The embattled head of South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) has left the trust two months after investigators criticised “fundamental failures in governance” during an emergency response times pilot scheme.

SECAmb said this morning that chief executive Paul Sutton had left after he took a mutually-agreed leave of absence. That followed publication of Deloitte’s report into how he signed off on the “re-triaging” of emergency calls, effectively restarting the clock for the purposes of logging response times.

The trust’s chairman Tony Thorne stepped down on the day of publication in March.

A SECAmb spokesman said: “The trust would like to thank Paul for his contribution to the developments and achievements of the trust over the past 10 years.

“The process for finding a permanent replacement will start immediately and will be subject to further announcements as appropriate. In the interim period, Geraint Davies will continue as acting chief executive.”

Deloitte said in March that the SECAmb pilot scheme, which ran from December 20, 2014 to February 24, 2015, allowed up to 10 and 20-minute despatch times for Red 2 and Green 111-category calls. Red 2 calls mean a patient is in a life-threatening emergency and is the second most urgent category.

Deloitte’s report showed the trust did not look at the impact of the scheme on patients and breached NHS 111 commissioning standards.

Additionally, the changes to the Red 2 clock start times were not in line with nationally-agreed operating standards, which require a response time within eight minutes.

A spokesman for the trust refused to say whether Mr Sutton resigned or was asked to leave, or whether he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.