Hospital boss: "I want people to want to work here"

It is going to take more than an equation for accountant Frank Sims to steer Colchester's hospital trust out of its woes.

Three weeks ago, Mr Sims started his job as chief executive of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (CHUFT), the fourth person to lead it in two years.

And quite a two years they have been, with the trust at the centre of a national media storm in November 2013, when a scathing report by Care Quality Commission (CQC) found allegations of bullying and pressurising of staff to falsify details of patients' cancer care.

Since, then, although an independent report cleared managers at the Turner Road hospital of bullying or harassing staff into changing waiting times data, it has struggled to bat off negativite publicity.

As recently as last month a patient was covered in excrement while sitting in bed at Colchester General Hospital when a ceiling collapsed, caused by a drainage pipe above him giving way while it was being unblocked.

There's no wonder then the trust has battled to attract permanent nurses and has been forced to shell out millions (£1.3million in September alone) on agency and locum staff.

With costs spiraling and it still having 55 nursing vacancies, Mr Sims has a plan.

He said: "I think the important thing for me is we spend our money wisely. One of the biggest drivers of our financial problems is the money we have spent on agency staff and locums.

"I can reduce that by increasing permanent staff and that's why I want to make this a place where people want to come and work and that's why we need to talk positively about experiences here.

"For me it is probably the biggest thing. The single biggest cause of being out of balance with the money we are spending is high agency costs and high locum costs."

On paper it seems to make perfect sense.

But how will the man with mathematics at his heart keep up morale and endear to the 4,000 people he's in charge of?

Mr Sims said: "I have spent my entire career working not just in hospitals but in hospital business sector related management, also.

"Pretty much everything I have done has concerned trying to help doctors, nurses and clinicians improve care.

"When I first started out it was about writing business cases and being articulate with numbers.

"As I got more experience it was about having to address challenges and translating them into practical realities.

"I spend about a third of my time out in the wards and departments being concerned with the front line, with the single purpose we have for looking after patients.

"I think having a financial background is useful but I have spent my entire career working with clinicians to improve care."

Mr Sims started in the NHS as a management accountant in 1989, before moving into managerial posts at NHS trusts.

He was appointed chief executive of Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust in April last year.

Before that he was chief officer at High Weald Lewes Havens Clinical Commissioning Group for two years, and a director at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust from 2004 to 2009.

Mr Sims defended what might appear to the public to be relatively short stays in many of his jobs.

"I have only moved for personal progression," he said.

"The post at Hounslow was for a relatively short period of time but this opportunity came up and was really attractive."

And asked if his time at Colchester could also be short lived, he said: "I have moved from Brighton to come here, I have committed to Colchester.

"I am not sure I can say much more than that. I came here knowing this was a long term challenge.

"The changes are going to take several years. For as long as I am wanted here and needed here, that is what I intend to do.

"We have now got a full board of executives, they are relatively new. For the first time in about four or five years we have got a full and permanent, and therefore stable senior leadership.

"When you look at successful organisations, one of the factors is a stable top team.

"We are on a journey to outstanding which is over a period of time. We are at the start of the commitment at Colchester."

It was a walkabout of Colchester General Hospital that convinced Mr Sims the job was for him and would be worth uprooting from Sussex for.

"I saw the job advertised and I was attracted by it and my initial concern was to find out more about the place because I don't know Essex.

"I came in and saw the people that worked here and spent a lot of time walking through the hospital and listening to how people were talked to by the receptionists, just to get a feel of the place.

"I got a really good feel, a really positive feeling," he said.

In January the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will publish its findings from a four-day probe at the trust in September.

The inspection focused on eight key areas during its inspection – accident and emergency, medical care, surgery, intensive care, maternity, paediatrics, end-of-life care and outpatients.

After an uncomfortable pause, Mr Sims said: "I would expect to see some reflection of the progress we have made but we have such a long journey ahead of us to get to outstanding."

What is inevitable is the report making uncomfortable reading.

Mr Sims' solution to dealing with stress, he says, is cycling and being a "fanatical" skier.

"I do turn to physical exercise for to help. I have got a very supportive team and family who work in the health sector as well, so they understand the stresses."

The first of many headaches may well have been last week when Colchester's MP Will Quince suggested the Government stepped in to help run the trust by providing more cash and mentoring.

Mr Sims said he was pleased with Mr Quince's support - he had sat on one of his interview panels for the post.

He added: "We have asked for and have support already.

"Monitor are providing us with support and I am looking towards the organisation for help to deliver the changes we need to improve patient care for our population.

"I think we need external support in the sense of help, understanding and support."

It was public health regular Monitor which put the trust in special measures after the cancer care allegations in 2013.

The revolving door of chief executives at Colchester hospital began with Dr Gordon Coutts from September 2010 to December 2013 when he resigned.

Then came interim chief executives Kim Hodgson from January 2014 to May 2014 and Dr Lucy Moore from May 2014 until this year.

While that revolving door may have stopped for now, Mr Sims certainly has to balance a complex set of books - cash and care.