Chief executive to leave NHS Fife

Paul Hawkins is taking up a secondment as chief executive with NHS Highland.

He leaves Fife at the end of the month five years sat the helm.

Mr Hawkins will be replaced in an interim capacity by Carol Potter, currently director of finance and deputy chief executive.

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Tricia Marwick, who chairs NHS Fife, paid tribute to the departing boss.

“Paul leaves NHS Fife in good shape to meet the challenges ahead. I have been grateful to have had the opportunity to work closely with him. We are sorry to see him go but wish him well as he takes up new challenges and opportunities with NHS Highland. “
She added: “I am delighted that Carol Potter is to take over as interim chief executive. She has already shown her professionalism and dedication and is much respected through the organisation.”

The outgoing Mr Hawkins said: “We can all take both pride and satisfaction in having delivered most of the Scottish Government performance targets, positing NHS Fife as one of the better performing boards in Scotland,   maintaining a break even position in relation to our budgets amidst a challenging operational environment.

“Along with this NHS Fife is embarking on an ambitious £34m capital project to build a state-of-the-art elective orthopaedic facility at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy helping to secure our reputation as one of the most forward-thinking orthopaedic teams anywhere in the country.

“This demonstrates that as an organisation we were and are prepared to deliver innovative change and improved efficiency whilst at the same time maintaining patient safety – we now however need to see real transformational change at a system wide level in order to make further progress and will continue to work with our partners across the health and social care sector to achieve this.”