Ex-midwifery boss criticised in baby death review is leaving Shropshire hospitals trust
A former midwifery boss who was criticised in a review of a baby death is leaving the trust which runs Shropshire two main hospitals and taking up a part-time role elsewhere.
Cathy Smith is Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO) Lead at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
A report to the trust board, which meets on Thursday, says that this month she will leave the trust to join the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership on a part time basis.
It says she has been appointed to the new programme manager (improvement) role within the STP.
“Recruitment is underway to appoint a new KPO Lead to take forward this important work,” adds the report.
STPs were created to bring local health and care leaders together to plan around the long-term needs of local communities.
Ms Smith was head of midwifery at SaTH for nine years, from 2006 to 2015. She was heavily criticised in a review into the death of baby Kate Stanton-Davies.
The review said she had a ‘defensive attitude’ and accused her of being unwilling to learn from mistakes.
Ms Smith switched to her new role more than three years ago in which she works with experts from across the Atlantic.
The role involves liaising with a leading US hospital, the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, which has a world-class reputation for patient safety and is working with SaTH on a number of projects across different departments.
Last year, a spokesman for the trust insisted her job did not specifically involve patient safety but was more about transforming and improving the trust.
Chief executive of the trust, Simon Wright, says interviews will also be taking place later this week to appoint an interim director of nursing.
It comes after Deirdre Fowler, who has been with SaTH since May 2017, announced she would be leaving to take up a new post with Bedford Hospital NHS Trust.
