West Herts Hospitals chief executive to leave in June

The chief executive of west Herts Hospitals Trust is to leave at the end of June.

Katie Fisher will leave with a “significant and positive impact on patients” in West Hertfordshire, her bosses said upon announcing her departure.

Mrs Fisher will leave the trust to become chief executive of a healthcare charity.

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And Professor Steve 
Barnett, chairman of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Under her 
leadership we came out of special measures, improved upon a wide range of clinical 
outcome measures for 
patients and increased our staff satisfaction rates in 
national surveys. Many 
hospital trusts would be pleased with just one of these three achievements.

“She should also be praised for her significant contribution to the creation of an 
exciting vision for the future of our estate and our bid for 
major funding to transform our buildings.

“Katie has always been driven by the quality of care we provide and so it is no 
surprise that this motivation has taken her to a new role leading a healthcare charity.

“She will be very much missed by staff at all levels and her departure will also be a loss to our patients and the NHS. Chief executives of her calibre are hard to find, but given the enormous progress we have made over recent years, I am confident that the post will attract some very strong candidates.”

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Kathryn Magson, chief 
executive of Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group which oversees healthcare across the area, said: “Leading West Herts Hospitals Trust out of special measures is a great achievement and this legacy will have a 
significant and positive 
impact on patients.

“Katie leaves an organisation that I think is considerably stronger than it was and I very much look forward to continuing to work with her senior team and staff on 
further developments and improvements in the coming months and years.”

More on this story will appear in next week’s Gazette.