Hospital trust slumps to bottom of league table

A trust that runs hospitals in East Yorkshire is now officially the country's worst.

NHS England ranked Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) 134th, putting it at the bottom of its league table of acute trusts.

The trust runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

A spokeswoman for the Humber Health Partnership (HHP), which includes HUTH, said: "Our current position in the league table reflects the scale of challenges which the organisation has been managing for some time. These issues are not new."

The table, updated quarterly, reflects patient safety, finances and access to services.

In December, HUTH was in 130th place.

The spokeswoman for HPP, which is now entering special measures, said since the summer it had "taken a deliberate decision to surface those challenges openly through the development of our clinically-led improvement plan".

The plan, shaped by frontline clinicians, sets out "clear actions to strengthen patient safety, stabilise services and improve reliability of care", she added.

According to HHP, a number of changes are already under way, including a major improvement programme to reduce waiting times for breast cancer treatment, and the introduction of a seven-day service to help patients with clots on their brains.

The spokeswoman added: "We're also changing ways of working – adapting medical rotas to provide 24/7 cover, introducing a new digital appointment system empowering patients to book and cancel appointments and offering people new services to support their recovery at home instead of them spending too long in hospital."

Earlier this month, the BBC revealed HHP had been told by NHS England it would move into Segment 5 of the National Oversight Framework (NOF) and had "agreed a set of enforcement undertakings".

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.

The HHP spokeswoman added: "The additional oversight and enforcement undertakings that are linked to our position provide a structured framework to support delivery of that work, including strengthening leadership, governance and organisational arrangements across the partnership."

HHP also includes Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG), which runs Scunthorpe General Hospital, Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital and Goole and District Hospital.

It moved up one place in the league table from 115th in December.

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.

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