May 23, 2019 12.46 pm This story is over 57 months old

ULHT appoints new chief executive ahead of major health shakeup

Current Chief Executive Jan Sobieraj will retire in June

Andrew Morgan has been appointed as the new Chief Executive at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) for an interim period.

Andrew will join ULHT on a secondment from his role as Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust on Monday, July 1. The interim period of his new role at ULHT is until Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

During his time with ULHT he will step down as Chief Executive of LCHS. Alternative management arrangements will be made for its leadership. It is subject to the routine formal NHS Improvement sign-off process.

The switch up comes as the trust, still in special measures and ranked inadequate by the CQC, prepares to launch a new transformation plan for hospitals and other health services.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan, or STP, is expected to include plans for five urgent treatment centres and to centralise some services to Lincoln, including the county’s stroke unit.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Jan Sobieraj

ULHT’s Chief Executive Jan Sobieraj will retire from the post at the end of June 2019.

He has been in the role for three years, time in which services have been strained due to staff shortages and financial restraints.

During his time in charge, Lincolnshire hospitals failed to achieve the A&E waiting times targets and the A&E at Grantham has also been closed overnight.

ULHT Chair Elaine Baylis said: “I firmly believe that Andrew’s appointment will help to provide continuity within ULHT after Jan’s departure, as Andrew has a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills and will be able to continue the work that Jan has taken forward in transforming our trust.

“Andrew is very familiar with the challenges that we face as an organisation and has been working with Jan and other colleagues on a system wide approach to the provision of acute services across the county for some time.

“Andrew joins a very experienced Executive Team at ULHT and I am confident that together they will continue to build on the transformation and service developments that are already well under way. This consistency and continuity of approach is important as we move forward with our programmes to improve our services for the benefit of our patients.”