NHS trust faces conflict allegations

ALLEGATIONS of a potential conflict of interests have been made at a north London hospital after it emerged that the trust is being run by an employee of the firm that carries out its internal audit, writes Liz Hunt.

Shaw Edwards, acting chief executive of the North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust, is on secondment from the management consultants Ernst & Young, at a cost of pounds 150,000 per year. The previous chief executive who left in February, was paid less than half that. In the last financial year the hospital made pounds 1.5m in cuts to balance the books.

A trust spokesman said safeguards prevented any conflict of interests. Mr Edwards is excluded from involvement in audit work and does not attend meetings of the audit committee.