ENT UK Trustee Andrew Foster Obituary
11 April 2023
Andrew Foster, CBE
(3rd March 1955 – 20th March 2023)
Lay trustee, ENT UK
Andrew was born in Wigan and studied at Millfield School before gaining a scholarship to Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1976. The award of CBE during his career was a particularly proud moment for Andrew and his family. He was a great husband to Sara, proud father to Anna, Tom and Grace and loving grandfather to 8.
He was Chief Executive at Wrightington Wigan and Leigh (WWL) Teaching NHS Foundation Trust from January 2007 to October 2019. His main interests have been quality and staff engagement with a particular desire to learn from the best hospitals in the world. Over those years WWL achieved Foundation status and then Teaching hospital status, developing a significant reputation for all-round performance, whilst also achieving almost all major targets and enjoying financial stability. WWL won many national and regional awards including HSJ Provider Trust of the Year in 2014.
Before WWL, he spent five years as the NHS Director of Human Resources (Workforce Director General) at the Department of Health with principal responsibility for implementing the workforce expansion and HR systems modernization set out in the NHS Plan of 2000. Previously he spent two years as part-time Policy Director (HR) at the NHS Confederation. Andrew was also the Chair of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust from 1996 to 2001 and before that Chair of West Lancashire NHS Trust and non-executive director at Wrightington Hospital NHS Trust.
From May 2016 to November 2018 Andrew was sponsor CEO for the NHSI A&E Improvement Plan in the North of England. He was appointed as interim Managing Director of the Leadership Academy in November 2019 with additional responsibility to Chair the work on Leadership Culture which was a central feature of the NHS People Plan, published in 2020. He also served as Non-Executive Director at Health Education England and Chair of the people and culture committee from 2019.
Most recently, Andrew was Chair of Manx Care from 2020 till his untimely death following a short illness.
As a new consultant in WWL in 1999, I can remember with fondness Andrew welcoming me warmly to Wigan in his role as Chair and during the 12 years as CEO at WWL he led the drive to excellence showing how clinicians and managers working together in partnership produce the best outcomes for patients. As President of ENT UK (2019-2022), I was enormously grateful to Andrew for his wise words of wisdom during my tenure and the help he generously gave our specialty as a lay trustee during the pandemic. In 2021, he was the driving force and founding member of the ENT UK Foundation, the philanthropic and fund-raising arm of ENT UK which invests in the specialty, engaging with stakeholders and helping facilitate global innovation. In his memory as a kind and supportive leader the Andrew Foster ENT UK Foundation Leadership grant will be awarded later this year.
He worked tirelessly on the covid-19 response crisis at NHS England including on efforts to support more staff to return to clinical work. Andrew was a passionate supporter of the drive for equality, diversity and inclusion making the NHS and the world a better place. The NHS, and I personally have lost a great friend and human being and many of us can only take consolation in this quote: “say not in grief, he is no more; but in thankfulness that he was”.
Professor Nirmal Kumar, Chair, ENT UK Foundation