Hospital chief quits after merger

The chief executive of one of the first hospitals built through the private finance initiative has resigned after learning that his job had disappeared in a reorganisation.

Steven Mason, head of the troubled North Durham Health Care NHS Trust, told staff on Thursday of his decision to go two weeks after ministers announced the merger of the trust with that in South Durham.

Mr Mason, who was appointed 18 months ago, had been a vigorous defender of the private finance initiative under which the £97m University Hospital of North Durham was built. He told staff he was leaving "with some sadness" and admitted the last two years had been "challenging".

When the 489-bed hospital opened in August 2001 there were immediate accusations that it was too small to cope with demand, despite being a big improvement on the Dryburn hospital it replaced, a crumbling, dowdy building with 665 beds.

Critics said the size of the new hospital represented cost-cutting by the private sector and illustrated all that was wrong with the private finance initiative. But managers insisted that the hospital would have been the same size had it been built with public money.

However, the position changed with the publication of the NHS Plan in July 2000, when the hospital was already well on the way to completion, which signalled major expansion for the NHS backed by huge new investment.

Ken Jarrold, chief executive of the County Durham and Tees Health Authority, said: "Had we known in 1998 [when the hospital was planned] that the Government was going to invest in the NHS to the extent they have, or the scale of their ambitions on targets for the NHS, then Durham would have been built differently."

The episode illustrates how fast demands can change, in this case for political reasons, and how risky building new hospitals can be. Managers now admit that the new hospital needs another 50 beds. A spokesman for the North Durham trust said: "We have got to use the capacity we have got first but it is possible that in the future there might be a modest expansion."

That view follows a report commissioned by the health authority from Ari Darzai, the Government's adviser on surgery, which was published in February, because of concerns about capacity. It recommended centralising some services, establishing a centre for routine surgery to cut waiting times, and the merger of the two trusts.

The merger was announced on 12 September, and this week, John Saxby, chief executive of the South Durham Trust, was appointed as acting chief executive of the merged trust..Mr Mason has taken a secondment to Northumberland Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority.