Last updated at 16:47, Thursday, 19 July 2012

THE new boss of the organisation responsible for running Furness General Hospital says she is committed to her new role.

Jackie Daniel

Jackie Daniel was today unveiled as the new chief executive of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT).

The 49-year-old has worked all over the country during a career in the NHS spanning more than 30 years, including rural Shropshire, Doncaster and across Coventry and Warwickshire.

But Ms Daniel, who has a history of turning around troubled trusts, says her new role will not be short-term.

She told the Evening Mail: “I’m thinking I’d like to move for the last time, and I’m looking at this as not just two or three years but certainly five or six or beyond.”

Ms Daniel, who will be paid a salary of £170,000 per year to lead the turn-around of UHMBT, says she is more than ready for the challenge.

Since 2008, the trust has been subjected to various reviews, inspections, inquests and investigations following a number of high-profile scandals.

Ms Daniel said: “I like that level of challenge. I don’t like an easy, steady time.

“There’s a track record of me going into challenged trusts, and I seem to have an aptitude for building a strong team and getting things done.”

Ms Daniel will start her new role on August 1, moving from her position as chief executive of Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.

She started her NHS career as a nurse, before becoming a ward sister and taking on her first board role after 12 years.

Ms Daniel said the first and most important thing she wants to address as head of UHMBT is the ongoing work to improve patient safety and quality of care.

Getting a grip on the financial situation of the trust will also be high on her agenda, she said.

She will become an integral figure in an ongoing review of all the trust’s services, and has repeated the assertions of current interim chief executive, Eric Morton, that the main priority is safety and sustainability. Mr Morton will remain in post until July 27.

But Ms Daniel has asked members of the public to give her time to assess the situation at her new trust.

She said: “I can’t make any pledges about anything until I really, really understand it.

“I’ve been well-briefed and I’ve done my research, but I want to spend the next four to six weeks talking to people within the community, within the hospitals and amongst the staff and finding out what this job is before I make any big decisions.”

Yet Ms Daniel is more than ready to hit the ground running.

She said: “There’s no honeymoon period – the real work starts on day one.

“There’s no doubt that the size of the challenge here is huge – I’m under no illusions about that.

“It’s a case of rolling the sleeves up and getting on with it.”

First published at 16:17, Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk