The chief medical officer of New Hampshire Hospital, Dr. David Folks, is stepping down from his post in January, the New Hampshire State Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.
The announcement comes on the heels of recent news of layoffs at Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center due to budget deficits. The layoffs were announced just days after the medical center was awarded a $36.5 million contract by the DHHS to staff New Hampshire Hospital, the state's psychiatric facility.
Folks, who has been CMO since 2008, also works for Dartmouth-Hitchcock, according to the statement by DHHS Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers.
“The Department and NH Hospital leadership will work closely with Dartmouth-Hitchcock on a transition plan to ensure that Dr. Folks' departure does not impact the high-quality services NH Hospital patients receive and that a new chief medical officer is in place at NH Hospital prior to Dr. Folks' departure,” Meyers said in the statement.
Folks gave no reason for his departure. A Dartmouth-Hitchcock spokesman also provided no additional information.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock last week announced it would lay off 3% to 5% of its workforce, which totals about 10,000 workers across its Lebanon location and several community group practices in the state, a spokesman said Tuesday in an email. He said the total number of layoffs has not yet been finalized.
The spokesman said the staffing issues will not affect Dartmouth-Hitchcock personnel at New Hampshire Hospital. Dartmouth-Hitchcock employs about two dozen psychiatrists, advanced-practice nurses and administrators to care for patients with severe mental illness, the Concord Monitor reported.
