Why has the hospital got such a burden of debt?
We’ve commissioned an independent inquiry by a man called Michael Taylor into what happened before. We will publish the findings as soon as we have them. He has interviewed nearly 80 people including many who worked here before and he will have a much more objective view than anything I might say. The best thing is to wait and see what that report says. He has got a very comprehensive brief to delve into all the aspects of what might have contributed to the past problems. He has left no stone unturned. I know his work from elsewhere. He’s a very skilful man who has done dozens and dozens of these types of inquiries, so I’m confident he will get to the bottom of what happened. The public deserve an explanation and so do our staff. It felt to them like one day we were fine and the next they learnt we weren’t. What elements of the recovery plan have been implemented so far? How are things going to look this year? The recovery plan items so far were mainly straightforward cuts and closures
