Hospitals boss to retire after 46 years in NHS

A long-serving hospital boss who has worked for the NHS for more than four decades has announced he will retire later this year after putting in "a good shift".

Nick Hulme CBE, chief executive of the East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, will leave the role around Christmas.

The 65-year-old started his healthcare career as a porter at Middlesex Hospital in 1980 before spending the next 46 years in various frontline and managerial roles.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hulme said that, while the thought of life after the NHS was "quite scary", now was "the right time to step aside".

"This has been my life, so the thought of not coming into work each day is difficult, but you have got to go at some time," he said.

"It has been a long time coming but I am thinking about the last quarter of my life now and how I want to live my life.

"We have also just introduced our new electronic patient record, and so now I feel is the time to step aside to leave somebody else to lead this fantastic organisation."

During his career the healthcare veteran has worked as a social worker, with people with HIV and AIDS, and in sexual health, including at King's College in London.

After spending time as an operations director at two hospitals, he took on his first chief executive role in Croydon before taking charge at Ipswich Hospital 13 years ago.

He then also became responsible for Colchester Hospital when two hospital trusts merged to form the East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Colchester recently received a "requires improvement" rating from the Care Quality Commission after the hospital was inspected in April.

But Mr Hulme stressed to the BBC that his retirement was not a knee-jerk reaction to the watchdog's report and was not the reason for his departure.

"It is really disappointing some parts of the media have linked my retirement to the CQC report, because there's absolutely no connection," he said.

"I made this decision weeks if not months before the CQC report came out, I have been thinking about this for six to eight months, so that is totally untrue."

Mr Hulme will officially leave his position at some point during the Christmas period, with a successor possibly being lined up to take over the reins from January.

Until then, Adrian Marr, the deputy chief executive and director of finance, will become interim chief executive from the New Year, with Mr Hulme helping with the transition.

"Working alongside inspirational people is probably the thing I will miss most," he added.

"Because it is just incredible to witness what I see every day."

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