SACKED health boss Richard Bourne has criticised how hospitals are regulated after his shock dismissal as chairman of the Colchester trust.

Mr Bourne, 60, was removed by health watchdog Monitor, only weeks after he was reappointed to the £40,000-a-year post, amid concerns including death rates and waiting times.

While he said he was surprised at the timing of his dismissal, he had been aware of the possibility of action since March, when Monitor said it was unhappy with the progress the hospital was making.

He told the Gazette he had offered to resign, but agreed with Monitor it would take a year for things to properly turn around.

And although he admitted mistakes were made, he said he believed Colchester still had good hospitals.

Mr Bourne said: “I would have liked to have been given that year, because I am confident we would have achieved those targets.

“We had a terrible January and February, and we have worked hard to put in precautions to prevent that happening again.”

Monitor fired Mr Bourne after four years as chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, saying it intervened after the hospital failed to meet targets for accident and emergency waiting times and cancer ttreatments over the past nine months.

It also said the trust’s death rates were consistently high and raised concerns about MRSA hospital screening and patient safety.

The trust’s annual rating for the quality of its services dipped from excellent to fair, in the space of a year, Monitor said.

When Mr Bourne was reappointed, he received a letter from the regulator clearly stating it had the power to remove the chairman.

But he said, although he knew Monitor was having its board meeting, there was no indication he was to be axed.

He added: “It is disappointing. If it had taken the decision in March, I could understand that.”

Mr Bourne, who is seeking legal advice over his dismissal, said he acknowledged there were things the trust could have done better.

He added: “The way we managed the flow of patients was not as good as it could have been.

“There is always a point when so many people are coming into hospital because they were ill, you are going to run out of beds.”

And he said an improvement, which was acknowledged by Monitor, was to have consistently achieved Government guidelines for death rates for the past six months.

He also questioned whether the way hospitals are checked was effective.

Mr Bourne said: “Monitor is very good at dealing with financial situations, which are mainly very clear-cut, but there is the other side of things, too.”

He said he had sought legal advice because he felt the process which was used was “unfair”.

Mr Bourne added: “I had told Monitor I would resign at the end of the year if the trust did not meet its targets, but it did not want to wait.

“It would have been reasonable for Monitor to look at it after that time.”

Mr Bourne said he believed Colchester still had good hospitals. He added: “I don’t see any clear evidence for any major cause for concern.”

Sir Peter Dixon, who led the University College London Hospitals to be the best in the country, has now taken over as chairman of at Colchester. He is due to visit the town’s two hospitals this week.