17 December 2010
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew Hopkins as its new Chief Executive.
Matthew joins the Trust from the strategic health authority NHS London, where he is Deputy Director of Provider Development. Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer at Barts and The London NHS Trust, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of one of London's largest NHS trusts with 6,300 staff and a budget of £500 million.
Matthew, who trained as a nurse at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and was a Macmillan nurse, has extensive experience in the NHS having also worked for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, St Mary's NHS Trust and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
John Davey, Chairman said: "I am really pleased to welcome Matthew to the Trust. He has a wealth of experience and will undoubtedly help to build on our continued success over the last few years.
"Matthew joins us at a very exciting time. The Government has recently signed off our plans to spend £219 million redeveloping St Helier Hospital and we have proposals in place to spend up to £70 million on the Epsom Hospital site.
"In addition, we need to develop a credible plan to take both Epsom and St Helier hospitals to foundation trust status, whether on their own or in partnership with another organisation."
Matthew said: "I am delighted to have been appointed as Chief Executive of the Trust. Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals have a great track record, having met all of the Government's key healthcare standards for the last three years, including balancing its books year on year.
"The Trust has also done a lot of work to improve the experience that the 700,000 patients who use its services each year have and recent surveys show that this is reaping rewards. However, there is more that can be done and we must continue to ensure that each and every patient who walks through our doors gets treated in the same way that we would want to be treated if we, or a member of our own family, were a patient.
"We must also acknowledge that the way healthcare works in the UK is changing dramatically and with it comes opportunities for us to work innovatively to ensure both Epsom and St Helier hospitals enjoy exciting and bright futures."
Matthew is originally from Cornwall and now lives in New Malden, Surrey with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he is an avid football fan and coaches mini rugby.
Matthew officially starts with the Trust on 1 January 2011 and replaces Samantha Jones who leaves for Care UK.
John added: "I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Samantha for all her hard work over the last three and a half years and for the passion and dedication that she has shown to the Trust.
"Whilst Samantha would be the first person to say our success over the last few years is down to the commitment of all our staff and volunteers, I know that her leadership has made it possible and enabled them to make the Trust the success it is today."
