Directors quit posts at cash-strapped trust

DIRECTORS have quit their posts at the district’s hospitals trust over a multi-million pound cash crisis.

All the non-executive directors at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, have stepped down from their positions on the board.

The resignation of Anita Fatchett, David Longstaff, Margaret Faull and Iain Wilkinson was confirmed on Tuesday.

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Mid Yorkshire said in a statement: “The non-executive directors felt unable to remain in office after considering the continuing impact of the poor financial performance of the trust in 2011-12.”

The trust, which is forecast to be £26m in deficit at the end of this financial year, is considering controversial changes to its services to balance the books.

Mid Yorkshire has admitted the cash crisis could make it difficult to become a Foundation Trust, an elite status required by the government, by 2014 as previously agreed.

The statement said: “Investigations conducted over the last few months have confirmed that the finances of the trust were considerably worse than had been reported to the board and that the trust is unable to meet the previously agreed plan to achieve Foundation Trust status by April 2014.”

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The trust must now replace the non-executives under NHS rules.

David Stone, the trust’s interim chairman, said: “My non-executive colleagues have taken this decision in the best interests of the trust and I respect the integrity they have shown in taking this action.

“In accepting the immediate resignation of the four non-executive directors currently in post, I would like to acknowledge the time and commitment each of them has given to the trust, some of them over many years.”

Last week, Mid Yorkshire announced plans to centralise emergency and complex care into one site, most likely to be Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.