New Acute Trust chairman appointed

The SHA has moved quickly to fill the post of Chairman of the North Cumbria Acute Services NHS Trust, following the retirement of Eric Urquhart. The new Chairman is Mike Little, and I was introduced to him by Eric Urqhart at last night's Annual Meeting of Copeland Council.

Mike Little is a former operations manager for Border/Granada Television and has many years experience as a magistrate. He chairs the family and youth courts and is a past chairman of Cumbria Magistrates’ Courts Committee. He was born in Cumbria and has lived in Whitehaven as well as Carlisle.

Mike will face a huge challenge with all the the issues facing both West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary. On the basis of my initial conversation with him I did form the impression that he is well aware of the scale of that challenge and is willing to listen to people.