TURMOIL continues at the organisation running Worcestershire Royal Hospital, with its chief executive signed off on sick leave.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Penny Venables did not attend either of the organisation's past two board meetings on Thursday, May 7 or Thursday, May 28.

A spokesman from the trust confirmed Mrs Venables, who was appointed to the role in 2012, was currently on sick leave, but was unable to elaborate.

This is the latest in a series of upsets for the organisation, which also runs Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch's Alexandra Hospital.

This winter proved one of the busiest in recent memory, with an "unprecedented" amount of patients visiting the two A&E departments, leading to long waiting times, an ever-increasing backlog of elective operations and some having to be treated on beds in the corridor. As a result the trust has consistently failed to meet NHS targets on measures such as the amount of time patients visiting A&E wait to be seen, treated and either admitted or sent home as well as the wait for elective operations to be carried out. Although the trust has vowed to meet the target of seeing at least 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours by the end of June, this week it said it was unlikely to have carried out 95 per cent of elective operations within 18 weeks until November.

Things only got worse in February, when five A&E consultants - including the entire team at the Alex and another from the Royal - resigned on the same day. All five posts have since been filled.

The following month the Care Quality Commission carried out a surprise inspection at both hospitals. Although a full report is expected to be published in the coming weeks, in the short-term the trust was issued with three warnings requiring it to take "urgent action" to ensure enough qualified staff were on hand at all times and equipment was properly maintained.

However, at no point during the winter was the trust placed in special measures, unlike the neighbouring Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, and figures presented at this week’s board meeting show some improvement in terms of waiting times.

In the meantime Mrs Venables' deputy Chris Tidman, who is also the trust's director of resources, has stepped into her role as acting chief executive.

The trust also recently appointed former deputy chief medical officer at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Dr Andy Phillips to the post of interim chief medical officer and last month Marie-Noelle Orzel was appointed as improvement director by the Trust Development Authority with a remit to work alongside the organisation’s management to develop solutions to its current problems.

Mrs Venables previously held the post of chief executive of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham. While at the organisation she led a successful application to become a foundation trust.