HE WAS the hospital boss brought in to slash costs, streamline healthcare and achieve foundation trust status.
Phil Morley arrived in Hull, declaring: "It's about listening, learning and leading."
By the time chief executive Mr Morley departed three and a half years later, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust was in disarray.
Consultants and nurses had quit and senior members of staff had buckled under the pressure of the management system.
Now, after a series of external reports, hospital bosses face a mammoth task of rebuilding a hospital trust damaged by a culture of bullying, intimidation and nepotism.
Phil Morley arrived at the trust in October 2010 with a well-cultivated reputation as a man with an eye for the NHS as a business.
Although from a clinical background in haematology, he had come to the attention of NHS paymasters during his time at the Department of Health.
He was their man, parachuted into hospitals with their blessing, to "restructure" – management speak for drastic cost-cutting and redundancy programmes.
His ambition was to achieve foundation trust status, free from central government control and given the power to keep any cash it generated.
He had done that in his previous role, achieving foundation status for Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust within his first 100 days.
Before he sat in the chair in Hull, Mr Morley was warning of the "challenges" facing NHS budgets and his determination to achieve foundation status within two years.
He was offered a salary of up to £190,000 a year but, in a grand gesture, he claimed it was too high, accepting £170,000 instead.
However, it later emerged that Mr Morley had spent £50,000 on his NHS credit card at shops, hotels and restaurants. One bill was for Greggs the baker, another for the five-star Royal Horseguards Hotel in London.
His unrelenting focus cultivated the target- driven environment that saw widespread reports of managers bullying staff to improve performance.
But that was only part of the story. Along his career path, Mr Morley collected allies who helped him drive through change.
Soon, those key allies appeared around the board table in Hull – chief nurse Amanda Pye, deputy chief executive Morag Olsen and director of workforce Jayne Adamson.
Ms Pye and Mrs Adamson joined Mr Morley on a sunset cruise to Florida in 2012 at a time when the trust was making millions of pounds in cutbacks.
Concern over Mr Morley's leadership and the financial handling of the trust grew more intense over the last two years, after Ursula Vickerton joined as audit chairman non- executive director in December 2012.
But some who questioned the structure were ridiculed, intimidated or were forced out of the trust.
One was Pauline Lewin, chief of infrastructure and development, suspended by Mr Morley after voicing her concerns. She remains on gardening leave.
Staff remember the extreme anxiety of simply walking along the management corridor at the trust's headquarters of Alderson House.
And it wasn't just the executive team bearing the brunt.
Consultants, alarmed by the threat of the changes to patient safety, got both barrels. In 2012, cardiologist Professor John Cleland broke ranks to declare the closure of Ward Six "disastrous".
Sources have told how Mr Morley was furious when he confronted the eminent doctor, now chair in clinical cardiology at Imperial College, London.
Undeterred, 17 cardiologists and heart surgeons took the unprecedented step of publicly condemning the plan just days later.
Seven neurologists sent a letter to Mr Morley, the Association of British Neurologists and other officials voicing "deep concern" following the merger of a neurology ward with a stroke ward at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Threatening emails were sent, consultants packed up and left, sickened by their experience.
The Mail has been informed one consultant who spoke out about the cuts was told his staff would be made redundant unless he kept quiet.
Non-executive directors on the trust board, then chaired by Rob Deri, did flag up concerns but were silenced. Mr Morley and his allies held all the power.
"People did try to stop him," we have been told. "While a few stepped forward, they were isolated when the others stepped back. Easy targets."
The Trust Development Agency was called in and the full extent of Mr Morley's management of an organisation which is part of Hull's fabric was laid bare.
Within weeks, the hospital boss who posed as "Superman" was on his way south, this time as chief executive of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex.
Trust starts road to recoveryBATTERED and bruised, Hull's hospital trust is beginning the road to recovery after the departure of Phil Morley.
Chris Long, former boss of Hull Primary Care Trust, was appointed chief executive at the end of September. While no soft touch, and with an unflinching demand for high standards, his appointment has been welcomed by many.
But Phil Morley's legacy will take a considerable time to dismantle. Four months were lost while interim chief executive John Saxby played a holding role until the arrival of Mr Long.
Mr Morley's allies have also gone. Amanda Pye and Morag Olsen have left for new NHS positions.
Interviews for a new trust chairman will be held in January and new directors have been appointed, including Mike Wright, returning as director of nursing, and Jaqueline Myers, acting chief operating officer and director of strategy and planning.
Several allies of Mr Morley remain in post but, as one source said: "Everyone knows who they are and what they did or didn't do. They are without influence now."
While attempting to dismantle the "command and control" system under Mr Morley, trust bosses also face the intense scrutiny of the Care Quality Commission and the Trust Development Authority now the problems have come to light.
Their first task is to see the hospitals through the winter pressures. Increasing numbers of patients with more serious health conditions are putting pressure on the emergency system right in the middle of a major transformation.
Tough times lie ahead and there will be patients kept on trolleys for too long.
But the transformation including an ambulatory care unit for the walking wounded, a frailty unit specifically for older patients and a completed emergency department will produce a stronger hospital.
Easing the pressure on emergency care frees up staff to carry out elective surgery, improving waiting times. This is a crucial part of the plan as elective surgery is where the trust receives the income it needs to invest in other services.
Chris Long and his team are also working to return power to clinicians, allowing them to take control of their own departments once more, albeit within agreed budgets. With the medics encouraged towards innovation to improve patient care, everyone will benefit.
As the new management beds in, consultants are once more coming to work at the trust, including many who quit under Mr Morley. More doctors mean more patients can be seen, waiting times improve and more money can be invested in future services. Consultants will be allowed to flourish in their careers. Happier consultants should mean happier teams on the wards.
Nursing shortages remain an acute problem but work is under way to fill the vacancies. It will take time but the commitment to address the problem is there.
While pressures remain, all the signs are there that the trust, come the summer, will be on a much more even keel.
