THE shock departure of Iain McInnes, chief executive of the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, and its finance director Sandy Hogg, will not have any impact on the future of the maternity unit at Malton Hospital.

Chris Coombs, secretary of the trust, said the decision of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel set up by health secretary Alan Johnson to examine the trust’s decisions to withdraw maternity services at Malton and Whitby ospitals and to change services at Bridlington Hospital, was expected next week.

“We will then look at the situation in the light of that decision,” he said.

Yesterday it was announced by the trust that it had appointed a new interim chief executive, Christine Green, the chief executive of Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who will take up her position next week.

The Strategic Health Authority for Yorkshire and the Humber said in a statement: “She joins the trust to provide a smooth transition following Mr McInnes leaving to a new role in the NHS. She brings with her many years’ experience of successfully leading a hospital trust.”

Mr McInnes was the third chief executive of the trust, which covers the Ryedale area, in the last five years.

It has been bedevilled with multi-million pund debts and Mr McInnes said in a statement that it had faced ‘‘serious challenges” in recent years but he was leaving it in a much sounder position financially.

The trust, which also runs Scarborough General, faced having to make 600 staff redundant last year, but the number was drastically scaled down to about 60 following further investigations and protests from staff and the public. Also leaving the trust is the non-executive chairman of the trust’s audit committee, Jason Brine.

Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, has called for action by the trust to alleviate what it described as “the uncertainty” for patients and the workforce caused by the departure of Mr McInnes and Ms Hogg.

“The sudden announcement throws the trust into turmoil and comes at a critical time for the Malton, Whitby and Bridlington hospitals,” said Karen Reay, Unite’s national officer for health.

The maternity services at Malton and Whitby hospitals, which are owned and run by the Primary Care Trust, are provided by the Scarborough NHS Trust, which wants mums-to-be to have their babies at home, or at Scarborough General.