The creation of a new body overseeing Lincolnshire hospitals has provided better services for patients but challenges still remain, bosses have said, writes local democracy reporter Oliver Castle.
Prof Karen Dunderdale, group chief executive of the Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH), said at an annual public meeting on September 23, that there are still issues to be tackled for our under-pressure hospitals.
The LCHS and ULTH merged together last year as part of plans to create a more integrated health service in the county.
Prof Dunderdale said: “It’s been busy and we’ve seen an increase in the number of people being treated within our services.
“We’ve seen a six to seven per cent increase in the number of people using our services.
“We’re committed to showing signs of improvements for our people, patients and our partners.
“It’s been a year of many pressures but we’ve also continued to make improvements.”
Prof Dunderdale said the integration of resources within the hospital group has enabled it to provide more services for patients.
She added: “We now provide sexual health services for Lincolnshire as well as North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
“We’ve expanded our community-based services and we’re focusing on providing more care for people in their own homes.
“There are a number of areas that we’re developing. We’re investing in new technology across the trust and this is one of our key priorities for the NHS.
“It’s important that our staff are able to keep digital records of patients so that this information can be carried on.”
Prof Dunderdale went on to say that the ULTH being awarded teaching hospital status has been a ‘huge accolade’ for the group.
The Lincoln Medical School at the University of Lincoln opened in 2019 and the first cohort of medical students graduated last year.
She said: “We’ve seen an improved performance across our emergency care services.
“We know that we have more to do and we’re committed to delivering more improvements going forward.”
Elaine Baylis, who sits on the board of directors at the hospital group, said the group is focusing on providing more support for people within the community.
She said: “We’ve focused specifically on our integrated care services, urgent treatment centres and A&E departments and how we can integrate them to provide better outcomes for our patients.
“We are working very closely with our community clinicians to ensure that people are able to remain at home when they are able to do so.
“We’re continuing to integrate more of our services together as a group where this achieves better results.”
But Ms Baylis did acknowledge that hospitals across Lincolnshire are facing additional pressures.
She said: “It’s important to recognise that there are some parts of our services that are facing challenges.
“Some of our services have experienced staffing issues and we’ve also had some issues with flooding to some of our buildings.
“We continue to be fully committed to working with all of our key stakeholders to ensure that we’re a great place for our staff to work and provide care.”
