The Guardian view on NHS funding: hospitals are hurting | Editorial
Bob Kerslake has been a big figure in public service for most of the past 20 years. He was a successful chief executive of Sheffield city council, before he was enticed to Whitehall where he became permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government, and for a time head of the civil service. In 2014 he left Whitehall to run King's College hospital foundation trust in south London, and in 2015 he was made a member of the House of Lords. His public image is of a combative man who is not afraid to speak his mind and who is passionate about public service. It is little surprise that the opposition have sought his advice.
On Sunday night, Lord Kerslake announced in these pages that he was resigning from King's in protest at what he called - correctly - the failure of government to face up to the depth of underfunding in the health service. Such a high-profile resignation by a well-respected figure is profoundly embarrassing, and he correctly anticipated a counter-attack. On Monday morning it was widely reported that he was expecting to be asked to step down by NHS Improvement, the regulator created by the Conservatives to monitors trusts' financial management, because King's is spending way over its budget, and has been since before he took over. King's is now a hospital in special measures, adding to the impression that Lord Kerslake jumped before he was pushed.
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