Health chiefs are offering more than twice the usual salary in an effort to find a new boss for the hospital trust that was at the centre of a superbug scandal.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s former chair, James Lee, resigned shortly after the damning Healthcare Commission report into two Clostridium difficile outbreaks at the organisation’s hospitals.
At least 90 patients died in the superbug outbreaks in 2005-06.
In the report published last October the watchdog blamed management failings and poor infection control methods.
George Jenkins, the chair of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust, is acting as interim chair but there have now been two unsuccessful attempts to find a permanent replacement.
Salaries for chairs of acute hospital trusts are usually set by the Department of Health at between £18,164 and £23,020.
But now a salary of £44,000 is being offered in an attempt to fill the post.
A spokeswoman for the Appointments Commission, which hires chairs and non-executive directors for NHS organisations, said: “There are cases when it has proved very difficult to recruit a chair to a trust which is facing particularly difficult challenges.
“Following representations by the Appointments Commission and the Strategic Health Authority, the Public Sector Pay Committee has now given the Secretary of State for Health leave to exercise discretion where there is strong evidence of the need for some flexibility in the remuneration paid.”
Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, has agreed to allow this flexibility in the salary of the new chair of the west Kent trust, she said.
The quality of the trust’s services was rated ‘weak’ in the recent Healthcare Commission assessment.
However, the trust now has the lowest rates of C diff in the NHS South East Coast area, which is the Strategic Health Authority covering Kent, Sussex and Surrey.
The commission spokeswoman added: “This increased salary reflects the particular challenges that MTW trust faces.
“This recruitment campaign has now closed. Interviews will be held in late November and we hope to announce an appointment in early-mid December.”
A spokesman for the trust said it could not comment because the commission was responsible for appointing new chairs and the salary offered.
POSTED: 23/11/2008 16:00:00
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