‘We’ve normalised the unacceptable’, says embattled trust CEO

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust chief executive Andrew Morgan said “nobody could be happy” about the state the organisation is in, and blamed scrutiny from the media and inspectors for poor staff morale.

Last week, the Care Quality Commission published inspection reports of the emergency departments at Lincoln County and Pilgrim hospitals, rating both “inadequate” for the second time in a year.

The trust is rated “requires improvement” overall but remains in special measures for quality and its finances. The trust, which was placed in special measures in 2017, has planned for a £40m deficit in 2019-20.

Mr Morgan said: “I think on occasion we have accepted where we are. We have normalised, on occasion, the unacceptable. We have not empowered our workforce to take responsibility. We have not been good at holding people to account. We’re not always good at encouraging feedback.

“On coaching people, if you look at some of our staff survey results, which were a lot better in 2019 than they were in 2018, we still have issues about support from immediate managers.

“We have issues about communication. I would say on occasion we overcomplicate things. We don’t get on and do the things that need to happen. We look at them for too long.”

Mr Morgan was formerly chief executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services, which achieved an “outstanding” rating from the CQC in 2018. Last year, he was seconded to ULHT until March 2020, which has since been extended for another two years. One of his ambitions for ULHT includes the trust achieving “outstanding” status by 2025.

As part of his improvement programme, Mr Morgan said: “I think organisations develop a way of working, and leaders develop a way of working, and when you change some of those leaders, like me, when you come in, you see the stuff that other people maybe haven’t seen for a while, and they’ve got used to it.

“And yes, there will always be, in any organisation, some people [who] might be the wrong people to be there. After talking to people, working with them, trying to develop them, if we find that this just isn’t going to work, we don’t ignore that.

“We have to face it head on in a dignified professional way and say to people, ‘This isn’t going to work, how can we help you find something that you are going to be more competent at?’; and that may or may not be in our organisation.”

The trust has also struggled with workforce morale. In recent board papers, the trust recognised some staff have shown “a lack of pride or hope in working at ULHT” and that “workload and demand gives little time to provide the care to the standard aspired to, leaving staff disappointed and dissatisfied”.

Mr Morgan added: “The trust has been in double special measures for three years, it is constantly in the media spotlight and that is bound to have an impact on staff morale and their sense of hope.

“Part of what I have been saying, as well as talking about normalising the unacceptable, is that we can’t go on like this. Nobody can be happy [with] where this trust is in its current position.”

In spite of the trust only announcing a two-year secondment, Mr Morgan said his future was “absolutely dedicated” to ULHT.

He added: “Two years is quite a long time. If closer to then they want me to stay on longer, then I’m up for that.”