The NHS trust that runs Brighton and Hove’s biggest hospital has chosen a new chief executive.
Gillian Fairfield will join Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH) on loan from the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in the north west.
She will be responsible for the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Kemp Town, as work on its £485 million modernisation gets under way.
Dr Fairfield will take over from acting chief executive Amanda Fadero who stepped up after the departure of Matthew Kershaw. He left in December to become chief executive of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust where he had previously been chief operating officer.
The NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) recommended Dr Fairfield for the Brighton chief executive’s job. Her secondment was agreed by the chairmen of the Pennine and Brighton trusts.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “The board of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH) has confirmed that Dr Gillian Fairfield will become its new chief executive.
“Dr Fairfield qualified at Birmingham University in 1981 and has worked in a variety of clinical, managerial and leadership roles across primary and secondary care and public health, including three chief executive roles, most recently at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in the North West.
“In addition, Dr Fairfield has worked on prison health care reforms and was medical director and deputy head of the national prison health task force before taking up a full-time medical director post in 2000 in a combined mental health and community trust.
“She is also a non-executive member of the National Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.
“The NHS TDA recommended Dr Fairfield for the important leadership role at Brighton and is most grateful that she has accepted, following the agreement of the chairs of the trusts.
“The role will be in the form of a secondment.”
Dr Fairfield said: “I am pleased to join the trust and it will be a huge privilege to lead it forward into the future.
“I want to ensure that the people of Brighton and Sussex continue to receive the caring, compassionate health care services they so richly deserve.”
Trust chairman Julian Lee said: “We look forward to welcoming Dr Fairfield to Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and know that her breadth of experience and strong record of delivering improvement will be a huge benefit to BSUH.
“I also want to take this opportunity to thank Amanda Fadero for the energy, commitment and passion she has given to the role of interim chief executive since the beginning of January.
“In a relatively short amount of time she has done a huge amount of work and as a result of her drive and energy we have made real progress and improvement in some key areas and services.”
Dr Fairfield joined the Pennine trust from the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust in December 2013 where her salary was reported to be £200,000 a year.
She was paid £252,000 by the Pennine trust, including a pension contribution of between £25,000 and £27,500, according to the annual report. Mr Kershaw was paid £248,000, including a pension contribution of £50,000 to £55,000.
As well as studying at Harvard, Dr Fairfield has a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Open University.
This is a huge cover up. The previous interim CEO Amanda Fedaro hired nurmerous management consultants at rates as high as £1,200 per day some of whom were long standing personal friends of hers. One of which had never worked in a hospital before and was brought in to ‘turn the trust around’.
In her tenure as deputy CEO then Interim CEO the trust has decended to the bottom of every league table, it’s now the worst performing A/E department in the country, there are 10,000+ patients waiting for an appointment some for well over a year.
This is a scandalous way to run a public body. The board should be ashamed of themselves.
This is a huge cover up, this is an interim position. The Trust is in chaos and the residents of Brighton need to know this.
Management consultants have been brought in to run the Trust and being paid vast daily rates. At least two of the management consultants have no hospital experience at all. How can this be allowed to go unspoken and suppressed?
Even my earlier comments here have been removed, no doubt on request of the communications department at the Trust to cover the painful truth.
Please don’t remove my comments and investigate this issue, Brighton needs your help on this.
I hardly think it is fair to blame an interim chief exec who has been there for 6 weeks if patients have been waiting more than a year.
She had worked there for over 18 months