The chair of NHS Tayside has stepped down less than a month after being appointed to the role.

Professor Nic Beech, vice-principal of Dundee University, was appointed to the job at the end of October.

However before he even chaired his first meeting, it has been announced he is leaving to concentrate full-time on his academic career and take up a new role as vice-chancellor of Middlesex University.

Professor Beech said: “It is with regret that I have to withdraw as chair of Tayside but I have been offered a role which represents a career ambition.

“This does not in any way diminish my belief in the ambitious change programme in NHS Tayside and its leadership and I was excited to be working with the team on a significant change and improvement project.”

Health secretary Jeane Freeman has appointed vice-chair Lorna Birse-Stewart, who was previously interim chair, to lead the board.  

She said she wished Professor Beech well in his academic career, adding: “I am confident that Mrs Birse-Stewart will continue to ensure that the people of NHS Tayside have the best care experience possible.”

Officials from NHS Tayside were quizzed today by MSPs as part of Holyrood’s health committee work scrutinising NHS boards.

Last month a report from Audit Scotland warned the board still faced “substantial long-term financial and operational challenges.”

Grant Archibald, chief executive of NHS Tayside, said transformation of how services work was at the centre of their plans.

“Tayside has for too many years been providing services at a cost that cannot be afforded and therefore we need to radically review that,” he said.

“We currently have a total of 97 schemes proposed by clinicians about how services could be redesigned.”

He added: “If you look at our detailed proposals next year we say we will achieve £7m worth of savings through that redesign programme.

“That is why we are at the stage now of working through the whole array of schemes to identify those that will deliver quickly and those which might take longer time.”

MSPs highlighted concerns over psychiatry services in Tayside, including from staff worried about repercussions if they raised any issues, “bullying” and a lack of clinical leadership.

Mr Archibald said he was disappointed to hear bullying being raised as an issue and invited people to raise concerns personally with him.

“There should be nobody working in Tayside who thinks they can’t come forward and speak to either myself or to the chair or anyone else in seniority,” he added.