Britain’s youngest hospital boss.

NHS boss under spotlight over relationship with high-flying colleaguehttp://www.richimag.co.uk/nhs2009/

The chief executive of the NHS has come under scrutiny over his relationship with a high-flying colleague who has become Britain’s youngest hospital boss.

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 10:35PM BST 11 Oct 2009

David Nicholson, 52, has announced that he is to marry Sarah-Jane Marsh, who is 20 years his junior, and who he first met as a graduate trainee.

In June, Miss Marsh was given the £155,000-a-year job of chief executive at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH). She was elevated to the post despite having been in charge of day-to-day operations when the hospital was criticised by the Healthcare Commission for a lack of beds and poor standards of training and care.

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It has been disclosed that Mr Nicholson provided some references for Miss Marsh as she applied for a series of posts during her rise through the NHS ranks.

The couple first met in 2002, when Miss Marsh was selected for a six-month graduate placement in Mr Nicholson’s office, while he was director of health and social care for the Midlands and East of England. The following year, Mr Nicholson gave her a reference when she applied successfully for a job as head of planning and development at Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust. She became director of planning and productivity two years later.

Mr Nicholson also supplied a reference when Miss Marsh landed the post of chief operating officer at BCH in December 2007. The role put her in charge of the day-to-day running of the trust. She became interim chief executive in March this year when the Healthcare Commission issued its damming report.

The Department of Health has denied suggestions that Miss Marsh’s relationship with Mr Nicholson played any part in her appointment as chief executive at BCH. The trust and Mr Nicholson said that he did not provide a reference in her application for the post.

In a statement, Mr Nicholson said: “As a former employer, I agreed to provide a reference for a position at Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust and the Chief Operating Officer position at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. We were not in a relationship then. I did not provide a reference for the chief executive post at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.”

It is unclear when their relationship began, but Mr Nicholson informed Sir Hugh Taylor, the permanent secretary to the Department of Health, of his engagement to Miss Marsh last month.

In his statement Mr Nicholson admitted they had enjoyed a romantic trip early in the year.

“We went on holidays over New Year 2009,” he said. “It was a private holiday, organised and paid for by both of us. We were not on NHS business, nor was any part of the trip paid for by the NHS.”

Patients’ groups raised questions over Miss Marsh’s promotion in the wake of the Healthcare Commission report in March.

Joyce Robins, the co-director of Patient Concern, said: “It’s astonishing when someone who has presided over such a mess in the NHS is then promoted.”

Mr Nicholson became chief executive of the NHS in 2006 after nearly 25 years progressing through the management ranks. He was made a CBE in January 2004 for his services.

The DoH said Mr Nicholson was not obliged to declare his relationship under department or Cabinet office rules.

A spokesman said that because BCH has Foundation Trust status, it is free from Government management and so Mr Nicholson has no influence over staff appointments.LMK ends