THE official in charge of Scotland’s health service has quit after less than a year in the job.
Malcolm Wright tendered his resignation as Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director General of Health and Social Care in the Scottish Government on health grounds.
The Government said Mr Wright, who was only appointed last June, had an “underlying medical condition”.
It admitted his departure came at an “intense and challenging period” for the response and recovery from the Covid-19 emergency,
It said interim arrangements were already in place and would continue to the end of August, when open recruitment campaign would get underway.
John Connaghan, Chief Performance Officer NHS Scotland and Director of Delivery and Resilience, has been appointed as the interim Chief Executive of NHS Scotland.
Elinor Mitchell, Director for Community Health and Social Care, has been appointed interim Director General of Health and Social Care.
SNP Health Secretary Jeanne Freeman said: “I am very sorry that Malcolm Wright has had to resign from the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and DG Health and Social Care role.
“I know this was a difficult decision but one he has had to make for medical reasons.
“He leaves with my greatest respect and gratitude.
“I have valued the wealth of knowledge and experience that he brought to the role, especially at this challenging time. I wish him well for a happy and healthy future.
“I know that Elinor Mitchell and John Connaghan have worked closely with Malcolm as key members of his team and that they share my determination to equip our health and care system to meet the current challenges and to continue delivering an excellent service for the people of Scotland.
"I am confident they will continue to meet the challenges we face and continue to give our service the leadership it deserves.”
Mr Wright had worked in the NHS since starting as an administrative trainee at Lothian Health Board in 1975.
He was Hospital Manager at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital and chief executive of NHS Grampian, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Education for Scotland and interim Chief Executive at NHS Tayside.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel