Sacked hospital chief blames ‘NHS politics’
Richard Bourne was sacked after it emerged that death rates at the trust were 12 per cent higher than average last year
12 April 2012
A hospital boss fired from a failing trust today blamed "vicious" NHS politics for his dismissal.
Richard Bourne, former chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, was sacked last week by regulator Monitor after it emerged that death rates at the trust were 12 per cent higher than average last year.
Mr Bourne said he was consulting lawyers and that politics in the NHS were "vicious and vindictive".
Colchester General Hospital found itself in trouble last year but he said chiefs had agreed a recovery plan with the regulator and claimed they were on target to meet it. Monitor said he had been sacked because improvement was too slow.
