Teaching trust names medic as new chief executive

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has named Phil Wood as its new chief executive.

Dr Wood became the trust’s chief medical officer in 2020 before also taking on the role of deputy chief executive role. He will assume the CEO post on 1 February, replacing Sir Julian Hartley who is leaving to become chief executive of NHS Providers.

LTHT is among the NHS’s five largest trusts, and has more than 17,000 whole time equivalent staff.

A statement from the trust announcing Dr Wood’s appointment said he had ”helped navigate some turbulent and challenging times at the same time as sharing many successes” and ”displayed outstanding and inspiring leadership through the pandemic, regularly briefing staff and updating patients and the general public through the media”.

He joined the trust in 2002 as a consultant immunologist and has since held roles including medical director for strategy and planning, and clinical director for pathology and for oncology.

Dr Wood led the West Yorkshire covid-19 vaccination programme, chairs the trust’s research and innovation group, and is a member of the national Genomics England/NHS England joint board.

Trust chair Dame Linda Pollard said in the statement: “Not only does Phil understand the Trust well, his enthusiasm to build on our strong foundations for the future and his refreshing approach to bringing about positive changes and progress impressed the recruitment panel in what was an extremely challenging and robust recruitment process against some incredibly high-quality candidates as you might expect for a trust of our size and reputation.”

Dr Wood said: “The past few years have been incredibly challenging for staff, patients and all healthcare colleagues. However, by working together, being patient focused and using our strong improvement methods, I believe we can take Leeds Teaching Hospitals on to the next part of its journey and to further success.”

Sir Julian has been CEO at Leeds for nearly 10 years, during which it saw improved improvements in staff satisfaction and engagement and put a focus on care quality improvement, and system collaboration.