The boss of Bradford's debt-ridden hospitals said now was the right time to "move on" as he announced he is quitting the troubled flagship trust.

David Jackson formally told the trust yesterday he is leaving his chief executive post at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - worth at least £135,000 a year - to take "early retirement."

Mr Jackson, 57, will leave the trust, which is facing an £11.3 million deficit, at the end of this month. He will be replaced as interim chief executive by the trust's current chief nurse and director of hospital services Rose Stephens.

Speaking for the first time since the Telegraph & Argus revealed last week he was set to go, Mr Jackson said: "I have been considering retiring from the NHS for some time but I very much wanted to ensure continuity for the hospitals, its patients and staff by leading the trust in the run-up to becoming a new NHS Foundation trust last April and during the first-year challenges of its new 'life'.

"However, now that tough waiting-list targets have been achieved three years ahead of the rest of the NHS and a robust financial plan drawn up to help us strengthen our financial position, I feel that it is the right time to move on."

Last week Prime Minister Tony Blair pointedly blamed the flagship Foun-dation Trust for the cash crisis at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital which has led to ward closures and job losses, fuelling speculation Mr Jackson came under pressure to leave.

Trust finance director Paul Earp resigned in October and chairman John Ryan was sacked in December by watchdog Monitor following revelations of the enormous debt.

Chairman Peter Garland, who replaced Mr Ryan, said: "David has taken the hospitals into a new era and leaves a legacy of improvements and modernisation."

Mr Jackson, who spent 12 years of his 35-year career in the NHS in Bradford, was awarded a CBE last year.

Mr Ryan said: "It's unfortunate that at a time when the trust needs his experience and leadership that the new chairman and board have maybe allowed him to go."

But Bradford Teaching Hospitals Unison senior convenor Amandeep Singh said: "Because we are in the process of redundancies and re-deployment it's a bit hard to accept Mr Jackson is getting early retirement - a lot of our members have not been offered that."

Hospital governor Matt Palmer said: "It's good news for patients and the people of Bradford."