Exclusive: The Shepway Vox Team Asks New Kent & Medway NHS ICB CEO Adam Doyle to Clarify Investigations After Procurement and Governance Concerns Emerge

Exclusive

We, the Shepway Vox team, understand that a cluster of serious concerns has been raised inside NHS Kent and Medway’s ICB leadership orbit — including potential fraud, weak procurement practices, and claims that internal “robust challenge” has at times been missing at board level. We also understand there is evidence suggesting multiple investigations have been initiated into these issues, alongside reports of negative behaviour by some non-executive directors and others, and concerns about executives being defensive, remote, and closed off.

Those are substantial allegations. They are not findings, and the public should not treat them as proven. But they go to the heart of how one of Kent and Medway’s biggest public institutions safeguards money, governs itself, and responds when staff, partners, or whistleblowers say something is wrong.

The scale: a multi-billion-pound public purse

To understand why this matters, it helps to grasp what an Integrated Care Board (ICB) actually is. NHS Kent and Medway is the NHS organisation that plans and buys healthcare services for roughly 2 million people across the county. 

That commissioning role comes with a budget measured in billions. NHS England’s year-end financial performance reporting shows Kent and Medway ICB’s allocation at £4,250.3 million (about £4.25bn) in 2023/24.  In 2024/25, the same reporting places the ICB’s allocation at £4,656.8 million (about £4.66bn).  The ICB itself now describes an annual budget of around £4.7bn in 2025/26. 

When governance and procurement are questioned in an organisation operating at that scale, the issue is not abstract. Even small percentage weaknesses can translate into very large sums — and real-world consequences for patient care, waiting lists, staffing, and public confidence.

A new chief executive — and an early burst of scrutiny

NHS Kent and Medway lists Adam Doyle as its Chief Executive pictured, and notes his previous senior leadership roles, including time leading NHS Sussex and work at NHS England. His move from Sussex to Kent and Medway was reported in the health sector press around 30 September 2025. Public communications around the appointment indicated both new CEO appointments in the South East would start on 15 October 2025. 

That context matters because the central question Shepway Vox is now putting to Mr Doyle is straightforward: why and how were these investigations opened so soon after he took up the post?

What The Shepway Vox Team is asking Mr Doyle to confirm

The Shepway Vox Team have written to Mr Doyle to ask him to confirm, in clear terms, whether investigations have been commissioned into procurement weaknesses and allegations of fraud, board culture and conduct (including the role and behaviour of NEDs), and whether concerns about executive defensiveness or organisational “closedness” form part of any formal review.

We’ve also asked him to confirm why and how any such investigations were initiated at pace after his arrival: what triggered them (for example whistleblowing disclosures, internal audit, counter-fraud intelligence, external regulator concerns, or inherited risk logs), what governance route authorised them, who is leading them (and how independence is being protected), and when the public should expect the ICB to share outcomes — at least in summary — given the ICB’s multi-billion-pound stewardship role.

If you have a story you think we should be telling then please do contact us at: TheShepwayVoxTeam@proton.me – Always Discreet, Always Confidential

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime