Second NHS fat cat quits death probe mental health trust for ‘personal reasons’
Tim Smart left the trust, which accepted responsibility for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk who drowned in a bath in Oxford
THE CHAIRMAN of a troubled NHS mental health trust blasted for allowing its under-fire chief exec to move to another post on the same pay has quit.
Tim Smart, interim chief of the heavily criticised Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, has decided to stand aside “for personal reasons.”
His resignation comes just weeks after Katrina Percy quit as chief exec.
There was uproar when it was revealed she would keep her £240,000 pay deal as a consultant at the organisation.
The job did not exist before and she was the only candidate.
Ms Percy came under fire after the trust failed to probe hundreds of patient deaths.
The trust accepted responsibility for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, who drowned in a bath in Oxford.
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Yesterday a statement released by the trust’s board announced Tim Smart’s resignation “with immediate effect, for personal reasons.”
Lib Dem health spokesperson Norman Lamb said: “The most extraordinary thing is Katrina Percy’s ability to come through another twist in this damaging tale unscathed.”
He urged her to do the “decent thing” and go.