Executive Directors

Prior to joining Wirral University Teaching Hospital, Janelle was the Director of Operations and Performance at Salford Royal Foundation Trust.

Janelle has worked in the NHS since qualifying as a Registered General Nurse in 1991. During her nursing career she worked in a variety of clinical areas, moving into operational management in 2004 following a spell as a ‘health economy’ service transformation lead.

Janelle is passionate about service improvement, staff development and whole system working to improve patient outcomes and experience. In 2011 she successfully integrated Salford Community Adult and Children’s Services with the acute hospital as Managing Director for Salford Health Care. In 2015 she established the Better Care at Lower Cost programme as Director for Productivity and Efficiency with the specific focus of improving patient quality and safety to drive cost reduction.

Dr Nicola (Nikki) Stevenson qualified as a doctor from The University of Liverpool (MBChB). She undertook her training throughout Cheshire and Merseyside during which time she obtained a Medical Doctorate (MD) which is a higher research degree awarded to medical professionals. She originally joined WUTH as a junior doctor and was appointed as a Consultant in Respiratory & General (Internal) Medicine in 2007.

Dr Stevenson's extensive career with WUTH has seen her progress within our services from Clinical Service Lead for Respiratory Medicine (2015) to the role of Associate Medical Director for the Division of Medicine (2018) and then later in 2018 she was appointed Executive Medical Director. She also became Deputy Chief Executive in 2020.

Dr Stevenson retains her clinical practice, seeing patients in her field of respiratory medicine in clinic and as part of the respiratory consultant on call rota. She also has executive oversight of the WUTH Research and Innovation portfolio and its cohort of Principal Investigators for clinical trials.

In addition, Dr Stevenson is the executive lead for Medical Education responsible for the teaching and training of medical students from the University of Liverpool and doctors (‘junior’ doctors, or doctors in training). WUTH is the only teaching hospital on the Wirral and trains hundreds of students and doctors every year.

She lives locally with her family on the Wirral.

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New WUTH Chief Operating Officer (COO) Hayley Kendall joined from the beginning of January 2022 from her previous COO role at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital (LHCH). Hayley is coming back to WUTH after six years away from the Trust. Prior to the COO role at LHCH, Hayley was Divisional Head of Operations for Surgery and Clinical Services at LHCH, having joined the Trust from WUTH in June 2015, where she served as Deputy Divisional Director. Hayley also spent 12 years at the Countess of Chester Hospital in a broad range of operational management roles. 

Hayley said: ‘I have very fond memories of my time at WUTH and I can’t wait to get started in the new role. There are operational challenges this winter, of course, but the WUTH team ‘can do’ attitude is still very apparent and I am looking forward to leading the Operations teams to deliver great care to our patients and to support our staff’

Mark Chidgey joined the Trust in June 2022, having been the Chief Finance officer for NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group. Mark is a qualified accountant, who graduated from the University of York.

Since joining the NHS in 1990, Mark has considerable experience in both acute and commissioning sectors. Mark has worked at board level for over 10 years, most of that time as a finance leader, but his responsibilities have also included Quality, Safeguarding, Commissioning and Performance.

Mark brings with him a wealth of experience of partnership working across health and care systems and has worked at a national level on the development and implementation of payment systems and outcomes frameworks for population health.

Matthew has also held a number of other operational roles at Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust including Director of Operations at Manchester Infirmary and Trust Turnaround Director, directing the financial recovery programme. Before this Mathew worked as the Director of Healthcare Consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney, Australia, leading on clinical improvements, financial recovery and mergers with a range of public and private healthcare organisations.

Deborah has worked in the NHS for over 10 years, coming through the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. Deborah has worked as a Human Resources and Organisational Development professional in several other NHS Trusts and prior to joining WUTH, she worked as the Deputy Chief People Officer at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust. Deborah is passionate about supporting and developing our staff to make WUTH a great place to work and to keep patients at heart of what we do.

Jo has 22 years’ experience in the NHS, working in clinical and operational roles. Prior to this she worked with homeless young people supporting their health and social care needs. 

Jo is a registered nurse and has previously worked in the acute sector, specialising in Women’s health. She was previously Chief Operating Officer at Wirral Community Health and Care.

Jo completed her Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care in 2019. She is a Queens Nurse and a Fellow of the Institute of Health Visiting. Jo is also a visiting lecturer at The University of Chester and has previously worked as a specialist advisor for CQC.

Alison previously worked in the NHS for over 10 years providing leadership and advice to NHS Board of Directors at Wirral Community Health and Care on all matters associated with corporate governance.

She has a sound understanding of the regulatory and political environment in which NHS organisations operate and provides leadership on all matters of corporate governance ensuring all statutory duties are met. She is also responsible for the Communications & Marketing strategies for the trust.

Alison provides advice and regulatory guidance to  the Council of Governors. Alison previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry and brings a sound understanding and almost 10 years’ experience working in the commercial healthcare sector.

Alison was previously Interim Joint Corporate Affairs Director on August 2025 for both WCHC and WUTH and is the Anti-Fraud Champion at WCHC.