care,” he said. “The combined team effort that has been evident in endoscopy has seen a 50 per cent improvement this year alone and is a great example of what can be delivered with true collaboration.

“While there is still a lot to do and improve on, I am confident we will continue to make progress over the next six months and beyond. I am proud of the progress teams have made.”