17 March 2011
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Chrisha Alagaratnam as its new Director of Finance.
Chrisha, who is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, joins after 16 years of working in the NHS. Having qualified as an accountant in 1995, Chrisha quickly rose to become senior financial accountant at Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust and spent six months as the acting Assistant Director of Finance.
Since then, Chrisha has worked for both South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, and Croydon Health Services NHS Trust where she was Acting Director of Finance in 2010. She is currently the director in charge of helping the organisation progress towards achieving foundation trust status.
Chrisha, who lives in Surrey, said: "I am thrilled to be joining the Trust at such an exciting time. We've secured more than £219 million of public money to redevelop St Helier Hospital and there are plans in place to spend millions of pounds improving services across all our sites and, crucially, the buildings they are delivered from.
"Moving forward, it's important that we work with staff from across our hospitals to further improve the quality of the services we provide to our patients and, by being more efficient, save money."
Matthew Hopkins, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: "We are delighted that Chrisha is joining the Trust Board and she brings with her a wealth of experience and expertise.
"We've done well to balance our books for the last few years, but the UK is facing tough financial times and it's good to know we've got someone of her calibre heading up our finances."
Chrisha takes over the reins of the Trust’s £350 million budget from Jon Sargeant, who is now leading work to help Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals achieve foundation trust status.
In her spare time, Chrisha enjoys magic and has performed shows for charitable causes. She is also a keen pianist.
It's 'Your hospital': be one in a 1,000. We are looking for 1,000 people to join a special panel of patients and local residents to give feedback about the work of our hospitals: from the care our doctors and nurses provide to the quality of our food and cost of car parking. It's easy to join and all we ask is for you to be brutally honest. Join now – www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/yourhospital.
