CHIEF executive Jo Cubbon has been at the centre of a storm of protests during the three years that she has been trying to solve the financial crisis which enveloped East Lancashire's hospitals.

Now, as she leaves her role almost three years to the day after taking control of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, she insists she is leaving the trust in great shape Mrs Cubbon will leave on April 5 to take up a new post as chief executive Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust to be nearer her elderly parents.

And she said: "Three years ago, the hospitals trust was millions of pounds in the red, and we couldn't get clinical integration across the services. We were having to cancel a lot of operations, and people were having to travel outside Lancashire for services we can now provide in East Lancashire."

But she admitted that there was still a long way to go, saying: "We have started on a very positive journey, and the challenge is to make sure we continue on that, with high ambitions for what healthcare can be in this area. We have to keep on the right track."

The chief executive countered allegations that she was leaving the hospitals "in the lurch", having forced through the unpopular changes, saying: "We are halfway through a very challenging process, but once that's complete there will be something else because that's the way things are in the NHS. My job and my successor's job is about being as prepared as possible for those changes, whatever they might be.

A high point was the opening of the new £113 million Royal Blackburn Hospital in summer 2006.

But Mrs Cubbon also steered the area's hospitals through the controversial Meeting Patients' Needs clinical services review, which took away Burnley General Hospital's Accident and Emergency department, transferring "blue-light" ambulances and transfered acute medical wards to Blackburn.

Phase two of the changes are due to take place next year, creating a new women's and children's centre at Burnley which will also take all complex births from Blackburn, as well as moving elective surgery beds from Blackburn to Burnley.

Mrs Cubbon's time in East Lancashire has been dogged by the changes, which faced massive opposition in Burnley and Pendle and led to accusations that she and fellow directors had ignored consultation.

Since the changes, staff have claimed they are overworked and unable to carry out their jobs at an increasingly busy Blackburn Hospital, while paramedics said lives were being put at risk by the longer ambulance journeys.

Patients have hit out at long waits and lack of transport at Blackburn, while dozens of operations were cancelled there in December.

The hospital has also come under fire for its £960 million, 30-year Private Finance Initiative debt for the new Royal Blackburn Hospital Building and the new Phase Five development at Burnley General Hospital - which cost just £113 million and £30 million respectively to build.

Half of the Phase Five building, which opened in 2006, has been closed since November, and it will see a further £26.5 million redevelopment next year.

But Mrs Cubbon said that the hospital was now doing well financially, meeting all its targets in the financial recovery plan, put in place when she took over to rescue the trust from a £28 million black hole in its finances.

She promised that both hospitals were now fully equipped, and would not need any further costly private financing in the next 15-20 years.

She said patients could now access liver cancer care and coronary blockage treatment in Blackburn, who previously had to travel to Liverpool or Blackpool, while seriously-ill children could now stay in East Lancashire, rather than travelling to Manchester.

and she said that biddin for Foundation Status would give the trsut more control over its finances and improve services even more.

Mrs Cubbon said: "Financially, we have got to be able to compete and deliver the best care, and to do that we have got to be in control of our own finances. The debts meant we were unable to become a foundation trust before, but now we are coming to the end of the third year of our financial recovery plan, which has enabled us to put our hat in the ring for the foundation process and we are hopeful of a good outcome.

"Foundation status will mean the local population have a role in directing the way that the hospital develops, and that to me is really important."

She said the development under the controversial PFI contracts had been essential to providing top-quality services for both Blackburn and Burnley, but said the trust had "absolutely no plans" for any further deals.

She said: "We are in a very fortunate position. Yes, we have got PFIs and we have to learn to work with our partners, but we must not forget that they have given us tip-top, high-class facilities that are envied by most people who come to this hospital.

"As an organisation we have got good building stock for the next 15 to 20 years and there should be no need for any further PFIs.

Mrs Cubbon admitted that there had been "teething problems" since the Meeting Patients' Needs changes, and apologised to those affected by cancelled operations in the run-up to Christmas, as staff were pressurised by the changes as well as the annual surge in "norovirus" sickness bugs.

She said: "As a hospital trust we will never turn a patient away, and unlike many others, we kept our wards open throughout the norovirus outbreak. We are working incredibly hard to ensure that operations are not cancelled in the future. A cancelled operation is always devastating for everyone involved."

"The future is very bright for East Lancashire. All these changes couldn't have been made without excellent staff and this trust has some of the best staff I have ever worked with anywhere in the NHS.

"I'm pretty confident that whatever the future for healthcare that the people of East Lancashire will get excellent services because that's what the staff want for them."