A NEW chairman has been appointed to run the trust that runs Colchester General Hospital.

Alan Rose, 58, will take up the post from April 1 for three years. He will be paid £45,000 a year for three days’ work a week.

He is currently a non-executive director of York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr Rose said: “I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to help the trust to regain the confidence of the communities it serves and that of the stakeholders in health and social care, whom I am sure also wish to see this.

“The coming months and years will be challenging for all concerned due to the incessant pressures the health service is under, but I am confident the staff of the trust, backed by the huge support I sense the community still maintains in it, will provide the foundation for a new phase of good care and patient experience.”

Mr Rose will succeed Peter Wilson, a non-executive director of the Colchester trust since May 2011. He has been the acting chairman since October after Dr Sally Irvine stood down following more than four years at the helm.

His main role will be to lead the the trust’s board of directors and council of governors.

Mr Rose led the York trust through a complex programme of development, taking it from a relatively modest district general hospital with a revenue of £200million to a group of 10 hospitals with annual revenue of £450m.

Under his leadership, the York board of directors was awarded the title of NHS Board of the Year in 2012.