A NEW boss has been appointed to a leading health watchdog responsible for raising healthcare standards across the south.

NHS Improvement has named Anne Eden as its new executive regional managing director for the south.

She will be supporting NHS trusts and foundation trusts across the region to bolster care for patients – including at the scandal hit Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The watchdog is overseeing changes at the Calmore-based Southern Health which runs mental health services for millions of people across Hampshire and four other counties in the south.

It follows the release of a damning report condemning the trust for “serious failings” in safety and failures to investigate the deaths of hundreds of people with mental health problems and learning difficulties in its care.

Last week MPs discussed the trust’s future at a landmark debate in the House of Commons.

They pledged that new trust chairman Tim Smart – who was appointed by NHS Improvement – needed “breathing space” to come up with recommendations for the next course of action.

It came as senior trust managers pledged to pay £80,000 compensation to the family of Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, who drowned in a bath three years ago at one of its care units.

Anne was previously named as acting in executive regional managing director for the South when the watchdog was set up in April.

She draws on 30 years’ experience in healthcare, formerly serving as the former chief executive of Buckinghamshire Hospital NHS Trust and director of services at St Mary’s Paddington and Deputy Chief Executive at Hammersmith Hospitals.

Southern Health runs a series of mental health services across Hampshire, providing services for 45,000 people in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Centres in Hampshire include Antelope House and Moorgreen Hospitals in Southampton, Melbury Lodge and Leigh House in Winchester and Ravenswood House in Fareham.