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New Chair Melloney Poole OBE Appointed At Isle Of Wight NHS Trust

Melloney Poole

Vaughan Thomas, who has served a three-year term as Chair, will stand down in October and be replaced by Melloney Poole OBE.

Vaughan has overseen a period of development and stability at the Trust and during his term there has been a significant improvement in the quality of services, and its financial position.

Vaughan Thomas said:

“It has been a real privilege to serve at the Trust. Significant improvements to services in a complex organisation such as the Trust require huge commitment, effort, and support from a wide range of people. I would like to thank colleagues across the Trust for the very hard work that has been and continues to be delivered. This commitment was particularly visible during our response to COVID-19.

“The Trust has made real progress over the last three years and remains committed to its Getting to Good programme and continuing to advance and improve services for the community.

“Personally, I would like to thank all of those colleagues and partners in the Trust, Local Authority, voluntary sector and the wider NHS that have been part of and have supported my tenure here.

“I know and have worked alongside Melloney over the last three years. I have the utmost respect for her and her leadership and am confident that the Trust will continue to prosper, building on the strong foundations that are now in place.”

Melloney Poole OBE has been appointed Chair of the only integrated NHS Trust in England, which provides Acute, Ambulance, Community and Mental Health services across the Isle of Wight.

Melloney, who is already Chair of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU), has extensive NHS leadership experience including in acute, mental health and community mental health services.

Melloney Poole said:

“I am really looking forward to working with everyone in the Trust, and with our partners, to deliver the Trust’s vision of high quality, compassionate care that makes a positive difference to our community.”

Maggie Oldham, Chief Executive at Isle of Wight NHS Trust said:

“I very much look forward to welcoming Melloney to the Trust when she takes up her post in October. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience that will help us continue to deliver our Getting to Good programme and keep on improving the services we provide for our Island community.

“I also want to thank Vaughan for his tireless service to our Trust and to our community and I wish him all the very best for the future.”

Dave Stewart, Isle of Wight Council Leader said:

“It has been a pleasure to work closely with Vaughan for the last three years and he deserves a great deal of credit for the way the Trust has improved.

“He has been instrumental in bringing the health, primary care, social care, community and voluntary sectors together through the Local Care Board and more recently through the Integrated Care Partnership.

“I wish him all the very best for the future and look forward to working with Melloney over the coming months and years.”

Alison Smith, managing director of NHS Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:

“Both personally, and on behalf of the CCG, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to Vaughan for all the support he has provided. His experience and insight has certainly helped to enhance NHS services on the island.

“As the recent Integrated Care Partnership chair, Vaughan has also supported integrated working between organisations on the island, which includes the CCG, Isle of Wight Council, and the voluntary and third sector. This has greatly enabled us to all come together to improve collaboration and co-ordinate care for the community.

“He will be missed by all and I wish him the best of luck with his future plans. I would also like to welcome Melloney to the trust and the island. She brings with her a great deal of valuable experience and I’m looking forward to working with her to continue our improvement journey.”

Isle of Wight NHS Trust published its new organisational strategy in June 2020 which highlights the importance of partnerships to the continued improvement of the services.

The appointment of Melloney Poole underlines the NHS’ commitment to partnership working. In January 2020 the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) announced a partnership to plan and improve acute (hospital-based) services for patients on the Island and the mainland.

It is one of a number of partnerships that Isle of Wight NHS Trust has entered into to support the delivery of the Isle of Wight Health and Care Plan.

It has partnered with Solent NHS Trust (Solent) to support the transformation of Mental Health Services on the Isle of Wight and has been working alongside South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) to improve its Ambulance Service for more than 18 months.

Following the most recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2019, Isle of Wight NHS Trust received a rating of Requires Improvement. Inspectors rated some of the Trust’s services as Good and recognised the improvement made by lifting the overall rating from Inadequate.

 

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