New chairman for health trust

A NEW chairman has been appoitned to the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Board.

Jules Preston MBE will take up the position from October 1.

Mr David Stone CBE, who was appointed to chair the Trust in an interim capacity in March this year, will leave at the end of September.

Mr Preston has extensive experience in the NHS, having served as chairman of the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest mental health and learning disability trusts in the country, since its establishment in April 2006.

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He has previously been a non-executive director of other NHS organisations including the former Sunderland Health Authority and the then Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority.

Mr Preston has held senior positions with the Manpower Services Commission and Sunderland City Training and Enterprise Council, and for more than two years he was part-time chief executive of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.

Mr Preston has experience of serving on boards in the public, private and voluntary sectors. He was chairman of Sunderland Carers’ Centre and is currently chairman of Grace House Children’s Hospice Appeal and New Deal for Communities East End of Sunderland and Hendon – a successful £54m regeneration scheme.

Mr Preston said: “I am looking forward to the new challenge. The success of any organisation is based on its people.

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“With the support of all of those in the Trust and with the goodwill of partners, together we can develop sustainable health services of which we will all be proud.”

Stephen Eames, interim chief executive of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We face some considerable challenges over the next few months as we work to reconfigure services and determine the future direction of the organisation.

“Jules Preston is a respected chairman of a successful foundation trust and brings a wealth of experience, which will be of enormous benefit to the Trust and to our local populations as we move forward.”