Sir Richard Sykes, Chairman of Imperial College Healthcare
Trust, shocked those attending the Imperial Board meeting yesterday when he
announced that CEO, Ian Dalton, was leaving his post after less than 5 months
in the job. Imperial, which runs west London hospitals, will now have to begin
the long and costly process of finding yet another CEO.
Ian Dalton has now moved to NHS Improvement as their new
CEO. NHSI is the body that, only last month, knocked back capital investment
plans to reconfigure health delivery in outer NW London on the grounds that
there was not sufficient evidence that these plans would work. This was the
initial bid for capital funds to develop services which, local health bosses
claim, would enable the safe closure of Ealing Hospital.
Dalton’s resignation followed almost immediately the
well-attended and highly successful open event organised by Imperial management
at Charing Cross Hospital. At that event Dalton outlined the excellent work
being carried out at the hospital and gave an assurance that Charing Cross could not be closed in the foreseeable
future without damaging public health. However, long-term closure plans
have not been withdrawn by the CCGs in NW London: what we have is a ‘pause’,
not a guarantee of the long-term future of Charing Cross as a major acute
hospital.
The resignation occurs at a time of particular turbulence in
upper management levels of the NW London NHS. Several key managers have left in
recent months and other posts remain unfilled. Managers are caught between a
government demand to cut costs even further and, among health professionals, a
recognition of the growing need for better funded health services for a fast
expanding population.
Merril Hammer, Chair of SOH, said she was stunned by the
sudden departure of Ian Dalton. At the Imperial AGM held at St Pauls Church
Hammersmith in September, he had outlined ambitious plans for engaging with the
local health community.
Ms Hammer said:
I am, of course, pleased that Imperial has now declared a ‘pause’ on the closure but given the unprecedented pressure on the facilities at Charing Cross and the highly skilled committed staff there, health bosses need to stop long-term closure plans and not just ‘pause’ them.
