A FORMER chairman of the Wye Valley NHS Trust resigned after being made bankrupt earlier in the year, it has been revealed.

Museji Takolia stepped down as the chairman of the trust which runs hospitals in the county last month.

The Individual Insolvency Register shows that Mr Takolia was declared bankrupt in July of this year.

According to BBC Newsnight Mr Takolia is the owner of a property development called Invest-Eq, which made a pre-tax loss of more than £40,000 last year. He is also a director of a company called Intellicomm, whose latest accounts are nearly a year overdue.

He stood down from his role as the chair of the Pensions Advisory Service in September.

Mr Takolia was replaced with an interim chairman, Mark Waller, who on Monday has been replaced by Russell Hardy, current chairman of South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT)- he will be chairman of both trusts.

Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) has been buddied with SWFT since the beginning of the year to provide increased support as the trust sought to come out of special measures.

Last week, NHS Improvement confirmed that the trust had been removed from special measures and was now rated as Requires Improvement, rather than Inadequate.

A spokesman for WVT said they are now exploring options to put the support from SWFT onto a more formal footing, but said these talks are at an advanced stage and more on this new partnership will be announced shortly.

Jeffrey Worrall, delivery and improvement director at NHS Improvement, said: “We would like to thank the trust’s leadership team, led by Richard Beeken, for the contribution they have made to the work of the trust over the last two years.

“We must also recognise South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust’s support over the last few months which has helped Wye Valley to drive change and deliver the necessary improvements to its services."

In his column last week, Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford, reiterated his concerns that WVT was being taken over in secret by the SWFT and said there should be proper consultation and reflection.

Speaking about coming out of special measures, Richard Beeken, chief executive of the trust, said: "The report confirms that substantial improvements have been made in many areas – and once again our quality of care has been rated as good throughout the trust.

“However, these improvements are only part of the answer to the sustainable delivery of high quality, safe services in the county."