Freelance hospital troubleshooter Chris Bown insists he is the man to drag the beleaguered east Kent hospitals trust out of the mire.

Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission placed the five-site trust into special measures last autumn following a damning report which identified “serious failures in patient safety and leadership” and revealed a culture of managerial bullying.

Mr Bown, who is being paid £294,000 for his one year as trust chief executive, told KentOnline: "We have some very important challenges ahead and after the trust was put into special measures we need to make sure we make improvements.

"I'm basically an NHS troubelshooter and it's very important that in these 12 months we make some big improvements."

"We are far from making any decision and I would like to reassure the public that they will have a say in any future proposed changes” - Mr Bown

Last week it emerged that the trust was toying with centralising its A&E services at one of its three main hospitals in Canterbury, Margate and Ashford - with Kent and Canterbury the most likely due to its central location in the area covered.

But Mr Bown says no decisions have yet been made as to their future.

“It will take a least a year to go through this process of considering options, gaining agreement from all parties, hosting a public consultation, seeking independent review and final approval," he said.

"With this in mind we are far from making any decision and I would like to reassure the public that they will have a say in any future proposed changes.”

Mr Bown, 54, replaced previous chief executive Stuart Bain in late March and came from the scandal-hit Stafford Hospital, where he has been working since September in a similar interim role to turn its fortunes around.

He defended his massive pay packet, for which he works four days a week, on the grounds that he is an interim executive placed into a trust in special circumstances.

"I'm aware that my remuneration has been felt that this was appropriate pay for someone here for a short period of time," he said

"It will be up to the trust to find a permanant chief executive."

As the head of the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Mr Bown controls annual budget of £540 million which employs 7,500 people and cares for 700,000 people.