New chief for privately-run Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire

Circle took over the hospital's £40m debt in February 2012

The new chief executive of the NHS hospital Hinchingbrooke, run by private firm Circle, has insisted care is improving and the deficit is falling.

Dr Hisham Abdel-Rahman has replaced Jim O'Connell, just six months after owner Circle's chief executive Ali Parsa stepped down.

Dr Abdel-Rahman insisted the hospital was "delivering high quality services".

But TUC official Steve Sweeney said people would want to know why senior managers were "falling like ninepins".

Dr Abdel-Rahman, who was previously clinical chairman of the trust, said the hospital had recovered £7m of a £10m debt in 2012.

Steve Melton, chief executive of Circle which owns the hospital, said: "Over the past year Hinchingbrooke has become one of the most improved Trusts in the country, we have met all our cancer targets for the first time in three years, and we are now fully Care Quality Commission-compliant for the first time in our history."

Mr Sweeney, of Huntingdonshire Trades Union Council, said: "There needs to be a longer-term commitment to the hospital. It is very unsettling for staff and patients."