Five NHS trusts with “deep-rooted challenges” will be the first to be placed in a new recovery programme, the health secretary has announced.
Wes Streeting said “failure has been tolerated for too long”, and although there has been improvement across the NHS overall, some “challenged” trusts continue to struggle.
The new NHS Intensive Recovery programme has identified trusts at the bottom of the NHS league tables where patients face the longest waits, there is high leadership “churn” and there are persistent financial problems.
Beginning in April, these trusts will kick off the programme:
• 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
• East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust.
‘The worst services in the country’
The Department of Health and Social Care said the trusts are not failing through lack of effort but face “deep-rooted challenges”, including “structural constraints and financial imbalance”.
Each trust will receive tailored help, including a change of leadership where necessary, with NHS “veterans” with a history of success brought into underperforming areas, the merging or separating of trusts and funding for crumbling estates.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Streeting will say: “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.”
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The latest British Social Attitudes Survey revealed satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since before the COVID pandemic.
But experts said improvements were “fragile”, as the public is still largely “unhappy” about the health service after satisfaction dipped to a record low in 2024, with just 21% of people satisfied.
The latest figures, from August to October 2025, found 26% are satisfied.
