Nettel to ‘pursue other interests’

The chief executive of Barts and the London NHS Trust has resigned amid what is starting to look like a major shake-up of NHS management in London.

The trust confirmed this morning that Julian Nettel was “leaving the trust to pursue other interests” and would leave by the end of February.

Nettel was chief executive of St Mary’s NHS Trust until he took over at Barts from interim chief executive John Goulston in March 2007. Goulston briefly led the organisation after Paul White stood down to become chief executive of BT’s London NHS IT programme.

Ironically, Barts has been hit by IT problems in recent months. In September 2008, it warned that it was facing a £3m shortfall because of problems with the Cerner Millennium system, installed by BT in April.

The system gave the trust severe problems booking, recording and billing for activity and it warned that this could impact on its financial recovery plans. More recently, the trust has also suffered a Mytob virus attack that took down its network.

However, Nettel’s decision to move on could also be linked to concerns about Barts’ ability to afford its £1 billion public finance initiative building plans and delays to it becoming a foundation trust.

Nettel is one of a number of London trust chief executives to resign, retire or take secondments recently, while NHS London has also seen the departure of its director of commissioning, improvement and innovation, Paul Corrigan, and its provider agency chief executive Malcolm Stamp.