New chief executive for region’s hospitals takes up post

‘FOCUS ON MAKING THINGS BETTER FOR PATIENTS AND STAFF’: Jonathan Lofthouse, new group chief executive of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust

By Simon Bristow

Jonathan Lofthouse has started in post as group chief executive at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG).

Formerly site chief executive as part of King’s College Hospitals, Mr Lofthouse will oversee the management of both organisations after the two trust boards agreed last November to move towards a group leadership model.

As well as five hospitals – Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital, Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, Scunthorpe General and Goole – Mr Lofthouse will be responsible for some community services on the south bank of the Humber. He has previously held the position of director of improvement at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

HUTH and NLaG will continue to be two separate organisations, although they will in future share an executive team. While the two organisations already collaborate closely in the delivery of many key hospitals services, Mr Lofthouse’s appointment is the most significant step in enabling them to work more effectively on shared regional challenges, the trusts said.

Mr Lofthouse said: “I am extremely proud to be joining two organisations each with their own unique, rich history, and looking forward to meeting as many of the staff as possible to understand what they are proud of and what support they need in the future.

“We all know how busy NHS services are and how much pressure services are under.

“We also know that following the pandemic many of the demands we are now experiencing across our hospitals and community services are really challenging and difficult to respond to. That’s true across all our north and south bank hospitals. We have emergency pressures, challenges in discharging patients and too many patients who have been waiting far longer than we would desire for our care, whether that be surgery, diagnostic or therapeutic.

“Now is the time for us to act creatively and courageously and innovate, focusing all of our efforts on making things better for patients and for staff. Through a group operating model we get to do that on a far bigger scale, and the power of that collective focus, the effect of coming together, I believe will allow us to create stronger, higher quality, better functioning services for our patients, and create more opportunities for our 17,000 staff.”

Former HUTH chief executive Chris Long informed staff earlier this year that he would be stepping down from his position and has now retired from the NHS. Meanwhile, Dr Peter Reading, previously chief executive at NLaG, has taken up the post of interim chief executive at Yorkshire Ambulance Service.