A hospital trust chief brought into oversee improvements has announced he will leave his position less than a year into the job.

Dr George Findlay, who was appointed at Medway NHS Foundation Trust less than a year ago, is to depart "in the summer", the trust confirmed today.

He joined on an interim basis to lead Medway Maritime Hospital in May for 18 months following the departure of former chief executive James Devine.

But just nine months in, the trust confirmed Dr Findlay will be leaving before the end of the interim period. He will rejoin his former employers at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, where he was deputy chief executive and chief medical officer before moving to Medway.

When he was appointed, the trust highlighted Dr Findlay's track record in driving improvements which included taking the Sussex trust out of special measures to a good rating by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) and had hoped he would lead Medway to the same target.

Trust bosses say despite his short time in the post, Dr Findlay has "made a huge impact".

Jo Palmer, chairman of the board of trustees, said: "He quickly began to introduce new approaches and ways of working to accelerate our improvement and has worked with senior leaders to harness the potential of teams, demonstrating what we can achieve here at Medway.

"As a result, we are now seeing great improvements for our cancer patients, and in our Emergency Department patients are being seen more quickly."

When he joined, the emergency department at Medway had just received an official warning notice following a scathing inspection by the CQC.

In another wider inspection at the hospital last July, the CQC said while improvements had been made there remained "a lot of work to do" and kept the hospital's rating as requires improvement – the second lowest.

Then in August, a team from NHS England was drafted in to give its support to drive improvements after Medway was designated one of the country's most in need of help.

The report, which is the latest published about the trust, gave Medway a good rating for being caring and safe but the effective and responsive category was listed as requires improvement.

Although the trust leadership rating increased from the lowest possible rating – inadequate – to requires improvement, inspectors still raised question marks.

The report said patients were treated in a caring manner and with dignity and taking account of individuals' needs, planned care to meet local needs.

It also noted the trust had a "vision for what it wanted to achieve and each care group had developed individual strategies to achieve this" and praised the improvements taking place amid the backdrop of the Covid pandemic.

In June, inspectors were also concerned about infection control measures in place at the hospital.

However, earlier this month NHS figures showed the trust had met all four of the national cancer treatment standards for the first time.

And in September, the team in the emergency department won a national award at the annual HSJ Value Awards for a programme to help treat patients during the pandemic.

Ms Palmer added: "This is a great opportunity and on behalf of the board I would like to thank Dr Findlay for all he has done during his time at Medway.

"He leaves with our heartfelt thanks and we wish him all the very best for the future.

"We are now working on the recruitment process to ensure we have a successor in place as quickly as possible so that we can continue our Patient First journey and take our services to good and outstanding.”

Responding to the announcement, Medway Labour health spokesman and deputy leader Cllr Teresa Murray said: "We are sorry to hear that Dr George Findlay is leaving Medway hospital.

"His year in post has been a demanding and busy one in which he led the hospital through some very real challenges related to the pandemic and the huge increase in waiting lists for planned surgery.

"The improvement in reducing waiting times for cancer care was a very welcome and significant achievement together with his work on rationalising the overwhelming number of improvement plans he inherited from various CQC inspections making it easier for staff to understand what they need to do.

"However, George’s departure is the fourth one for a chief executive over a relatively short period of time and the instability it will create makes it harder to secure better standards for Medway patients given that the trust is still rated as Requires Improvement and the local ambulance service is also in a fragile state.

"Labour will continue to campaign for better NHS funding, to tackle the staff recruitment crisis and remain very aware the trust still needs huge capital investment or even a new hospital site before people in Medway receive the high standard of services they need and deserve."

Chairman of the Medway Health and Wellbeing Board and cabinet member for adult services at Medway Council, David Brake (Con) said Dr Findlay had been "very active" during his time in charge.

Cllr Brake added: "He will be sorely missed because of the expertise, drive and enthusiasm he brought to the job. He has been very approachable and extremely good to work with.

"He quickly began to introduce new methods of working and wanted to improve on the hard work that had been started in the past.

"There has in fact been a great deal of progress made, especially in the emergency department and patients have reported being very well looked after by A&E staff which has been driven by Dr Findlay’s Patient First initiative.

"Dr Findlay has in fact provided leadership to the Trust that is such that people have been engaged and are in the right place now to move us forward.

"We must move forward at pace to replace him and of course the hospital trust will be looking for the very best to continue Dr Findlay’s good work.

"Medway councillors represent the community of Medway but we are partners with Medway Maritime Hospital and others as part of the overall NHS and what it stands for.

"We will continue to work to provide the good service that exists and also to build on the existing relationships that we have to ensure residents are achieving the very best care possible."