Tuesday 4 March 2025
Dear colleague,
Welcome to Updates from Group Board for the Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG). This Group is made up of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH).
The Group Board operates as the joint board and decision-making body for both statutory organisations and this update is designed to inform colleagues and stakeholders of the discussion and decisions being taken at both the Group and individual Trust level.
We held our most recent Group Board meeting on Tuesday 4 March 2025, which was open for members of the public to join virtually. The full Board meeting papers can be found on the Trust Board papers page on the website.
Accreditations: Burton Ward and the Cardiac Catheter Laboratory at Lincoln County Hospital were celebrated for achieving Bronze awards in the Group Diamond Quality Accreditation Scheme. This award recognizes wards and departments that consistently demonstrate high standards of patient care and invest in staff wellbeing. They also need to evidence their improvement journey through a variety of metrics.
The Cardiac Catheter Laboratory treats patients with acute coronary disease through stenting and pacemaker implantation. They have undertaken quality improvement by investing in equipment that helps seriously ill patients, allowing their hearts to recover while assisting with pumping. The machine reduces mortality by as much as 12%, and patients who were previously too unwell to receive treatment due to high risk can now receive stents.
Burton Ward is a renal ward for elderly patients with complex needs. Their quality improvement was related to reducing falls. They have implemented a system called Baywatch, where one nurse remains in the bay area of high-risk patients on a one-hourly rota system to help reduce the risk of falls. It was a straightforward yet effective intervention that made a big difference to patients.
Patient story: The Board heard a very difficult story about the end of life care of John, told by his wife, Wendy. John received support from several services, including community nursing, the ambulance service, and the Emergency Department, but his end of life care wishes captured in the RESPECT form weren’t followed. John wanted to die at home or in a hospice, however he sadly passed away in the Emergency Department before a hospice referral was organised. Wendy raised several improvement points relating to communication, personalised care, listening, compassion, and handling complaints. She also talked about where improvements could be made to the information that is shared with families of palliative patients who are dying, in terms of support available and what to do after the death of a loved one. The Board thanked Wendy for her courage in sharing this highly emotive account and described improvements that have been implemented and what the Group is still working on. John and Wendy’s story is captured in this video.
Celebrating Group success – stroke services: The team provided an update about a project to improve thrombolysis rates. It is a treatment that delivers a drug that breaks down clots, increasing a patient’s chances of survival with less disability after having a stroke. The team has developed a “code stroke” approach, speeding up the assessment and treatment time. The project improved rates of patients receiving the treatment from 8% to 12%. The time to receive thrombolysis halved from 75 minutes to 36 minutes after arriving at a hospital. After agreeing on a new way of working the team implemented the change quickly, supported by both acute and community service colleagues.
Good news stories:
- Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) – in January, we officially opened Lincoln CDC. Approximately £42m has been invested into CDCs in Lincolnshire, of which £23m has been invested into the Lincoln CDC. Along with state-of-the-art elective (planned) diagnostic services, the centre has dedicated training facilities to support the training of future radiographers, directly linking with the Diagnostic Radiography Programme at the University of Lincoln.
- Call for Concern – ULTH rolled out this service to Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, at the beginning of February 2025, after launching it at Lincoln County Hospital last year. The service builds on the existing safeguards in our hospitals to offer a clear and direct way to escalate concerns about a patient’s deteriorating condition.
- Chief Midwifery Officer (CMO) visit – In January, NHS England’s CMO visited ULTH with colleagues from the Regional Chief Nurses’ office. During the visit, members of the maternity team were presented with Chief Midwifery Awards, which recognise the significant and outstanding contribution to providing excellent care, leadership and inspiration to their colleagues and patients. Silver awards were presented to Specialist Midwife, Amy Garratt and the Shared Decision Making Council maternity staff, whilst the Gold award was presented to Director of Midwifery, Libby Grooby.
- In January, we welcomed a visit from the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, Dr Henrietta Hughes. As part of the visit, a detailed update was provided on the progress made with implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), which included how the key Patient Safety Principles had been applied across the Group. Dr Hughes commented on the significant progress made within the Group and took away learning and good practice to share with other Trusts.
- A pilot project of community nurses and community paramedics directly supporting East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) in the Emergency Operations Centre is delivering measurable improvements to patient care. Notably, 69% of patients screened by community staff were managed in urgent care services and didn’t need an ambulance response.
Safer staffing: In the update about staffing levels, the Board has noted that the Group has recruited 52 new Healthcare Support Workers, which will positively impact vacancy rates and reduce temporary staffing costs. The Board also heard an update about an overall reduction in the use of bank and agency medical staff across the Group.
Gender pay gap: The Board received an update about the gender pay gap and the action plan for the Group. In LCHS, women earn 91p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay. Women hold 89.2% of the highest paid jobs and 79.4% of the lowest paid jobs. Both of these measures have shown an improvement compared to last year.
At ULTH, women earn 86p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay. Women hold 63.8% of the highest paid jobs and 81.7% of the lowest paid jobs. There have been small positive improvements in the gender pay gap in the Trust. Full reports will be published on each Trust’s website.
Finance: The Group’s financial position for the year remains at £33.3 million deficit, £24.7 million adverse to the plan, with most of the deficit within the acute services. The Cost Improvement Programme is slightly behind plan by £1.2 million, however the run rate is showing improvement year-to-date. An improvement has been seen in the agency staffing position, with a year-on-year 28% reduction in agency staffing costs, however further work is required in 2025/26 to support efficiencies.
If you have any feedback on the discussions at the Group board, please contact [email protected].
Kind regards
Rebecca Brown Karen Dunderdale
Group Deputy Chair Group Chief Executive