The Humber Health Partnership (HHP), a group formed from Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, has found itself in the kind of turbulence that tests not just the resilience of its services, but the very fabric of its leadership.
Following a clash with fellow board members, the partnership’s substantive chief executive has taken a leave of absence. Into the breach steps Lyn Simpson, the highly experienced chief executive of North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC), appointed on an interim basis to steady the ship.
The context for her arrival could not be more urgent. The HHP chair has openly flagged “urgent” patient safety concerns across key services: urgent and emergency care, cancer pathways, planned surgery, and infection control. The trust group is also wrestling with performance and financial pressures, a combination that would be daunting even for a permanent leader with years to embed themselves.
For Ms. Simpson, the task is clear but formidable: take control of a system under strain, win the confidence of staff, and implement rapid improvements, all while knowing her role is, by definition, temporary.
The value, and limits, of interim leadership
The NHS has a long tradition of appointing interim leaders in moments of crisis or transition. Done well, such appointments can be lifesaving for an organisation: they bring in fresh perspective, cut through political impasses, and apply hard-earned expertise exactly where it’s most needed.
Ms. Simpson is no stranger to high-stakes environments. She has been at the helm of NCIC since 2020, previously served as NHS Improvement’s regional director for the North, and has navigated sensitive and complex issues in past roles, including those linked to the Lucy Letby case at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
But even the most capable interim CEO faces unavoidable constraints. Without the permanence of a substantive post, authority is often framed by the ticking clock of their tenure. Decisions may skew towards the urgent over the strategic. Long-term cultural change, which depends on trust, continuity, and the slow process of shifting entrenched behaviours, becomes harder to achieve when the leader implementing it might not be there a year later.
The cost of the leadership carousel
The situation at HHP is not an isolated event. Across the North East and North Cumbria region, a sequence of senior leadership secondments has unfolded: CEOs and chief operating officers shifting between trusts, filling gaps left by others who have themselves been redeployed. Advocates describe this as collaboration in action, a pooling of leadership talent in a spirit of mutual aid.
Yet, viewed another way, it resembles a leadership carousel: a cycle in which experienced leaders are moved like chess pieces, plugging holes but never truly settling. In the short term, this avoids leaving organisations leaderless. In the long term, it risks masking systemic weaknesses, from inadequate succession planning to fragile boardroom relationships.
For trusts like HHP, where patient safety concerns are pressing, this constant movement of leaders can also affect service delivery. Staff may face shifting priorities as each new leader adjusts course. Relationships with regulators, partners, and local communities have to be rebuilt repeatedly. And the accountability that comes from seeing a long-term plan through to completion can be diluted when those initiating change have already moved on.
Why stability matters when patient safety is at stake
Leadership stability isn’t a luxury; it’s a critical factor in patient outcomes. When safety concerns are serious enough to be described as “urgent”, the solutions rarely involve quick fixes. Addressing them means tackling root causes: staffing gaps, process failures, cultural issues, and system-level inefficiencies. That requires not just technical skill, but time.
A permanent chief executive has the runway to build relationships, embed reforms, and be held accountable for their success or failure. An interim leader, however skilled, must work at speed, often without the same mandate to drive deep, potentially disruptive change.
That is not to downplay the necessity of Ms. Simpson’s appointment. In moments of crisis, the NHS must act decisively, and seconding a respected and experienced leader is infinitely better than leaving a void at the top. But it is to suggest that this kind of crisis leadership should be the exception, not the operating model.
The bigger lesson for the NHS
If there is one takeaway from the HHP situation, it is that the NHS’s leadership pipeline needs urgent attention. The service must be able to field leaders ready to step up permanently when needed, without over-reliance on the same small pool of executives moved between trusts. That means investing in talent development, strengthening succession planning, and creating board cultures that can withstand, and learn from, internal disagreement without descending into disruption.
For HHP, the immediate focus must be on stabilising services, addressing safety issues, and supporting staff through a period of uncertainty. But there should also be a parallel commitment to appointing a substantive leader as soon as possible, someone who can own the long-term vision, see through the changes, and rebuild confidence across the partnership.
Because while an interim leader can keep the ship afloat during a storm, only a stable hand on the tiller can chart the course for calmer waters. The NHS cannot afford to confuse survival with progress, especially when the lives and safety of patients are on the line.
