Hospital boss admits patients 'deserve better'

The acting chief executive of a hospital trust which has been rated the worst in England has admitted patients "deserve better" but denied the organisation is "in a mess".

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

Responding to the ranking, Lyn Simpson blamed "deep-seated, historical problems" and said she had an "improvement plan which is credible and can sustain improvement".

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

Simpson took over from her predecessor Jonathan Lofthouse in July 2025. The following month an improvement team comprising five senior staff members and an external contractor was brought in.

"I don't think that I have taken the organisation to the bottom of the league tables," Simpson told BBC Look North.

"It's historical problems that have been flushed out so we understand them, which has now resulted in that position being exposed.

"There's a huge amount to do."

Simpson also defended her annual salary of £279,000 which she said was "comparable" to other chief executives and had "nothing to do" with the problems faced by her trust.

"The salaries for chief executives are set nationally. It's not something that I determine," she said.

Peta Clark, regional director for the Royal College of Nursing, which represents nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants, said the main issue was the "service not delivering".

She added it was "absolutely not" about nursing staff or doctors providing poor care, adding the trust needed to make the best use of its resources and lobby the government for more funding.

Meanwhile, Hull North and Cottingham MP Dame Diana Johnson said the government had committed £29bn to the NHS, adding: "I think there are some real questions about management in our local trust, and they need to be addressed."

"I think our frontline staff in the local hospitals are doing an amazing job and facing a lot of challenges at the moment.

"But, I do know there has been some churn around management, and that has caused some problems.

"It is really disappointing to see we are at the bottom of the league tables because my constituents deserve better."

A spokeswoman for the Humber Health Partnership (HHP), which includes HUTH, previously 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 before it fell further in the latest published league table.

The spokeswoman for HHP, which has entered 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.

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