James Paget university Hospital Chairman David Wright. Picture: Nick Butcher

The James Paget University Hospital (JPH) in Gorleston is on the road to health after a turbulent year, its new chairman has said.

David Wright began his role at the trust on June 1, and has today revealed his priorities for the future.

Mr Wright - who was latterly a non-executive director at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N) - replaces interim chairman, former EDP editor Peter Franzen.

He is realistic and states progress “is not going to be smooth and things are going to go wrong”, but insists a turbulent period is drawing to a close.

“My basic view is this is a good hospital providing good health care to people,” said Mr Wright. “We’ve got some excellent departments, low mortality rates, low infection rates and people coming here have a really good chance of getting better and going out of here safely.

“There have been problems over the quality of care as observed by the CQC, and we’ve had problems managing admissions and discharges of people.

“But I think we’ve got an interim chief executive in David Hill who can really move things forward very quickly.”

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have been to and from the hospital since an initial failed inspection into dignity and nutrition standards in April 2011.

But warnings on care and nutrition standards and service provision have been lifted, and the final warning - on patient care and welfare - could be lifted soon.

“A couple of weeks ago we had a further inspection on quality of care - that’s around bedside things like dignity,” said Mr Wright. “I think that probably went well.

“We’ve one more inspection to go on record keeping.”

For the full interview, see tomorrow’s Eastern Daily Press.