A SCANDAL-HIT ambulance trust has appointed a permanent chief executive.

Daren Mochrie will be taking up his role at South East Coast Ambulance (Secamb) later this year.

He replaces acting boss Geraint Davies, who stepped in when former chief executive Paul Sutton resigned last May.

Secamb, which covers Sussex, Surrey and Kent, was put into special measures in September after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ranked it inadequate.

It was heavily criticised last year over a pilot scheme introduced to delay up to 20,000 ambulances to patients, which had been overseen by Mr Sutton.

Under the controversial scheme, the ambulance trust gave itself up to 10 extra minutes to reassess what type of advice or treatment patients referred to the 999 control centre by the NHS 111 system needed, and whether an ambulance was really necessary.

The idea was to try to manage high demand and difficulties meeting national response times.

However patients were kept in the dark about the project, as were 111 call handlers and the trust's board.

One of two independent reports investigating the project could not rule out that it caused harm to patients but found no evidence it had done so.

Another report was highly critical of the way Mr Sutton and his team developed and introduced the project, saying it had fundamental failings and was "high-risk".

Mr Mochrie has almost 30 years experience of working in the NHS in Scotland and currently the director of service delivery for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

He also has extensive knowledge of managing ambulance services in both rural and urban settings.

Mr Mochrie was also the lead for ambulance provision in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as well as being a specialist advisor with the CQC, leading four recent CQC inspections of ambulance trusts in England.

Secamb chairman Sir Peter Dixon said: “I am delighted that we have been able to secure a new chief executive with Daren’s skills and experience and I’m confident he will provide the necessary leadership to support our recovery.”

Mr Mochrie's start date is still being arranged and Mr Davies will continue to run the trust until then.

Sir Peter said: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank Geraint for the stability and focus that he has provided during this very difficult period for the trust.”