A DIRECTOR of a Leeds hospitals trust is to become the next head of the NHS trust running Ilkley's Coronation Hospital and the major general hospital serving the Ilkley area.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust communications and corporate affairs director, Adam Cairns, is to become chief executive of Airedale NHS Trust in September. His vision is said to include making the trust 'truly world class', and working flexibly to ensure the best deal for patients.

He succeeds Bob Allen, and acting Airedale chief executive Janet Crouch, who has carried out the role since Mr Allen was seconded to the Department of Health in recent months. Mr Cairns will take on the job from September 1, says the Airedale trust.

Airedale NHS Trust chairman Professor Brian Jewell said: "It was the unanimous view of the appointing panel that Adam has the right combination of background and experience to take on the role of our chief executive at an important time for the Trust.

"Janet Crouch has done a tremendous job in holding the fort as acting chief executive during Bob Allen's secondment to the Department of Health and I am immensely grateful to her for her loyalty and services to the trust."

As well as running the Coronation Hospital, the trust runs Airedale General Hospital in Steeton, Bingley Hospital, Skipton General Hospital and the Castleberg Hospital in Settle, North Yorkshire. Airedale NHS Trust handed over the ownership of Ilkley's Coronation Hospital site to Airedale Primary Care Trust (PCT) in 2002, although it continues to run services.

It is hoped the hospital's services will be re-provided at a purpose-built health care centre in Ilkley in the near future, although changes within the NHS could mean the decision is in the hands of a grouping of local doctors, instead of Airedale Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Airedale NHS Trust employs 2,800 staff and provides care to a population of 200,000 people.

Mr Cairns, 42, is a Bingley resident, and his education includes a law degree from Hull University, a Diploma in Health Services Management, and his executive training and development activities have included recent spells at the Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins Medical Centre in the United States.

His NHS career began in 1983 as a national management trainee at the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority, followed by a spell with Calderdale Health Authority. He spent time working in the North West, implementing clinical directorates at Hope Hospital, Salford.

He then moved to Leeds, where he held the posts of Director of Contracting, Director of the Yorkshire Heart Centre, and then Director of Acute Medicine and Cardiovascular Services, before taking up his present post in 2002.