The chief executive responsible for St Albans City Hospital has resigned.

Katie Fisher is leaving West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust at the end of June to take up the same role at a healthcare charity.

Trust chairman Prof Steve Barnett said: “Under Katie’s leadership we came out of special measures, improved upon a wide range of clinical outcome measures for patients and increased our staff satisfaction rates in national surveys. Many hospital trusts would be pleased with just one of these three achievements.

“She should also be praised for her significant contribution to the creation of an exciting vision for the future of our estate and our bid for major funding to transform our buildings.

“Chief executives of her calibre are hard to find, but given the enormous progress we have made over recent years, I am confident the post will attract some very strong candidates.”

Her deputy, Helen Brown, will take up the role from July until a new chief is appointed.

West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust moved out of special measures at the start of this year.

Chief executive of Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group Kathryn Magson said: “On behalf of our board and the whole team here, I want to thank Katie for the outstanding commitment and hugely effective leadership she has shown throughout the time she has worked in the West Hertfordshire system. “Leading West Herts Hospitals Trust out of special measures is a great achievement and this legacy will have a significant and positive impact on patients.

“She leaves an organisation I think is considerably stronger than it was and I very much look forward to continuing to work with her senior team and staff on further developments and improvements in the coming months and years.

“On a personal level I have found Katie an excellent colleague and send warm wishes to her for the future.”

Ms Fisher began her career as a nurse before joining the NHS management training scheme in 2000.

Before beginning work in West Herts in July 2016, she was the director of service transformation at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and had also worked in commissioning.