A partnership of two hospital trusts across the Humber region should be split up, health managers have agreed.
An independent review made the recommendation due to ‘long-standing challenges’ in management and a need for improvement in healthcare delivery.
The Humber Health Partnership (HHP) brought together the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) and the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) in 2023. The new partnership faced a series of challenges shortly after its formation and an independent review was launched after the partnership went into special measures in March of this year.
That review has now recommended HUTH and NLAG be returned to two separate organisations. This means they will move away from the group structure and instead operate as two separate trusts.
Each trust will have distinct board and executive arrangements, while continuing to collaborate formally for some limited services. Health managers have reassured local people that the decision does not change patient care or how patients access services.
Patients will continue to use the same hospitals and through the same routes as they do now. And work will now begin to develop the detailed arrangements needed to support a smooth transition, according to Alan Downey, Chair of Humber Health Partnership.
He said: “The purpose of this review has never been to pursue organisational change for its own sake. It has been to look honestly at the evidence and identify the arrangements most likely to support patients, colleagues and sustainable services over the longer term.
“The review’s outcome shows that the challenges reflected in our performance and in the external scrutiny of both trusts are symptoms of deeper underlying issues – including the way the Group was originally conceived and established in the first half of the decade, the historic challenges facing both trusts before its formation, and long-standing pressures across the wider health and care system.”
The review found that these challenges are structural, not simply operational, and that HUTH and NLAG should operate as two separate trusts rather than through the current group structure, while continuing to work together where that benefits patients and services.
Mr Downey added: “There is now important work to do to develop the detailed arrangements and ensure that any transition is carefully planned.”
The review was supported by NHS England through the Intensive Recovery Programme. It considered whether the current group structure provided the right foundation for high-quality care, clearer accountability, clinical and financial sustainability and long-term improvement.
Managers have now agreed the review’s recommendation because HUTH and NLAG predominantly serve distinct populations and local health and care systems. The report found urgent and emergency care flows are largely local, while each trust works with different local authorities, community and mental health providers, ambulance services and place-based partners.
The review also found that separate arrangements would provide a stronger basis for each organisation to focus on the needs of its population, its local partnerships and its improvement priorities.
Some partnership working between NLAG and HUTH will continue across clinical networks, shared learning, specialist support and patient pathways. Where clinical services need to operate across the region to support recruitment, retention and sustainable patient care, formal commissioner-led arrangements will be developed.
Shared non-clinical services and functions may also continue to operate across both trusts where this provides the best service and value and collaboration would continue, according to Lyn Simpson, Group Chief Executive of Humber Health Partnership.
She said: “Since last autumn, colleagues across HUTH and NLAG have helped build a much clearer and more honest understanding of the long-standing challenges we need to address. That work led to our clinically led Improvement Plan and enabled us to look openly at whether the current organisational structure gives both trusts the best basis for sustained improvement.
“The Boards’ decision recognises that our two trusts serve distinct populations and local systems. But it is not a retreat from collaboration and it is not a return to the past. We must retain and strengthen the clinical networks, specialist support, shared learning and patient pathways that benefit from working across a wider geography.”
The next phase of work will focus on the detailed organisational, governance and collaborative arrangements for the two trusts, while ensuring services continue to improve and develop throughout the transition.
By: Paul Drury-Bradey, LDRS
