THE HEAD of the Royal Free Hospital has resigned after a year which has seen the Hampstead Hospital plunged into financial chaos. Andrew Way is leaving the hospital to become the chief executive of Albert Health Group – a major teaching hospital group in

THE HEAD of the Royal Free Hospital has resigned after a year which has seen the Hampstead Hospital plunged into financial chaos.

Andrew Way is leaving the hospital to become the chief executive of Albert Health Group - a major teaching hospital group in Melbourne, Australia.

In a statement he said: "It has always been a personal ambition, should the opportunity arise, to work and experience health care in another country. When the opportunity came earlier this year to go to the other side of the world to run a major health care provider, I decided to take it.

"There is a tremendous team of high top quality people here. We have just reorganised the management structure at the Royal Free to make maximum use of the skills, knowledge and leader potential of the senior clinicians and managers within the organisation."

The Pond Street hospital has been beset by problems following the installation of the Cerner computer system last year. It led to appointments not being booked and bills not being sent, resulting in a loss of up to �10million.

For more on this story read this week's Ham&High.