Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust explained

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Type:NHS hospital trust
Budget:£317 million
Hospitals:Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital
Scunthorpe General Hospital
Goole and District Hospital
Chair:Terry Moran
Chief Exec:Peter Reading

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust which was established in April 2001, by a merger of North East Lincolnshire NHS Trust and Scunthorpe and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust. It runs the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, Scunthorpe General Hospital, both in Lincolnshire, and Goole and District Hospital, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

The trust established the Path Links Pathology Service jointly with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust in 2001.[1]

In January 2016 the trust was one of five where substantial reconfiguration of services was envisaged.[2]

Performance

It was one of 11 trusts to be placed into special measures after the Keogh Review into higher than expected mortality rates. It was assigned to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for support and though it was said to be making good progress[3] it was one of the 24 trusts placed in the highest risk band[4] by the Care Quality Commission in October 2013.

In December 2013 the Trust was one of thirteen hospital trusts named by Dr Foster Intelligence as having higher than expected higher mortality indicator scores for the period April 2012 to March 2013 in their Hospital Guide 2013.[5]

It was taken out of special measures in July 2014.[6]

In April 2015 the trust asked for an emergency loan from the Department of Health as it forecast an £18 million year end deficit for 2014-15.[7] It expects a deficit of £25.8 million for 2015/6.[8]

Scunthorpe General Hospital was judged by the Care Quality Commission to be "inadequate" in April 2016. They found "evidence of harm to patients within the outpatient services because of poor management of the follow up appointment system". The trust complained about this assessment. Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby was rated as "requires improvement", while Goole and District Hospital was rated "good".[9]

The trust was hit by a Ransomware virus, Globe2, on 30 October 2016. Computer systems were shut down and 2,800 appointments were cancelled over the following two days.[10]

In May 2017 it announced an external contract for ophthalmology work to help clear a backlog of almost 900 patients. It was again put into special measures after the Care Quality Commission found that there "remained a lack of management oversight of the recurrent backlogs".[11]

In January 2020 it had a backlog of 34,938 follow-up appointments of which 20% were in ophthalmology. The ophthalmology service could not meet the quality standards set by NICE regarding “the frequency of recall to follow-up, as well as the tests which need to be performed every visit due to limitation of clinical capacity, technical instrumentation and training technicians”.[12]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: The impact of pathology reorganisation. 4 May 2015. Health Service Journal. 26 June 2013.
  2. News: Five trusts seeking millions for reconfiguration. 11 March 2016. Health Service Journal. 26 January 2016.
  3. News: Trust running Scunthorpe hospital is making 'good progress', says Health Secretary . 1 November 2013. Scunthorpe Telegraph. 24 October 2013.
  4. News: Raised risk of poor care at Scunthorpe General Hospital, says Care Quality Commission . 1 November 2013. Scunthorpe Telegraph. 25 October 2013.
  5. News: Dr Foster identifies 13 trusts with high mortality ratios. 7 December 2013. Health Service Journal. 6 December 2013.
  6. News: Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust taken out of special measures . 1 December 2014. Grimsby Telegraph. 17 July 2014.
  7. News: Lincolnshire trust requests emergency DH bailout. 4 May 2015. Health Service Journal. 8 April 2015.
  8. News: Emergency savings drive and stretch targets fail to reduce provider deficit. 1 November 2015. Health Service Journal. 28 September 2015.
  9. News: FT hits out at CQC after hospital rated 'inadequate'. 2 July 2016. Health Service Journal. 15 April 2016.
  10. News: Cyber attack trust reveals details of ransomware virus. 25 January 2017. Health Service Journal. 7 December 2017.
  11. News: Inadequate trust to outsource treatments for three years to clear backlog. 29 May 2017. Health Service Journal. 5 May 2017.
  12. News: Nearly 35,000 patients overdue follow-ups at single trust . 22 March 2020 . Health Service Journal . 28 January 2020.