EAST Lancashire’s hospitals chief is leaving her post just 15 months after taking over.

Marie Burnham, the chief executive of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, has been seconded to a job with the regional health service for 12 months.

Ms Burnham, who took over in April, will be in charge of preparing the North West for a potential flu pandemic. Yesterday she was said to be unavailable for comment.

But Blackburn with Darwen health scrutiny chairman Roy Davies said: “It is totally out of the blue, because she has just come back from holiday, and especially because she has only been here since last April.

“They are promoting the line that she’s done so well she has been headhunted - but I don’t know who to believe.”

Bosses have appointed a stand-in to the top spot who will continue to be chief executive of a hospital trust in Yorkshire at the same time.

Diane Whittingham, chief executive of Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals, will divide her time between the two posts, which are based 50 miles apart.

Councillor and hospital campaigner Darren Reynolds said: “What the trust needs at the moment is some stability.

“It’s disappointing that she is going but I wish her luck in the secondment.”

In May, chairman Alan Green announced he was stepping down for personal reasons, meaning the trust now has an interim chair and chief executive.

The trust’s finance director Stephen Brookfield, who is due to step down from his post in September, has been on sick leave since May.

Coun Davies added: “It is frightening. If Marie is so good that she’s being seconded, and it was a full-time job, how can someone else step in who’s got another job?”

NHS North West said it approached the hospital board earlier this month asking for the secondment. Bosses deemed there to be an “urgent need” for the new role given the spread of swine flu nationwide.

Ken Morris, the interim chair of the trust board, said it was a “great honour” that Ms Burnham had been chosen for the task.

He added: “Whilst the board recognised the importance of releasing Marie to take up this crucial role for the wider NHS in the North West as soon as possible, we only agreed to do so once we had made sure we had the right person to step into Marie’s shoes during her absence.”

He said Ms Whittingham had experience working in a trust with a similar population to East Lancashire with some similar issues, including having two hospital sites.

It has not been revealed how the two chiefs’ salaries will be paid.

He added: “I am confident Diane will play a key role in making sure we continue to deliver high quality health services for the people of East Lancashire.”