Two local NHS organisations formally come together as a Group

Two NHS provider organisations have this week formally come together in a Group arrangement, with the goal of improving the care provided to patients across Lincolnshire.

Effective from Monday 1 April, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) have come together in a Group arrangement.

This will not constitute a formal merger of the two organisations, but will bring the Trusts together under a single Board and Executive Leadership Team, with the goal of improving the care that is provided to patients both in the community and in hospitals across Lincolnshire. Both Trusts will retain their separate statutory names and legal obligations.

Following an extensive staff and stakeholder engagement exercise, it has been decided that the Group will be known as Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG).

Elaine Baylis has taken up the post of Group Chair this week, and Professor Karen Dunderdale has been appointed as Group Chief Executive and is due to take up the role on Monday 1 July, taking over from Andrew Morgan the current Group Chief Executive who is retiring at the end of June. Karen is currently the Group Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Chief Nurse.

Group Chair, Elaine Baylis said: “This arrangement has been put in place to improve how care is delivered to patients by working even closer together. It is a really exciting development which we believe will make a huge difference to our staff and patients.

“In the last few months as we have prepared for this change, extensive work has already taken place to start bringing our services and teams closer together, to improve the experience of patients and the efficiency of our services.

“This has notably included joint working on improving the care for patients on our urgent and emergency care pathways, work together to improve how we care for frail older people and the use of virtual wards.”