Professor Stephen Smith, the Chair of the Board of Directors at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has been invited to expand his involvement in a major international health transformation programme in the Middle East. As a result he will not be seeking a further term as Chair of the Trust Board of Directors when his current term ends in the spring of next year.
Professor Smith said: “I believe that chairing this Trust board is a very important role that requires total commitment and I can see that next year I will need to devote significantly more time each month on my work in the Middle East. I would not be serving the Trust, its staff, its patients or our local communities properly if I could not give this job the total focus it requires.
“Over the past two and a half years we have faced some major challenges. The coronavirus pandemic has been the biggest health challenge of my life time and I believe that here, as elsewhere, the NHS has risen to this challenge with staff commitment and dedication that goes far beyond the call of duty.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff for their staunch perseverance during the initial wave of the pandemic and I know we will be able to rely on them as we tackle the next wave over the coming months.”
Professor Smith is a clinician scientist who has held senior positions both in the academic field and in the NHS in the UK and abroad.
Professor Stephen Smith's biography
