Coping with change is one thing that seems to be constant in today's NHS, but the new man in charge at York District Hospital looks ready to take it in his stride. Simon Pleydell spoke to health reporter Andrew Hitchon.

York Health Trust, like the rest of the NHS, is facing big changes.

But Simon Pleydell, who has taken over from Dr Peter Kennedy as chief executive of the York Health Trust, says the latest shake-ups are a good idea - so long as they benefit patient care.

The changes include a new emphasis on convenience and accessibility of services.

"I believe some of the best ideas about that are with the clinical teams - the people who provide those services," he says.

"If you look at my track record, a lot of what I'm about is responding to people's ideas about how we should change and take services forward."

Other challenges include modernisation and the focus on killer illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, the emergence of new primary care trusts, and changes to mental health services.

Mr Pleydell says health service staff must learn to deal with change positively, and he is upbeat about the prospect of new partnerships between health trusts in North Yorkshire, like teams of experts providing more specialist care within the county while ensuring core services remain available locally.

Mr Pleydell took over as chief executive at York in the middle of the winter flu crisis, having held the same post with the East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust.

Since then he has been busy getting to meet as many of the trust's staff as possible.

His personal ambitions revolve around ensuring the trust maintains high-quality patient care and developing excellence in its services.

"One of the things that's striking as a newcomer to the organisation is the excellence that all the clinical teams I've met aspire to," he says.

Linked to that ambition is the need to ensure there is a clear vision of where the trust is going, working in partnership with other bodies.

One of the big questions facing the trust in recent years has been the capacity of York District Hospital itself.

Mr Pleydell says the question of relocation was looked at a few years ago but has passed for the foreseeable future.

He outlines developments for improving the hospital's environment, saying: "We need to enhance the capacity we have got, and to ask searching questions about whether we need to do the things in hospital that we are currently doing."

That means looking at ways of reducing the time people spend in hospital by giving them support after they leave, and in some cases providing care in alternative settings to hospital.

One of his priorities is dealing with complaints and ensuring action to deal with them is followed through properly.

His wife, Helen, is a qualified nurse who works part-time at a family planning clinic in East Yorkshire.

They live near Beverley and have two children, Alex, ten, and Kate, seven.

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