Trust chief resigns ahead of provider joining ‘group model’

Maz Fosh has been Lincolnshire Community Health Services Trust’s chief executive for four years but this week said she would be leaving the trust at the end of July.

LCHS is set to move into a “trust group arrangement” with United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and will have a shared chief executive from August onwards while the new group model is developed.

ULHT CEO Andrew Morgan will take on the joint CEO role from August until the end of March 2024 when he plans to step down as well. A substantive new single CEO for both trusts will be recruited during Mr Morgan’s time as interim.

Ms Fosh said: “It has been a huge privilege to lead the trust and work with such amazing and inspiring colleagues. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a trust, both for the care we provide to the communities we serve, as well as the partnership working arrangements, we have built across the health and care system in Lincolnshire but now is the right time for me [to] explore other opportunities which have presented themselves to me.

“I am still working with my future employer to confirm the announcement regarding my next step and look forward to sharing that with my colleagues as soon as possible. Equally I look forward to seeing the Lincolnshire system continue the great collaborative work we have already achieved together in the county.” 

The new provider group is at an early stage of development, Mr Morgan told HSJ in early June.

He said they had “agreed in principle that we think a group model is the right thing to do”, but were still in the process of working out the scope for shared posts or governance.”

He added: “What I can’t do at this stage is say: ‘We’ve plumped for this option, it’s going to be X or it’s going to be Y’, because we genuinely haven’t done the work as yet.”

The Lincolnshire integrated care system has a single integrated care board, county council, and acute, mental health and community trust. 

However, plans do not extend to bringing Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust, the county’s mental health provider, into the group. Mr Morgan said it made more sense to combine the LCHS and ULHT rather than LPFT when considering how care pathways interconnect and the way the trusts share facilities and could potentially rotate staff.

Update: This story was updated at 13:33 on 30 June to include a statement from Ms Fosh