Trust Chief Executive named one of Top 50 NHS CEOs

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) Chief Executive, Kevin McGee, has been recognised as one of the Top 50 Chief Executives in a list of NHS leaders selected by the country’s largest specialist healthcare magazine, the Health Service Journal (HSJ).

Shortlisted for his foresight, resilience and leadership, the HSJ Top 50 Chief Executives Award recognises Kevin McGee’s outstanding leadership qualities and unwavering focus on improving care at ELHT’s five hospitals and numerous community services.

Appointed to the Trust’s top role as recently as September 2014, Kevin McGee’s focus has been high quality treatment and patient care with a particular desire to shine a light on the outstanding care, skill, professionalism and compassion of the Trust’s 7,000+ staff.

Kevin took the helm of an organisation that had been in ‘special measures’ just weeks before his arrival and has overseen an impressive turnaround in the Trust’s fortunes which culminated in a Care Quality Commission rating of ‘Good’ in January this year.

It is very pleasing to be named in the top 50 Chief Executives but this recognition is really for the whole Trust and the major achievements we have made in quality, performance, leadership and employee engagement. Our wonderful staff and leaders fully deserve to share the credit, he says.

The Top 50 Chief Executive judges were keen to look beyond the balance sheet at how NHS leaders such as Kevin McGee engage with the people they serve, the staff they employ and the impact their leadership has both within the Trust and beyond.

Since Kevin’s arrival at ELHT, the Trust has achieved a number of significant improvements in patient care including reducing cases of patient harm by more than 500 per year, reduced inpatient falls by 36 per cent and invested in new facilities such as the East Lancashire Elective Centre at Burnley General Teaching Hospital.

ELHT Chairman Professor Eileen Fairhurst added:

This is a magnificent accolade for Kevin personally and East Lancashire Hospitals in general. We are proud of Kevin’s accomplishments, his outstanding leadership qualities and his increasingly influential role within the NHS, both locally and nationally.