SOMEONE new is in charge of the Scottish NHS.
John Connaghan is now acting chief executive. He was previously director of health workforce and performance and I associate him with driving down waiting lists.
We don't know that he will get the top job though. The Scottish Government announced that the previous boss, Derek Feeley, was going on April 17 and started advertising his post in June - not the swiftest of recruitment action. The future of the Scottish NHS feels rather muddled at the moment and any delay in filling the slot, other than that required to find the right candidate, seems unhelpful. However, I dare say months often slip by before many key jobs are filled in both the public and private sectors.
I asked Mr Feeley if he would do an exit interview and phoned to check the response before he was due to leave, only to be told he did not want to talk and had in fact already gone.
I was disappointed. I wasn't seeking to interview a celebrity about their private life. Certainly there might have been some difficult questions - more tricky questions seemed to crop up in the two-and-three-quarter years Mr Feeley steered NHS Scotland than in the five Dr Kevin Woods was top dog. But, if you want the salary and influence that go with running the Scottish health service you should be prepared and able to answer some tough questions now and then. More than that, I would hope the person in charge was so full of enthusiasm for what the NHS has achieved and where it is heading that they would be keen to share that with the wider public.
I looked back at the exit interview I did with Dr Woods. I asked him if there was an area where he would like to have made more progress and he highlighted the importance of preparing for the ageing population. Given the beds crisis which hit Scottish hospitals last winter and capacity issues exposed by The Herald's NHS Time for Action campaign, his words perhaps deserved more attention.
Anyway, Mr Feeley left without saying anything - which leaves me with speculation. The Scottish Government like to say he started in 2010. In fact he became acting chief executive in November 2010, and was given the job on a permanent basis the following year. Two years later, when the scandal of fiddled waiting lists had fully exploded, he decided to go to America- presumably not a sudden decision.
He is, I'm sure, an intelligent and pleasant man who perhaps did not like running NHS Scotland or was not, at least, passionate enough about it to see it through to a more meaningful moment in time. He is welcome to contact me to offer contradiction.
I should note that senior staff in regional health boards also seem reluctant to speak just now. Recent refusals include NHS Fife, where concerns are repeatedly being raised about the Victoria Infirmary, and NHS Lanarkshire, where A&E waiting times were poor earlier this year. This concerns me. What is there to fear from openness and transparency?
I hope the new chief executive of NHS Scotland has a long-term vision that they are willing to share. That they will, occasionally, grant interviews. After all, NHS Scotland employs 140,000 staff and has an effect, from the day we are born, on the lives of everyone.
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