{"id":631677,"date":"2025-12-14T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/631677\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:51:15","slug":"east-kent-hospitals-ceo-tracey-fletcher-takes-unplanned-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/631677\/","title":{"rendered":"East Kent Hospitals\u00a0CEO Tracey Fletcher takes \u2018unplanned leave\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kent\u2019s largest hospital trust has been placed under interim leadership while its chief executive takes \u201cunplanned leave\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speculation had suggested Tracey Fletcher had left East Kent Hospitals (EKH) permanently – three years after taking on the role.<\/p>\n

\"TraceyTracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals, is on \u201cunplanned leave\u201d. Picture: East Kent Hospitals<\/p>\n

However, the trust says she has been temporarily replaced by chief medical officer, Dr Des Holden, and has asked for Ms Fletcher\u2019s privacy to be respected \u201cat this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as the trust, which runs Ashford’s William Harvey, Margate’s QEQM, and the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, prepares for a spike in flu cases over Christmas amid a surge of a mutant virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NHS figures show the number of people in hospital in England with flu is at a record level for this time of year and has jumped by 55% in the last week.<\/p>\n

Ms Fletcher – who earned \u00a3245,000 in 2024-25, according to EKH\u2019s annual accounts – has faced increased pressure in recent months after bosses were forced to turn a Costa Coffee shop at the William Harvey into a makeshift emergency ward<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government stepped in to help the trust amid mounting concern over severe bed-blocking and unsafe levels of corridor care.<\/p>\n

\"DesDes Holden, EKH\u2019s chief medical officer, is standing in for Ms Fletcher. Picture: East Kent Hospitals<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Social Care said in October how it was working with NHS leaders in east Kent to try to ease the pressure.<\/p>\n

Ms Fletcher, who lives in Deal, joined EKH in 2022 following nine years in charge of London’s Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.<\/p>\n

She was tasked with cutting A&E waiting times and turning around the trust\u2019s failing maternity units.<\/p>\n

The emergency department at her previous employer\u2019s flagship hospital in Homerton was the first in the country to receive an \u2018outstanding\u2019 grading from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2014.<\/p>\n

But the health watchdog said EKH \u2018requires improvement\u2019 in its last inspection in 2023, when it told bosses to make \u201cimmediate improvements\u201d amid staff shortages and \u201covercrowded\u201d emergency departments.<\/p>\n

\"PatientsPatients were treated on beds in the closed Costa Coffee branch at the William Harvey Hospital in September<\/p>\n

In October 2022, the trust apologised \u201cunreservedly\u201d to parents after an independent investigation found 45 baby deaths since 2009 would likely have been prevented with proper care.<\/p>\n

It had involved more than 200 cases being looked at by an expert panel chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup.<\/p>\n

But in May this year, the CQC said the maternity units at the William Harvey and QEQM had made \u201csignificant improvements\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trust is now one of 14 in England being examined as part of a national investigation into maternity and neonatal failures across the NHS.<\/p>\n

Baroness Amos is leading the government-led inquiry, with EKH the only trust in the county to be scrutinised.<\/p>\n

Dr Holden, who sits on the trust\u2019s board of directors with Ms Fletcher, joined EKH in January last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, Tracey has not left the trust\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was previously CEO at Health Innovation Kent, Surrey and Sussex – a non-profit organisation based in Crawley that \u201cbridges the gap between industry and the health and social care system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before that, he was medical director at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust from 2011 until 2019.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an EKH spokesman confirmed Ms Fletcher \u201cis taking a period of unplanned leave\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Des Holden, chief medical officer, is acting as CEO in her absence,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, Tracey has not left the trust and we would ask that you respect her privacy at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kent\u2019s largest hospital trust has been placed under interim leadership while its chief executive takes \u201cunplanned leave\u201d. Speculation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[605,606,19289,29264,2418,105,4348,47913,609,49585,2419,48013,69243,1510,16,15,15589],"class_list":{"0":"post-631677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ashford","9":"tag-canterbury","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-dover","12":"tag-folkestone","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-herne-bay","16":"tag-human-interest","17":"tag-hythe","18":"tag-romney-marsh","19":"tag-sandwich","20":"tag-tenterden","21":"tag-thanet","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-whitstable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115717307698893726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}