Simpson’s appointment comes after HUTH dropped to the bottom of NHS England’s league table, external of acute trusts in December.
Last month, it emerged £18,477 of taxpayers’ money was spent on overnight stays for Simpson and her team of four other senior managers who had been brought in to turn the trust around.
Simpson previously led North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC), where there were “serious concerns” over bullying and discrimination of disabled and non-white staff.
NCIC, HUTH and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) were among five trusts identified by Health Secretary Wes Streeting as places where “failure has been tolerated for too long”.
Both HUTH and NLAG make up the health partnership, which recently entered special measures.
Simpson said “real progress” had been made in trying to address the trust’s issues but acknowledged there was “still a lot of work to do”.
“These challenges have developed over many years and will not be resolved overnight, but we now have greater clarity, stronger clinical leadership and the right focus to deliver sustained improvement for patients across the Humber.”
In an interview with the BBC last month, she denied the trust was “in a mess”, adding: “It’s more of an opportunity in terms of what we can do to turn it around.”
