A decision has been made for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) to “move away” from their current group structure, following an organisational review of Humber Health Partnership.
The decision, according to the boards, will mean both trusts continue on separately, with distinct boards and executive arrangements. Work is now to begin on supporting teams from HUTH and NLAG through the transition.
The organisational review considered whether the group structure offered the right foundation for high-quality care, clear accountability, clinical and financial sustainability, and long-term improvement, the boards report. Agreement to separate has been reached as the trusts “predominantly serve distinct populations and local health and care systems”, it continues. “Urgent and emergency care flows are largely local, while each trust works with different local authorities, community and mental health providers, ambulance services and place-based partners.”
Separate arrangements will provide a stronger basis for each organisation to focus on the needs of its local population, the boards note, but collaboration will continue for things like clinical networks, shared learning, specialist support, and patient pathways across the Humber.
Where it is identified that clinical services need to operate across the region’s wider population, commissioner-led arrangements will be developed, the boards state, with the ICB to lead on commissioning work.
“The review’s outcome shows that the challenges reflected in our performance and in the external scrutiny of both trusts are symptoms of deeper underlying issues – including the way the Group was originally conceived and established in the first half of the decade, the historic challenges facing both trusts before its formation, and long-standing pressures across the wider health and care system,” said Alan Downey, chair of the Humber Health Partnership. “There is now important work to do to develop the detailed arrangements and ensure that any transition is carefully planned.”
Wider trend: Digital transformation across the Humber
Humber and North Yorkshire ICB has announced the expansion of a data dashboard developed in partnership with York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, aiming to support a “more coordinated approach” to improving health and helping people into work. The People Story Dashboard aligns data with the boundaries of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority, and Greater Lincolnshire Combined Authority. It has been made available, according to the ICB, to inform local planning and commissioning decisions for local partners across the region.
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has set out plans for 2026/27 in its annual digital plan, with an “ambitious roadmap” intended to help the trust leverage digital technology as a primary enabler to achieve its wider goals. Ambitions for the next year, it says, include delivering a single trust-wide digital portfolio, optimising core clinical systems, expanding digitally enabled care, and achieving a four-to-six percent administrative time reduction in pilot areas through the adoption of AI-supported documentation.
Humber Health Partnership recently updated on a number of key digital programmes and priorities, noting the digitisation of mental capacity assessments, the use of VR in specialist rehabilitation, medication safety, and EPR progress. Digital Mental Capacity Act assessments, best interest decision records, and deprivation of liberty safeguards forms have been developed and introduced, according to the group, replacing paper-based processes. An update on the delivery of a group-wide EPR indicates that phase 1 is scheduled for completion in April 2027, with hopes to begin realising benefits in June 2027, and phase 2 to be completed by June 2028.
