A SENIOR executive at NHS Fife has left his post “by mutual consent” after it is understood he was cleared of an investigation into alleged misconduct.

Professor Scott McLean, who had been chief operating officer in charge of acute services, had been on gardening leave on full pay since November pending the outcome of the enquiry.

An NHS spokesperson confirmed that he had left his employment on June 30 by mutual consent.

“The organisation wishes Professor McLean well and thanks him for his significant contribution to services in NHS Fife over the last five years,” added the spokesperson.

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Alex Rowley said he hopes lessons will be learned from the investigation.

“There are fundamental questions of the leadership at the highest level in NHS Fife that needs to be asked so I had met previously with the previous health secretary and put these concerns to her and they continued to say they were supporting NHS Fife to deal with the matters,” he said.

“I am told morale is rock bottom. At a time when 100 per cent focus should be on trying to tackle these big issues around GP and staff shortages, we have management investigating each other.

“We need to now understand what has gone wrong here and how they have dealt with it so it doesn’t happen again.”

As reported by the Press back in March, the nature of the allegations against the 42 year-old had been unclear and his post had been filled in the interim by Helen Wright, NHS Fife’s director of nursing.

Prof McLean, an honorary professor at the University of St Andrews’ School of Medicine, joined NHS Fife in 2013, initially as the executive director of nursing. He was promoted to his current post, which carries a salary of between £74,000 and £100,000, in 2015.

Originally from Stirling, Prof McLean is a qualified nurse who studied at the University of Abertay in Dundee, graduating in 1995.

He went on to work as a nurse at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and then for NHS Lothian.

In 2006, while employed as a senior cardiology nurse at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, he was presented with a British Heart Foundation ‘Excellence Award’ for his role in pioneering a lifesaving scheme which trained paramedics to administer clot-busting drugs to heart attack patients before they were admitted to hospital.

He went on to work in Ireland and then as the director of nursing and governance for Barts Health NHS Trust in London, before returning to NHS Fife.