Managing Director - QEQM

The Trust has had a challenging few years and is currently in National Oversight Framework 4 (NOF4) and Tier 1 for Urgent & Emergency Care, Cancer and Elective care. Coupled with those oversight arrangements, we ended 23/24 with a significant financial deficit and our Staff Survey results are amongst the most challenged in the NHS. That all said, there is a tremendous opportunity here at EKHUFT for the right people. Under the direction of the CEO, Tracey Fletcher, we have a new Executive team in place and the Care Group structure was implemented during the latter part of 2023, providing clearer clinical and operational lines of accountability and responsibility. Significant strides are being made to address the underlying financial challenges with an ambitious, yet deliverable, £49m CIP for 24/25. Tangible Quality & Safety improvements have been made across the Trust, including within our Maternity & Neonatal services. Across our elective and non-elective pathways, we are now seeing good signs of progress and our backlogs are reducing and we are aiming for compliance with all National Access standards during 24/25. If you have the operational leadership experience, vision, energy and resilience to join us on our Improvement journey then please do consider applying.

Main duties of the job

We provide services through six Care Groups; each led by a Managing Director and are looking for an outstanding individual to join us and lead the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM). The QEQM Managing Director will provide operational leadership for our site in Ashford which provides Urgent & Emergency and Acute Medicine, General Medicine, General Surgery & Gastroenterology, Therapies, Outpatients and Hospital at Home. We are looking for a candidate with operational leadership from the NHS who is experienced at leading services within a busy and complex site that provides urgent and emergency care.

Working for our organisation

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Role specific duties

• The post holder will have responsibility for the strategic and operational development of the Care Group, and will contribute to the overall Trust through the delivery of short to medium term objectives.
• As leader of the Care Group the Managing Director holds a senior post in the organisation.
• The individual will be expected to both lead the Care Group and make a significant contribution to the setting and delivery of the trust’s overall strategic objectives.
• The postholder will lead the Care Group senior leadership team consisting of a Director of Nursing, Medical Director and a clinical and operational management structure.
• The Managing Director is responsible for providing strategic, general, and operational leadership to the Care Group, for the delivery and development of high-quality services within available resources, in accordance with the Trust’s corporate strategy and annual plan. The services to be delivered with due regard to clinical governance, and quality standards and both national and local priorities for healthcare.
• To actively promote and lead a culture of continuous improvement and learning working in collaboration with colleagues and teams, within the service and as appropriate across the system for the purposes of improvement.

Person specification

Skills and experience

• Proven and significant leadership experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in a Healthcare environment.
• Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry.
• Experience of project and programme management techniques and tools such as Prince 2 or Managing Successful Projects.

Qualifications and training

• Educated to Masters level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area.
• Qualification in management coaching or improvement.
• Member of a relevant professional Body.

The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working to fulfil our pledge as part of The Trust’s People Strategy to help staff to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Please speak with your Recruiting Manager for further information on how this can be managed alongside department expectations and requirements. The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles. Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check. Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria. We operate a no-smoking policy on all our sites and grounds.