THE hunt is on to find 21 people to help get the trust running Colchester General Hospital and Essex County Hospital back on track.

The public and staff of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust are being urged to consider standing to become a governor.

A series of events will be held across Colchester and Tendring for people to find out more, ahead of a postal ballot in March and April.

Dr Sally Irvine, chairman of the governors and board of directors, said: “These are difficult times the trust is going through and there is a need for strong, independent and committed people to help it through.”

The trust is without a chief executive following Dr Gordon Coutts’s resignation last month in the wake of revelations staff were bullied to alter patient records to hit cancer waiting targets.

The elections will find 15 public governors covering Colchester, Tendring, Halstead and Colne Valley, and other parts of Essex and Suffolk, and six staff governors.

Public governors will be chosen by the 6,763 members of the trust.

The governors’ job is to meet their local community and report back to meetings.

The council of governors appoints the trust’s chairman and non-executive directors, and works with the board of directors to influence decision-making and hold the board to account.

Information events are taking place at: Queens Hall, Chipping Hill, Halstead on Wednesday, January 22, 6.30pm St Helena Hospice Tendring Day Centre, Clacton, on Thursday, January 30, 1pm Greenstead Community Centre, Colchester on Tuesday, February 4, 1.30pm Colchester General Hospital on Monday, February 10, from 6.30pm. Jaywick Centre on Tuesday, February 11, 2pm.

To find out more, e-mail f t . m e m b e r s h i p @ c o l c h e s t e r hospital.nhs.uk or call 08000 515143.