Special measures for hospitals' governing body

The organisation responsible for hospitals in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire is moving into special measures as unions raise serious concerns about the leadership, the BBC can reveal.

NHS Humber Health Partnership (HHP), which includes hospitals in Hull, Cottingham, Goole, Grimsby and Scunthorpe, has been told by NHS England it will move into Segment 5 of the National Oversight Framework (NOF) and had "agreed a set of enforcement undertakings".

Segment 5 is reserved for providers facing the most significant challenges.

Bosses at the partnership said it "reflects the scale of challenges which the organisation has been managing for some time".

The partnership includes Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLG).

HUTH runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, while NLG runs Scunthorpe General Hospital, Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital and Goole and District Hospital.

Brendan Cafferty, regional organiser for the UNISON union, said: "This news comes after a series of concerning decisions made by the interim team running Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

"A constant turnover of senior managers alongside regular changes to structures within the trust has created a sense of uncertainty for staff, and a lack of clarity over who is in charge.

"It also raises questions over whether decisions are being made in the best interests of patients."

Under the framework, trusts are graded from Segment 1 to Segment 5.

Segment 1 represents NHS organisations with the narrowest range of challenges while Segment 5 is reserved for providers facing the most significant performance or governance challenges.

In July 2025, interim chief executive Lyn Simpson took over from her predecessor Jonathan Lofthouse, and the following month an improvement team comprising five senior staff members and an external contractor was brought in.

When asked by the BBC for their salary of Simpson and that of the improvement team, HHP said her unaudited annual salary was £279,162.

It would not reveal the individual salaries of the improvement team but said the total cost of the "support" between August 2025 and January 2026 was £390,100.

Since the team was brought in, HUTH has slid further down NHS England's league table of acute trusts, which looks at patient safety, finances and access to services. Updated quarterly, the table forms part of the NOF.

In September, HUTH was ranked 123rd out of 134 trusts. In December it was in 130th place.

NLG improved, rising from 125th place in September to 115th in December.

The BBC asked the partnership to explain why HUTH was now in the bottom few.

HHP responded: "Humber Health Partnership has been informed by NHS England that it will move into Segment 5 of the National Oversight Framework and has agreed a set of enforcement undertakings with NHS England.

"This reflects the scale of challenges which the organisation has been managing for some time. These issues are not new and include long-term challenges around access to care, including A&E and waits for surgery.

"All NHS organisations and other public sector organisations, including ours, are working to deliver services in a very challenging financial climate."

The BBC asked how many Never Events - serious, preventable safety incidents involving patients - had occurred since July compared to the previous seven months.

HHP declined the BBC's request to break down the figures but instead said there had been 19 Never Events recorded since its formation in August 2023, with 13 occurring between June 2024 and August 2025.

The partnership added: "Patient safety is an absolute priority for our partnership and must be central to every service and way of working.

"We have launched a new Learning Improvement and Safety Academy to address safety issues, learn from incidents and educate and train our workforce better to prevent incidents from happening again."

It said a "relentless focus on patient safety" would continue "until we are delivering the excellence in care our patients expect when they come to our hospitals or use our services".

HHP added it was "receiving agreed improvement support as part of normal NHS assurance arrangements".

"This reflects the scale and complexity of the challenges facing the organisation and the need for additional senior-level capacity," it said.

HHP said it had developed its first "clinically led improvement plan", which it was was grounded in patient safety.

UNISON's Cafferty added: "Frontline NHS staff want to deliver the best patient care possible to the people of Hull and beyond. They're proud to work for the organisation.

"But they deserve a senior leadership team that supports them to do that."

Peta Clark, head of operations at the Royal College of Nursing, said HHP would "become one of the first trusts placed into NHS England's new Provider Improvement Programme, previously known as special measures".

Clark added: "Staff morale is extremely low. Many feel undervalued, unheard, and under relentless pressure, despite working tirelessly to keep services running."

A NHS England North East and Yorkshire spokesperson said: "We provide intensive tailored support to the most challenged trusts to help them improve sustainably and bolster delivery capacity at pace."

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