United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust awarded teaching status

The Trust that runs Lincolnshire’s hospitals has been recognised for its commitment to providing high-quality teaching, by being awarded teaching hospital status.

Last year, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust submitted a detailed application to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to change its status. This included a portfolio of evidence demonstrating its significant teaching commitment.

It has now been confirmed that the Trust has been granted teaching hospital status, which means that from now on it will be known as United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

This prestigious status not only recognises all of the hard work that is taking place, but will help the NHS in Lincolnshire to attract top-tier talent to work in the county.

Chief Executive Dr Karen Dunderdale is also a Visiting Professor of Nursing at the University of Lincoln. Karen said: “Achieving teaching hospital status is a real achievement for the Trust. It demonstrates the importance we place on the development of our workforce, providing training, learning and education opportunities for all our staff. It speaks volumes to a culture that enables staff to be the best they can be in an environment that supports them to flourish.”

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Colin Farquharson, believes the new status will help hospitals teams to improve upon the already high standards of patient care. He said: “I am certain that the organisation’s inclusion in this prestigious category of hospitals will further enhance our ability to attract top-tier talent, engage in ground-breaking research and innovation in collaboration with our university partners and continue to provide the highest standards of clinical education. Ultimately this will improve upon the already high standards of patient care for the people of Lincolnshire.”

Chair, Elaine Baylis, added: “There is fantastic work going on in the teaching arena across our hospitals, including by our medics, nurses, midwives, AHPs and our many support staff. Working closely with our local universities, our training and education offer has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and we know that we regularly attract new staff on the strength of those relationships as well as our improved teaching facilities.

“Being able to include ‘Teaching’ in our title won’t change our approach, but we will be proud to publicly share our commitment to teaching, educating and developing our staff, for the benefit of our local population.”

Director of Medical Education, Dr Suresh Babu, says the Trust has always strived to be a centre of clinical excellence and has been involved in education and training of medical students, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and other professions over the past 25 years. He said: “Adding the word teaching to our Trust name will generate an enormous amount of pride and joy, and will help us to fulfil our ambition to train the next generation of healthcare professionals, advancing medical knowledge and providing high quality care to our patients.”