'˜Well liked' Lincolnshire hospitals medical director Suneil Kapadia '˜will be hard to replace' says hospitals boss

Dr Suneil Kapadia, medical director of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, left, and chief operating officer Mark Brassington at the public meeting on the A&E closure at St Wulfram's Church.

Jan Sobieraj said: “I’m very disappointed that Dr Suneil Kapadia will be leaving ULHT in May next year. When I started at ULHT last year, Suneil told me he intended to leave in 2016 to spend time with his family who live in Wolverhampton. I’m pleased he has stayed on longer than originally intended.”

It was announced last week that Dr Kapadia had resigned and would leave in May 2017. He quickly became a controversial figure with proposals to downgrade A&E at Grantham and the closure of that department overnight, and a proposal to centralise maternity services at Lincoln, possibly taking services away from Boston Pilgrim Hospital.

Mr Sobieraj added: “Since starting at the Trust over three years ago, he has made a big impact on the quality of our services. Under his leadership, we have reduced mortality rates known as HSMR to expected levels, have been taken out of special measures, and finalised our clinical strategy to help make our services safer and sustainable for the future. This is a great legacy and I’d like to thank Suneil for all he has done.

“I will be advertising for his replacement soon but it will be very difficult to find someone of such high calibre who is so well liked. I will be sad to see him leave”.