Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) has appointed Pauline Butterworth as its new Chief Operating Officer.
Pauline’s appointment follows the retirement of Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Lesley Strong, who has been with KCHFT since its inception in 2011. Lesley served in the NHS for more than 40 years.
Pauline joins the trust from East Sussex Healthcare Trust where she has been deputy chief operating officer since 2013. During that time that she was also programme director for transformation of urgent care at Hastings and Rother and Eastbourne and Seaford Clinical Commissioning Group.
A trained clinician, Pauline worked as a therapist and manager in the USA and in paediatrics in Australia, before returning to the UK. She moved to work in the NHS in 2008 and has worked across a breadth of services, including mental health, community, acute and commissioning, as well as social care.
Pauline said: “I love working in the community. It feels like a really exciting time to be working for a community provider, in terms of the NHS Long Term Plan, where the focus is very much on services in the community and how we will be working with primary care and as part of the integrated care partnerships and integrated care system.”
“As an outstanding trust, I am particularly interested in how we can support some of our colleagues, so we are truly working together as one system.’’
Chief Executive Paul Bentley said: “Pauline will be a wonderful asset to the trust, her wealth of knowledge and experience and her understanding of the opportunities and challenges ahead fit very well; moreover her communication skills and wish to do the right thing for the people we serve were one of the reasons we were so keen to appoint Pauline.’’
The duties of deputy chief executive will be carried out by Gordon Flack, Director of Finance. Paul said: “Gordon embodies the best elements of the trust, a focus on ‘doing the right thing’ and enjoying significant credibility inside and outside of the organisation. Gordon is perfectly placed to become the deputy chief executive.’’
