Chief Financial Officer, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
Chief Financial Officer, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
United Kingdom
Our vision
To provide excellent care, with compassion, wrapped around people’s individual needs
Together with our partners we will develop nationally leading integrated health and care, unlocking better outcomes and reducing inequalities, and develop UHP as a regional specialist centre to improve lives across Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall
UHP has a unique role, one of few trusts in the country to fulfil four distinct roles in the peninsula health and care system – spanning community and social care, mental health, acute and through to specialist and tertiary services.
Who we care for
We are responsible for providing care across the widest of spectrums: from within people’s homes and working with our voluntary sector partners in local communities, to offering the most specialist hospital care available in our regional centre.
The south west peninsula geography gives our Trust a secondary care catchment population of 475,000 with a wider peninsula population of almost 2,000,000 people who can access our specialist services. The population is characterised by its diversity – the rural and the urban, the wealthy and pockets of deprivation, and wide variance in health and life expectancy.
A regional specialist teaching trust
We are a teaching hospital in partnership with the University of Plymouth and working with Plymouth Marjon University. As host to the Joint Hospital Group South West (JHG(SW)) in a city with a strong military tradition, we have a tri-service staff of nearly 200 military doctors, nurses and allied health professionals who are fully integrated within our facilities.
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Dear Candidate
Thank you for your interest in the role of Chief Finance Officer at University Hospitals Plymouth. This is one of the most important appointments we will make, and I am pleased that you are considering joining us at a significant moment for the Trust.
Derriford is the largest hospital in the south west peninsula. We are the major trauma centre, the cancer centre and the regional centre for cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery and transplantation for a population approaching two million people across Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall. If we do not provide a service here, patients travel a very long way for it. That gives our teams a strong sense of purpose, and it means the decisions this Board takes about money have direct and visible consequences for people who have no realistic alternative.
The Trust is both in a challenged position and has significant opportunity. We sit in segment 4 of the NHS Oversight Framework, our financial position requires recovery at pace, and our urgent and emergency care performance, while improving, is not yet where it needs to be. None of this is a secret and none of it is comfortable. It is also, I think, what makes this a job worth doing, and there is a great deal to build on. Colleagues here delivered a savings plan of £56.8 million in 2024/25 while improving emergency department performance and reducing waits, we went live with Epic in July, and we are the first Wave 1 scheme in the national New Hospital Programme to begin main construction, with a new Emergency Care Building rising at the front of the hospital.
In our new Chief Finance Officer I am looking for someone who will tell me and the Board what we need to hear rather than what we would like to hear, and who will do it early, because financial credibility is rebuilt through accurate forecasting and honest reporting long before it is rebuilt through delivery. I am looking for someone who can build a finance function that clinical and operational colleagues genuinely trust and use, since recovery at this scale needs both grip and a better conversation between finance and the people running services. And I am looking for someone who treats the wider portfolio as a real leadership responsibility, because site services, procurement and business intelligence are a significant part of how we improve productivity, patient experience and the working environment for our staff.
I am genuinely open about where the right person comes from. If you are running finance for a large NHS group or site, if you are a deputy ready to step up to a statutory board role, or if you have led finance in another complex regulated organisation and want to bring that to the NHS, I would encourage you to talk to us.
This is also a fantastic place to live. Plymouth is a city of a quarter of a million people on the edge of Dartmoor and the South Hams, with the sea on its doorstep and a direct rail line to London.
If you share our values and want to play a part in improving the health of people across this peninsula, I would warmly encourage you to apply. I look forward to meeting you during the process.
Yours sincerely
Neil Macdonald
Chief Executive
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust -
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All applications must include:
• A full curriculum vitae/resume
• Quoting the relevant role reference number: A041956
• A covering letter highlighting the aspects of the job description and UHP that particularly attract you to the post (Microsoft Word document)
• Contact details for three referees, these will not be contacted without your permission. (References should validate a minimum period of six years employment)
• A completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (which you will be redirected to once you have submitted your application) *
Right to work checks
If you are successfully shortlisted, our partner, Yoti, will contact you to complete an online right to work check. This is a quick and secure process, ensuring that all necessary legal requirements are met before proceeding further in the recruitment process.
*Monitoring
One of Alumni Global’s and UHP’s objectives is to ensure that its workforce is reflective of the local community and therefore we actively encourage applications from under-represented groups. So that we can successfully achieve these aims, while it is not mandatory we would encourage every applicant to complete the “Equal Opportunities Monitoring form” so that we can measure the effectiveness of our efforts. The Recruiting Manager does not have access to the Monitoring Information Sections of the application form at any stage of the process and the information provided will be kept entirely confidential.
For a confidential discussion on this role please contact:
Thomas Patterson, UK Managing Director or David Heaton, Principal Researcher whose details can be found at the bottom of this microsite.
Candidate adjustment
If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made as part of the recruitment process please can you advise us so that we can ensure this is accommodated.
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Closing date: TBC
Stakeholder session: TBC
Final Interviews: w/c 19th October 2026
Please ensure you have made a note of the final interview date(s). We recommend that you bookmark this microsite, as any potential updates regarding the role will be posted online.
Please take note of the reference number found under section “How to apply”. This is needed for us to process any application.
