‘Extremely concerning for patients and staff’: that’s the verdict from medical negligence experts at Switalskis after five ‘challenged’ NHS Trusts were named as being the first to be placed on a recovery programme by the Government.

Health secretary Wes Streeting announced the measures while admitting that each of the five Trusts were facing ‘deep rooted challenges’ including structural constraints and financial imbalance.

The five Trusts, who will all receive a ‘tailored improvement approach’, were named as:

• North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
• Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and
• East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust.

The specialist medical negligence team at Switalskis immediately called for patient safety to be a top priority in any improvement programme at all of the Trusts, each of which run a number of hospitals in their local area.

The announcement came just days after Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which operates Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, was ranked bottom of NHS England’s acute hospital league table rankings, leading to Switalskis Director and medical negligence expert Chris Gresswell-Green being interviewed by the local BBC news programme , Look North.

And that setback came just weeks after NHS England also agreed a framework for enforcement and placed the NHS Humber Health Partnership under special measures .

The Partnership includes both Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and also Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Scunthorpe General Hospital, the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and Goole and District Hospital.

Both Trusts are now part of the Government’s latest announcement on urgent improvements, prompting concerns for patient safety and standards in the region.

‘Challenged trusts continue to struggle’ – Government plan announced

Mr Streeting, speaking at the University of East London on Wednesday 25 March, confirmed that the new NHS Intensive Recovery programme would begin in April 2026 to address ‘challenged’ Trusts who have ‘continued to struggle – often because of a range of persistent and historic issues which have never been addressed’.

He said the five Trusts were all at the bottom of the NHS England league tables because they faced ‘the longest waits for care, persistent financial problems, and high leadership churn’.

Announcing plans to get the Trusts back up to standard again ‘for the benefit of all patients’, Mr Streeting said: “Right now, a cluster of high-performing Trusts are masking some chronic under-performance in other parts of the country. Failure has been tolerated for too long. Staff know it. Patients feel it. And I won’t stand for it.

“We won’t have succeeded in changing the NHS, until we change it for the patients who are suffering the worst services in the country.

“In some places, so many years of poor service without improvement is feeding that sense of fatalism. They believe that after so long, it just can’t get better – in fact, they’ve never seen it get better.

“That’s why I’ve announced today a new Intensive Recovery programme. This will target the worst performing providers, sending in our best leaders or delivering the structural changes necessary to get them back on track. No more turning a blind eye to failure.”

He added that each organisation will receive a ‘tailored improvement approach, designed jointly with local leadership and focused on delivery’.

Measures he said would be considered include

• changes of leadership
• NHS ‘veterans’ with a history of success being brought into underperforming areas
• merging or separating Trusts so resources can be reallocated based on need and
• improving access to capital for crumbling estates.

Patient safety must come first – our expert view

Commenting on the latest announcement, Suzanne Munroe , Director and National Head of Medical Negligence at Switalskis, said:

“While we welcome the Government’s announcement and its determination to make quick improvements in standards at all five of these Trusts, this news will of course be extremely concerning for patients who use the hospitals concerned and all of the hard-working staff who deliver services at these important sites every day.

“It’s now vital that the improvement programmes are implemented as soon as possible and that patients and staff see those improvements quickly. Central to that has to be patient safety.

“We see the implications of failure in care at these hospitals and the avoidable harm, sometimes life-changing, which the people and families we support have sustained. All improvements at these Trusts must have patient safety at their very heart to prevent other patients sustaining injuries through negligence in the future.”

How Switalskis medical negligence experts can support you

For compassionate advice from our experienced medical negligence team , contact us today. Call 0808 258 5809 or email help@switalskis.com .