Walsall Manor’s chief executive is to leave his role at the hospital, it has been announced.
Richard Kirby has worked in the role at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust for the last six years but is leaving to become Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC) chief executive.
He is expected to take up the new role early in the New Year.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust was unable to comment on who would be replacing him but said an announcement would be made in due course.
Mr Kirby said: “I have been privileged to work with some of the most committed and caring staff during my time in Walsall and I am proud of the considerable progress we have made in recent years.
“I am committed to the development of community services to ensure our patients receive the support they need to continue living healthily at home, where they want to be and I look forward to continuing to do so in my role at Birmingham Community Healthcare.”
BCHC, one of the country’s largest providers of community and specialist health services, is currently in the advanced stages of integration planning with two other trusts, Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. The three trusts are working towards combining as one organisation from 1 December, 2017 and Richard Kirby will become chief executive of the newly integrated and larger trust subject to Board of Governors approval.
Tom Storrow, BCHC chaimanr, said: “We are delighted to appoint Richard Kirby as our next chief executive, following a most competitive recruitment process. We believe that, in Richard, we have secured an excellent appointment, able to pick up the momentum of the organisation and take us forward into the future.
“Our imminent integration with our two partner trusts presents an opportunity to help shape an exciting future for a trust combining high quality community and mental health services.
“I am sure that staff, Board and Governors will join me in welcoming him to the Trust and working with him into the next stage of our development.”
