The senior officer of a major health Trust has resigned from her position after two years in the job.

Katie Fisher, the former chief executive at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust tendered her resignation in March this year before becoming the new chief executive at St Andrews Healthcare.

She left the Trust officially on June 22 for “professional reasons” and her deputy chief executive, Helen Brown, has stepped in as head of the organisation. 

Watford Observer:

Ms Fisher began her career in the NHS as a nurse, joining the management training scheme in 2000.

Prior to joining West Herts in July 2016, she was director of service transformation at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, Professor Steve Barnett, said: “Under her leadership we came out of special measures, improved upon a wide range of clinical outcome measures for patients and increased our staff satisfaction rates in national surveys. Many hospital trusts would be pleased with just one of these three achievements.

“She should also be praised for her significant contribution to the creation of an exciting vision for the future of our estate and our bid for major funding to transform our buildings.”

He added that Ms Fisher had “always been driven” by the quality of care provided and that it is “no surprise” this motivation took her into a healthcare charity. 

Mr Barnett went on to say that Ms Fisher would be “very much missed” by staff, adding her departure would be a loss to patients and the NHS.

He also said: “Chief executives of her calibre are hard to find, but given the enormous progress we have made over recent years, I am confident that the post will attract some very strong candidates.

“Katie has created a very stable leadership team who will continue to keep up the great progress we have made. 

“I am delighted that our deputy chief executive, Helen Brown, will be acting chief executive from the beginning of July until we appoint a new chief executive.”