A new chief executive has been appointed at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was placed in special measures last month.

Roland Sinker is currently acting chief executive at King’s College NHS Foundation Trust and has worked in senior strategy and operations roles for the last 10 years.

He will replace Dr Keith McNeil who stood down in September as chief executive of the NHS trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The NHS trust has also agreed that Roland will be joined by Sir Ron Kerr on a part time basis as a special adviser to the board.

Sir Ron has extensive experience in senior NHS leadership roles, and will take on his position at Cambridge alongside his existing commitments at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust where he is currently executive vice chairman.

Dr David Bennett – chief executive of Monitor, which regulates health services – said: “Patients in Cambridge rightly expect that their local hospital will provide them with quality care, so it was deeply concerning when the trust went into special measures in September.

“Today’s appointments provide Cambridge University Hospitals with the strong leadership and extensive NHS experience that it needs to be able to deliver the improvements we all expect.”