ANOTHER top earning health boss in Wiltshire is quitting. Donna Stiles, chief executive of West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, is resigning from her £90,000 a year post to start a new life in Italy.

Ms Stiles will quit her post at the Trowbridge based PCT at the end of April.

Her departure follows the sudden resignation of Barbara Smith as chief executive of the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust last September.

Mrs Smith who left her £90,000 post just days after she announced her resignation, said she was leaving because she wanted to spend more time with her family.

Both Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT and West Wiltshire PCT have got to cut millions of pounds from their budgets and last year both received zero stars, the worst possible rating, in Government league tables.

West Wiltshire PCT runs maternity services and both PCTs are recommending that Devizes and Malmesbury maternity units be closed to save money, although campaigners are fighting the proposals.

Mrs Stiles, who works up to 70 hours a week, denied the pressure of her job had taken its toll.

She said: "The decision to leave the PCT was more fundamental than simply having a demanding job.

"The hours are long but it's something you do when you do this job.

"I've been in the public sector since I was 18 and the public sector is in the heart of what I do but I made this decision as a human being rather than an NHS employee."

Ms Stiles, who lives in Holt, said she has a long standing love for Italy and regularly holidays there.

Her other passion, outside work, is silversmithing and she has attended a number of classes.

Ms Stiles met an Italian goldsmith called Fabio during a silversmith lesson on her most recent visit to Italy. The couple now plan to live together in Florence.

She said: "It will be very different, going from having a regular salary to starting as a trainee in a different profession.

"I don't know whether I will be successful or not but I'm 39 now and I'm thinking about the next part of my life and this is a new challenge.

"Sometimes in life an opportunity comes along to fulfil a dream and the only thing you can really do is follow your heart and take it."

Mrs Smith's departure from Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT has been filled by two senior executives of West Gloucestershire PCT on a job share basis and the PCT together with the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire strategic health authority have decided to appoint a chief executive from a neighbouring PCT to run it on a part-time basis.

Swindon PCT's chief executive Jan Stubbings will take over the reins on February 1.

West Wiltshire PCT chairman Shiena Bowen said she wanted a full time replacement for Ms Stiles.