Departing Shropcom chief highlights ‘left shift’ in NHS as search for £100,000 successor underway

Patricia Davies is leaving her role at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom) and a meeting of the organisation’s board this Thursday (June 5) will be the last such meeting before she heads off to a role in Manchester.

Her successor won’t have the same job after a decision was made to combine the chief executive roles at Shropcom and The Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.

The two bodies already have a chair in common, Andrew Morgan, who has spoken of the need for real ‘transformation’, including the use of community hospitals, at previous board meetings.

Ms Davies, in her valedictory report to the board on Thursday, speaks of her support for a ‘left shift’ in NHS services – moving the focus from secondary (hospital) care to primary and community care.

“A workshop took place on the May 16 that involved colleagues from across all partners in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin.

“This highlighted the work being done by all partners across the system to facilitate that ‘left shift’ and to move care into neighbourhoods.”

Work to shift care is being co-ordinated by the Place Partnership Boards in both Shropshire, and Telford & Wrekin, at which representatives of Shropcom play a role.

Ms Davies says that care begins in “500,000 beds that exist in people’s homes.”

Ms Davies also writes about the scale of multi-million pound cuts facing Shropcom which it has “not had to deliver at this scale before.”

She says: “Our plan requires us to deliver £5.4m cost reductions plus the equivalent of £1.7m in productivity improvements in 2025/26.

“This is a real challenge, and we have not had to deliver at this scale before, but I know that with the continued focus and commitment from ShropCom staff we will do everything we can to meet the target.”

Shropcom delivers care across 13,000 square miles of Shropshire, Telford and beyond into Dudley, and Wales.

In the last year Dudley’s public health nursing workforce joined ShropCom and in that time they have “developed a unified 0-19 service for children and families in Dudley.”

Ms Davies says: “This will be my last public board before I move to my new post of Chief Executive for the two local care organisations and dental hospital in Manchester. I begin my new role in September.

“The post covers community services across Manchester & Trafford and are fully integrated with social care with the focus clearly on left shift, which is very much my bag, in a city which is not dissimilar from where I grew up in Wolverhampton and areas, I have worked in.

“It was also the place of my youth. I spent many an hour in the Hacienda club, for those of you old enough to remember it.”

She says her four years in the Shropcom hot seat has been a “real highlight.”

“Over the last four years we have taken what was a good organisation that provided great care into one which punches above its weight, leads transformation, steps into new ground and innovates.

“One that understands the value of community services, its potential, its reach and scope for delivering more skill and expertise efficiently and productively within the 500,000 beds that exist in people’s homes first and foremost.

“There is a great team of staff whether they be clinical, operational, administrative, corporate that have ambition, commitment and motivation to continue to innovate.

“I look forward as a Shropshire resident and patient, to watching the next stage of ShropCom’s development with partners and communities.”

The role of Chief Executive in Common / Group Chief Executive Designate for Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust and The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has been advertised on the NHS jobs website with a closing date for applications on June 16.

The role is classified as a very senior manager with a salary of £100,000 to £200,000 a year.

The role is advertised here: https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/jobadvert/C9825-25-0141.