Concern raised over plans to merge two NHS organisations in Lincolnshire

Last month, Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG) announced its intention to merge the two bodies it oversees – Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS), which delivers community-based services, and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), which runs hospitals in Boston, Lincoln, Grantham and Louth.

Two years ago, LCHS and ULHT came together as Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group, but remained separate statutory organisations.

The merger, it argues, would build on the success of the group arrangment.

A spokesman said: “Through the creation of a new, single NHS Trust, duplication in governance will be removed, joined-up digital systems will be created, and unnecessary complexity in patient pathways will be resolved where care crosses organisational boundaries.”

More on the plans can be found HERE.

Following that announcement, the Standard was contacted by Ava Harding-Bell, who heads up the Swineshead Medical Group Patient Participation Group and is also an affiliate of the Lincoln Institute for Rural and Coastal Health, a research body that aims to target place-based health inequalities.

She said she was concerned community health services would suffer without a trust dedicated to it.

“I worry greatly about what is going to happen,” she said.

She said she felt services had already taken a blow through the introduction of the Patient Services Hub. This new, centralised approach, she said, had led to patients becoming disconnected from services, saying ‘PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) is overrun with complaints’. (The Local Democracy Reporter Service reported in July that the rollout had been labelled a ‘complete mess’).

Other knocks to accessible healthcare, she said, including stroke and on-call urology being taken away from Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital to Lincoln County Hospital.

She encouraged LCHG to reach out to patients, so they fully appreciated the challenges being faced in the county.

She said: “They see it from their perspective, from their side of the desk, but they don’t see it from our perspective.”

The Standard put these concerns to LCHG and received a lengthy reply which is summarised below:

In relation to concerns community health services would suffer under one, merged trust, it said the group arrangement had led to ‘good progress’ being made to improve services for the people of Lincolnshire.

This included reduced waiting lists and more patients being seen virtually, freeing up beds for those who need them most.

“The NHS 10 Year Plan and our Group Strategy set out bold ambitions for how care will be delivered in the future. It has become increasingly clear that our group model is holding us back because we remain as two legal organisations,” a spokesman said. “This includes separate statutory and regulatory obligations, which create significant duplication across governance, limitations in how staff can work across the trusts and fragmented digital systems and inefficiencies.

“Our proposal to merge to create a new, single organisation will enable us to go further and faster to deliver the improvements to services we know our staff and patients want. It is a merger of equals and will combine the best from both trusts.”

In response to criticism of the Patient Services Hub, it said the new approach had been developed in ‘direct response to patient feedback’.

“The hub is essential to improving how we communicate with patients, families, carers and health professionals by creating a one-stop approach for all NHS appointment queries,” the spokesman said.

“We recognise that some staff and patients have raised concerns about aspects of the Patient Services Hub implementation and it has not yet delivered the improvements we expected everywhere.

“We are listening to this feedback and using it, alongside our performance data, to refine our approach and ensure the hub delivers the benefits we expect for both patients and staff.

“We remain committed to working closely with our staff and patients as we continue to refine and strengthen the Patient Services Hub to ensure it delivers lasting benefits for the residents of Lincolnshire.”

In response to concern over the availability of certain services, such as stroke and on-call urology, the spokesman said: “Our vision for the future will create a modern health and care system where technology and AI enable people to manage their own health with faster support and more personalised care.

“The focus shifts from treating illness to preventing it, supporting people to stay well, for longer.

“We remain committed to delivering services across the county, including Boston. We are in the final stages of the completion of our new £36.2m Emergency Department at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, which supports our ambitions to redesign urgent and emergency care so people access the right service, in the right place – improving outcomes.

“Also in Boston, we are also excited to be creating a new £24.9m community diagnostic centre on York Street, where we anticipate we will support up to 70,000 people a year to access the tests they need quickly and easily. This is expected to be completed by spring 2027.”

Moving to reassure patients that their voice would be heard as part of the process, the spokesman said: “Our plans include opportunities for discussion with both staff, patients and other stakeholders and partners in the coming months.

“As part of the NHS 10 Year Plan and our own Group Strategy, we expect more of our patients to receive care in their own homes, neighbourhoods and communities, personalised to their needs and delivered seamlessly by one joined-up team across primary, community, secondary and social care.”