Kent’s largest hospital trust has been placed under interim leadership while its chief executive takes “unplanned leave”.
Speculation had suggested Tracey Fletcher had left East Kent Hospitals (EKH) permanently – three years after taking on the role.
Tracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals, is on “unplanned leave”. Picture: East Kent Hospitals
However, the trust says she has been temporarily replaced by chief medical officer, Dr Des Holden, and has asked for Ms Fletcher’s privacy to be respected “at this time”.
It comes as the trust, which runs Ashford’s William Harvey, Margate’s QEQM, and the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, prepares for a spike in flu cases over Christmas amid a surge of a mutant virus.
NHS figures show the number of people in hospital in England with flu is at a record level for this time of year and has jumped by 55% in the last week.
Ms Fletcher – who earned £245,000 in 2024-25, according to EKH’s annual accounts – has faced increased pressure in recent months after bosses were forced to turn a Costa Coffee shop at the William Harvey into a makeshift emergency ward.
The government stepped in to help the trust amid mounting concern over severe bed-blocking and unsafe levels of corridor care.
Des Holden, EKH’s chief medical officer, is standing in for Ms Fletcher. Picture: East Kent Hospitals
The Department of Health and Social Care said in October how it was working with NHS leaders in east Kent to try to ease the pressure.
Ms Fletcher, who lives in Deal, joined EKH in 2022 following nine years in charge of London’s Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
She was tasked with cutting A&E waiting times and turning around the trust’s failing maternity units.
The emergency department at her previous employer’s flagship hospital in Homerton was the first in the country to receive an ‘outstanding’ grading from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2014.
But the health watchdog said EKH ‘requires improvement’ in its last inspection in 2023, when it told bosses to make “immediate improvements” amid staff shortages and “overcrowded” emergency departments.
Patients were treated on beds in the closed Costa Coffee branch at the William Harvey Hospital in September
In October 2022, the trust apologised “unreservedly” to parents after an independent investigation found 45 baby deaths since 2009 would likely have been prevented with proper care.
It had involved more than 200 cases being looked at by an expert panel chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup.
But in May this year, the CQC said the maternity units at the William Harvey and QEQM had made “significant improvements”.
The trust is now one of 14 in England being examined as part of a national investigation into maternity and neonatal failures across the NHS.
Baroness Amos is leading the government-led inquiry, with EKH the only trust in the county to be scrutinised.
Dr Holden, who sits on the trust’s board of directors with Ms Fletcher, joined EKH in January last year.
“To be clear, Tracey has not left the trust…”
He was previously CEO at Health Innovation Kent, Surrey and Sussex – a non-profit organisation based in Crawley that “bridges the gap between industry and the health and social care system”.
Before that, he was medical director at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust from 2011 until 2019.
In a statement, an EKH spokesman confirmed Ms Fletcher “is taking a period of unplanned leave”.
“Dr Des Holden, chief medical officer, is acting as CEO in her absence,” they added.
“To be clear, Tracey has not left the trust and we would ask that you respect her privacy at this time.”