Seventh finance chief for NHS trust

Bernard Chalk joins the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust from crisis-ridden United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, where he was acting chief executive for the last 12 months and prior to that finance director.

He had previously worked as a finance director in NHS organisations in North Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

Richard Mellor, who has been acting finance director at the trust after the sudden departure of Malcolm Featherstone, will return to the post of head of finance and procurement.

Mr Featherstone resigned last year after only three months, blaming commuting pressures for his decision to leave.

Trust chief executive Richard Sunley said: "We are looking forward to welcoming Bernard to the trust. He has extensive experience of working in challenging financial environments for the NHS and will recognise the difficulties which we've experienced here to achieve financial stability.

"As we move forward on our transformational Fit for the Future programme to become a financially viable hospital trust, we need a strong finance team to take this forward."