New role for trust chief of 25 years

A veteran chief executive has been appointed as permanent head of an ambulance trust.

Peter Reading, who has been a chief executive for nearly a quarter of a century, has been working as interim at Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust for the past seven months. He has now been appointed to the permanent role after a “comprehensive and robust recruitment process”.

The move means six out of the 10 English ambulance trusts now have CEOs with a background of senior leaderships in acute trusts and other parts of the NHS, rather than mostly in the ambulance service. 

Mr Reading was previously Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust chief executive, but moved to YAS last summer when new joint chair and CEO were recruited for NLAG and a neighbouring trust.

Mr Reading’s previous CEO appointments include at Lewisham and Guy’s Mental Health Trust in the 1990s, University College London Hospitals from 1998 to 2000; and at University Hospitals of Leicester from 2000 to 2007. He left Leicester shortly after the collapse of a plan to refurbish older buildings in a £711m private finance initiative deal. Mr Reading, who was then in his early 50s, received £700,000 in pension contributions as part of his severance package.

He has also been interim CEO at Doncaster and Bassetlaw and Peterborough and Stamford trusts, as well as spending three years with PwC’s healthcare practice, focusing on supporting trusts in special measures. Mr Reading is also co-chair of the NHS’s disabled directors’ network, having had polio as a child.

Mr Reading said: “I am so pleased to be able to continue my journey at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, working with the trust’s dedicated staff and volunteers.

“Despite the challenging operational pressures we face, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first seven months at the trust and will continue to progress the implementation of our new strategy and provide the very best services we can for our patients and local communities.”

YAS’s previous substantive CEO Rod Barnes, who had been in post since 2015, stepped down last spring. He has since worked as a director at Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.