Trust chief and cancer leader retiring after 40 years
The chief executive of two specialist trusts has announced her retirement less than a year after taking up the second of the roles.
Liz Bishop, chief executive of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital foundation trusts, will retire in March after more than four decades in the NHS.
She has led the Clatterbridge since 2018, but took over from former LHCHFT chief Jane Tomkinson in February. The trust said arrangements for her successor will be announced in due course.
Following the announcement, Ms Bishop said The Clatterbridge has been a “wonderfully inspiring place to work”, adding: “Our unique networked model means we have multiple sites across Cheshire and Merseyside.
“We have developed strong bonds with our neighbouring trusts and other system partners, and have looked at how we can support health and social care more broadly through mutual aid and the opening of Paddington Community Diagnostic Centre.”
A cancer nurse by background, Ms Bishop held several senior roles in London before moving up north. Prior to The Clatterbridge, she was deputy chief executive at The Royal Marsden Hospital FT.
Her leadership of the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and the region’s diagnostics programme has won national recognition for transforming services.
Clatterbridge chair Kathy Doran said: “Liz has shown exceptional vision, focus and skilful leadership throughout her time here.
“Her commitment to thinking about the whole patient experience, not just the cancer treatment we provide here, means she has also worked in an incredibly collaborative way with health and social care partners nationally, regionally and locally.”
Her departure is the latest in a string of significant leadership moves in Cheshire and Merseyside.
Ann Marr, then the longest-serving general acute trust chief in the country, announced she was retiring after more than 20 years earlier this summer; as has Mersey Care FT CEO Joe Rafferty.
Last month, NHS England appointed Louise Shepherd, who has led Alder Hey Children’s Hospital FT since 2008, as its new regional director for the North West following Richard Barker’s retirement.
Liverpool University Hospital and Liverpool Women’s foundation trusts have formed a joint leadership “group”, while acute and community trust leadership are being combined in Warrington and Wirral.