Future direction for Humber Health Partnership agreed following review
Hull and North Lincs NHS trusts to operate separately while maintaining collaboration
The Boards of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) have decided to transition from the current Humber Health Partnership structure to operate as two separate trusts.
This decision follows the organisational review supported by NHS England through the Intensive Recovery Programme.
The review concluded that separate organisational arrangements would better address each trust's distinct needs, allowing more focused local health and care partnerships to develop.
The transition aims to strengthen clinical networks, shared learning, specialist support, and patient pathways across the Humber region.
Lyn Simpson, Group Chief Executive of Humber Health Partnership, 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.
“Change will not happen overnight. We will now work through the detail carefully, with colleagues and partners, and the transition will be properly planned and timetabled.
“Today’s decision does not change patient care or how patients access services. Patients should continue to access care in the same way, at the same hospitals and through the same routes as they do now.”
This move will empower the trusts to serve their distinct populations and local systems more effectively while maintaining collaboration in areas where it benefits patients.
Work to develop the detailed arrangements to support this transition will commence, ensuring that services continue to improve throughout the process.
Alan Downey, Chair of Humber Health Partnership, 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.
“It has 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. That is why the Boards have accepted its recommendation.
“There is now important work to do to develop the detailed arrangements and ensure that any transition is carefully planned.”
The organisational review pointed out long-standing operational, workforce, and structural challenges impacting HUTH and NLAG.
The review's recommendations aim to establish a stronger foundation for high-quality care, clearer accountability, and clinical and financial sustainability.
Despite these changes, patient access to care will remain unchanged. Transition plans will involve commissioner-led arrangements for services needed across the region.