SLHT has announced today that its Chief Executive Dr Chris Streather will be leaving the Trust in July to take on a new role leading the new Academic Health Science Network in London. Chris has been Chief Executive at the Trust since it was established in April 2009. He has overseen a major service reconfiguration and patient safety improvements which have given local patients a service with among the lowest mortality and infection rates in England. Chris's succesor will be announced shortly.
Trust Chairman John Ballard said:
"I would like to thank Chris for the dedication he has shown to local patients in the past three years which has contributed to very significant improvements in the quality of care, including one of the lowest mortality and infection rates in the country. This has been a tremendous achievement for our local hospitals. We wish Chris well in his new role where he will be continuing to drive improvements in clinical care leading the new Academic Health Science Network in South London."
Dr Chris Streather, announcing the news to staff this morning said:
"I am proud of the unprecedented improvements in the quality of care that you [hospital staff] have delivered during the last three and a half years, and confident that the leadership team, and our 5000 staff will continue that outstanding progress. There have been many highlights for me, but the reduction in mortality, improvements in maternity care, delivery of the hyper acute stroke unit, and our leading National position on Healthcare associated infection are particularly noteworthy. I hope these are shortly succeeded by the opening of local radiotherapy services, and the further development of elective services at Queen Mary's."
"We have started to deliver consistently on access to treatment, and I am confident we have the team in place to make this sustainable. There are obviously considerable financial challenges still to be met, much of that is within our own gift to deliver, and we have well thought through and publicised plans for this. There is also a considerable element that will involve working openly with other organisations, and there are real opportunities here to divert money back into patient care and away from sustaining our deficit."