Group CEO brought out of retirement to chair struggling provider
A former group chief executive who retired from the service after 40 years earlier this summer is returning to chair two trusts in the Midlands.
Andrew Morgan left his group CEO role at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and Lincolnshire Community Health Services Trust in 2023 and announced his retirement from full-time executive roles in June 2024.
The long-serving chief executive, who led ULHT out of special measures, has now been appointed to chair Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and Shropshire Community Health Trust.
The two West Midlands trusts announced they would be appointing a joint chair earlier this year. They said it was a mark of working more closely together, rather than a precursor to a merger.
Mr Morgan said: “I am passionate about the NHS, and I am eager for the two organisations, working together, to provide excellent integrated care to patients, both in our hospitals and in our communities.
”I believe this can be achieved by looking at how the trusts deliver modern responsive services that are safe, high quality and effective.”
SaTH’s long-serving former chair Catriona McMahon, a former non-executive director at University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, left her position in June.
Trevor Purt has been interim SaTH chair in that time, while Tina Long has been acting chair at SCHT for 18 months. Mr Morgan will take up his new role across both trusts from 1 October.
SaTH, which has been embroiled in various performance scandals, including in maternity and emergency care in recent years, is currently under interim CEO leadership.
Although it was lifted out of an “inadequate” rating by the Care Quality Commission in May, a Dispatches documentary in June exposed instances of poor care at one of its emergency departments at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. It prompted an NHS England letter to trusts urging them to avoid corridor care.
Jo Williams, from the nearby Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, was appointed interim CEO in September, following the departure of Louise Barnett, who had been SaTH’s CEO since 2020.
Black Country Integrated Care Board’s chief operating officer Matthew Hartland will take over as interim of the ROH from next Tuesday, when his former trust Dudley Integrated Health and Care – of which he was interim CEO – will be officially dissolved.
Ms Williams said of Mr Morgan’s appointment: “This is an exciting step forward. Andrew’s wealth of NHS knowledge and leadership experience will be of huge benefit and will strengthen greater partnership working with our colleagues [at SCHT].”
Meanwhile, SCHT’s CEO Patricia Davies added: “We have a long history of working collaboratively across the health and care system and I am delighted to be further supporting this approach with the appointment of Andrew as our joint chair-in-common.”
Both leaders also thanked their respective interim chairs for their efforts.
Mr Morgan will be joint chair for an initial period of three years, with the trusts remaining separate.