UNDER FIRE

Criticism was heaped on Mark Hackett in a damning report into a multi-million-pound cash crisis at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust in the West Midlands.

Mr Hackett, who took over as chief executive at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust in July, had overseen a huge expansion project at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital, which left budgets seriously over-stretched.

Both he and then finance director Andrew Wooding quit their jobs with the trust in the middle of an escalating cash crisis, when the deficit was more than £7m.

Now as trust boss in Southampton, Mr Hackett, 41, is spearheading a recovery plan aimed at reducing a massive £11.3m deficit. Union leaders have called for him to be dismissed from the NHS after an independent review highlighted his failure to balance the books in Wolverhampton.

David Brooks, a representative for about half of New Cross Hospital's 5,000 staff, said Mr Hackett should be

disciplined for failing in his statutory duty to ensure accounts were not overspent.

"I am satisfied that the review has done the job that they were asked to do but I am not satisfied that the main people involved - the chief executive and the director of finance - have not been dismissed," he said.

But today Southampton health bosses were standing by their chief executive.

In a statement, Richard Keightley, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, said: "Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has been kept informed of the progress of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital review from the outset.

"The report reinforces the importance of good corporate governance for all NHS organisations and I am determined to ensure its lessons are heeded here and to make any improvements that we can identify."

He added: "Mark Hackett was appointed earlier this year because we believe he is the right man to move the trust forward at this particular stage in its development, and nothing has changed that belief."

Yesterday the Daily Echo tried to contact Mr Hackett directly but was told he was in meetings and unavailable.

The independent review into financial management and governance at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust highlighted how developing a dream hospital at New Cross had left the trust with potentially crippling debts.

A formidable workload - described as squeezing a decade of development into just five years - had placed a huge strain on bosses' time and energy, and diverted attention away from balancing the books.

Meanwhile, the trust's budget doubled from £90m to £180m in five years to April 2004.

Finance officers managed the growth by using one-off solutions at the end of each year but in the end the gap got too big and "misleading and inappropriate" reports to the trust board were hiding the situation.

In May, health bosses in Southampton announced a programme aimed at making cost savings of £15m over the next year.

But spending has remained too high, prompting more drastic action.

At the end of November, the trust, which runs Southampton General, the Royal South Hants and the Princess Anne hospitals, agreed to push ahead with plans for up to 100 redundancies.

Trust board members also voted to axe about 85 hospital beds.

Last month, Southampton Itchen MP John Denham and Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead met with Mr Hackett to demand answers about why the trust had sunk so far into the red.

Last night, both MPs declined to comment about the criticism of Mr Hackett in Wolverhampton until they had seen a copy of the full independent report.