THE HEALTH secretary is coming under increasing pressure to act swiftly after the new chief executive of beleaguered phone line NHS 24 quit his post only six months after his appointment.
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume MSP has called for an urgent response from Shona Robison, saying she must show leadership over NHS 24.
No mention has been made of a replacement for Mr Crichton but the Scottish Government has said "a process is in place" to recruit a successor.
Since he arrived at NHS 24, the service has twice launched the new technology for handling patient phone calls only to shut it down again amid fears slower response times were compromising patient safety.
With no firm date for a relaunch and the projected overspend running to £50m, NHS 24 confirmed the interim chief executive was leaving at the end of this month.
Mr Hume said: “It is the Health Secretary’s responsibility to ensure projects in her portfolio implemented by her administration are delivered on time and on budget with the right staffing in place to carry things forward.
“So the news that NHS 24 is once again without a head when its new IT system has been delayed over and over again while costs go up and up calls for an urgent response from her.
“So far there has been a total lack of leadership on what has been a staggering failure in project management and she should be saying exactly what she plans to do to stop this spiralling any further out of control.”
Spending watchdog Audit Scotland has already raised concerns that the personnel directly overseeing the project - known as the Future Programme - changed five times in five years.
Mr Crichton was appointed interim chief executive of NHS 24 at the end of August last year with a 15 per cent increase to his salary of around £134,000. He was moved from NHS National Services Scotland which supports health boards with administrative jobs such as procurement.
At the time the Scottish Government said the recruitment process for a new head of NHS 24 was underway and the role would be advertised in early September.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We’d like to thank Ian Crichton for his many years of dedicated service to the NHS.
“The management team in direct charge of the Future Programme remains in place and is making progress towards rectifying the issues identified and readying the system for implementation. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the NHS 24 Future Programme Board to support the team’s governance arrangements and ensure a successful switch over to the new system in the summer."
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