Update: Hospitals A&E merger guru quits

A KEY figure in the project to close the QE2 Hospital's A&E department has quit – just four months into the job. Noel Scanlon had been appointed director of clinical reconfiguration and design at the East and North Herts NHS Trust at the end of September

A KEY figure in the project to close the QE2 Hospital's A&E department has quit - just four months into the job.

Noel Scanlon had been appointed director of clinical reconfiguration and design at the East and North Herts NHS Trust at the end of September last year.

Previously, he was the trust's director of nursing since 2002.

His new job intended to provide "clear and dedicated clinical leadership" in the move to centralise A&E services at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage.

But on Monday last week, Mr Scanlon took up a post as deputy chief executive at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn.

A trust spokesman said there was "nothing untoward" about Mr Scanlon's decision to move on.

He said: "We were grateful when someone of Noel's experience and standing within the trust agreed last September to take on the role of leading on clinical engagement on our part of the Delivering Quality Health Care for Hertfordshire programme.

"Since then, his contribution has been immense.

"But this type of opportunity in this region is not going to come up very often. When these jobs come up, you've got to go for them.

"People do have their own career ambitions in mind and we're never going to stand in the way of someone's ambitions."

The spokesman said the process to recruit Mr Scanlon's replacement was already under way, and would not delay the project.

"The majority of the work he was focusing on was 2011 onwards. He's set a huge train of work in progress. It's not going to cause any delay.

"None whatsoever.