As part of a government bid to save money, the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board has been grouped with two others.
Lincolnshire is now within a cluster with Derby and Derbyshire and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire as part of the NHS ten year plan of improvements.
The Lincolnshire board was £14.2m over budget in the financial year 2024/25 but plans to be £3.2m under for the current year.
The three ICBs within the cluster are still statutory organisations but now share one board as opposed to having one each.
“Clustering will help the ICBs meet the required reduction in running costs that they have been asked to achieve,” said a spokesman for the Lincs board.
“The objective behind clustering (which is happening in other parts of the country) is to strengthen ICBs as strategic health commissioners (buyers of services) which will be central to realising the ambitions of the ten-year plan.”
The new cluster is headed by CEO Dr Amanda Sullivan with Dr Kathy Mclean as chair.
The first board meeting of the new cluster is due to take place on Thursday, November 20 in Sleaford.
The ICB has only been in existence since July 2022 and is responsible for buying the majority of healthcare services for the county.
These include planned care, emergency care, maternity services and GP services. It also commissions services from providers both inside and outside of the county.
It failed to meet its desired financial breakeven point in 2024/25 and is £14.2m in debt. The wider Lincolnshire NHS system made a total deficit of £26.7m.
The outgoing chief executive, John Turner, earned between £185,000 and £190,000 in the financial year 2023/24 according to the annual report. But from April 2024 to March 2025 his salary is listed as being between £260,000 and £265,000.
This included back pay of £41,070 and pension ‘recycling’ of £24,642.
Pension recycling can see senior staff opting out of the NHS Pension Scheme for tax reasons, but they still receive the employer’s contribution. The scheme was introduced to the NHS in the face of doctors and senior managers reducing hours or leaving the NHS altogether because of salary levels and limitations.
The same annual report also shows that a total of 2,546 working days were lost through sickness in the year from April 2024 to March 2025.
The government’s plan for the NHS outlines reforms across the board, including to the ICBS which, it says, will have increased capability while commissioning support units will be closed.
