Chief Medical Officer

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides district general hospital services to around 450,000 people in Preston, South Ribble and Chorley and specialist care to 1.8 million people across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Our mission is to always provide excellent care with compassion which we do from four facilities:

• Chorley and South Ribble Hospital
• Royal Preston Hospital
• Specialist Mobility and Rehabilitation Centre
• Lancashire Community Healthcare Hub – Finney House

As well as providing healthcare for our local patients, we are proud to be the provider for a range of regional specialist services. These services include:

• Major Trauma
• Cancer (including radiotherapy, drug therapies and cancer surgery)
• Disablement services such as artificial limbs and wheelchairs
• Neurosciences including neurosurgery and neurology
• Specialist vascular surgery
• Renal services

When we were established in 2005, we were the first trust in the county to be awarded ‘teaching hospitals’ status. We believe that developing the workforce of the future is central to delivering high quality healthcare into the future. We know we are a regional leader in respect of our education, training and research and as the only NIHR clinical research facility in the region and a leading provider of undergraduate education, we will continue to drive forward the ambitions described in our education and research strategies.

Find out more about what we do here: https://www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/what-we-do-at-lancashire-teaching-hospitals

Useful links:

• Annual Reports and Accounts 2023/24
• NHS Staff Survey 2023
• LSC Integrated Care Board

Our Board

Our board of directors is a unitary board and has a wide range of skills with a number of directors having a medical, nursing or other health professional background. The non-executive directors have wide-ranging expertise and experience, with backgrounds in finance, audit, estates, property, business development, primary care, organisational development, and research. The board believes that it is balanced and complete in its composition, and appropriate to the requirements of the organisation. The board has overall responsibility for the implementation of our strategy, policy and performance.

Public board meetings are held bi-monthly and agenda papers are published in advance, which you can view here.

Each director has a unique and interesting background. If you would like to find out more about the members of board, please click here.

Our Governors

Governors are elected by patients, public and staff, or nominated by some of our partner organisations. Elections to the Council of Governors take place at the beginning of each year, and governors generally serve a three-year term of office, beginning and ending in April.

Governors attend meetings of the Council of Governors, representing their local communities, and working together to advise and influence how we develop and deliver services.  This means discussing topics such as major new service developments, the annual report and accounts, and how members are being recruited and kept informed.

The Council of Governors holds four formal meetings each year and they are open to the public. The agenda papers are published in advance and are available for the current year and previous years. Regular workshops are arranged to support Governors to keep up to date about the NHS, the healthcare needs of the local community, and our strategy and performance. All members of the Council of Governors have a responsibility to declare relevant interests as defined in Sections 11.39 to 11.43 of our Constitution.

To find out more about our current public and staff governors, click here.

 

 

Being Caring and Compassionate:

This at the heart of everything we do, it is about understanding what each person needs and striving to make a positive difference in whatever way we can.

Recognising Individuality:

Appreciating differences, making staff and patients feel respected and valued.

Seeking to Involve:

Actively getting involved and encouraging others to contribute and share their ideas, information, knowledge and skills in order to provide a joined up service.

Building Team Spirit:

Working together as one team with shared goals, doing what it takes to ensure we provide the best possible service.

Taking Personal Responsibility:

Individuals are accountable for achieving improvements to obtain the highest standards of care in the most professional way, resulting in a service we can all be proud of.

We believe that to provide the best care, we need to continually improve the way in which we provide services. If we are to be the best, we need to continually seek improvement and embrace change, empowering our teams to develop ideas and drive them forward. In order to do this, we have adopted a continuous improvement approach and developed a strategy to support this, which you can read here.

Our strategic objectives are:

• To provide outstanding and sustainable healthcare to our local communities
• To offer a range of high-quality specialist services to patients in Lancashire and South Cumbria
• To drive health innovation through world class education, training and research

These are currently being refreshed in line with our Single Improvement Plan.

The delivery of excellent services to our local patients through the provision of district general hospital services is at the core of what we do. To achieve this, we need to ensure we focus on meeting key quality and performance indicators so our patients can be assured of safe and responsive services.

 

 

 

Under the leadership of our Chief Executive, Silas Nicholls, who joined us in January 2024, the Trust has embarked on a transformative journey to address the complex challenges we face. This journey emphasises innovation, strengthening partnerships, and integrating services seamlessly across our region. 

We are seeking an outstanding, forward-thinking clinical leader to take on the pivotal role of Chief Medical Officer. As a key member of our executive team, you will be part of a collective that is deeply committed to delivering safe, high-quality, and compassionate care. We are looking for someone who thrives in both challenging and inspiring environments and who can champion a culture of inclusivity, accountability, and clinical excellence. 

As Chief Medical Officer, you will offer visible leadership to our medical workforce and drive our clinical strategy. You will be instrumental in strengthening clinical governance, improving patient safety, and embedding continuous quality improvement across the Trust. Your leadership will also support the development and empowerment of clinical leaders at all levels. 

This is a vital role not only within the Trust but across the wider Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS). You will work closely with system partners to deliver integrated, patient-centred care and support sustainable service models that respond to the needs of our diverse communities. Your influence will help shape population health strategies, service transformation, and collaborative models of care that span organisational boundaries. 

To succeed in this role, you will bring significant clinical credibility, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of the operational realities of modern healthcare. You’ll need excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to engage and inspire a wide range of colleagues, from front-line clinicians to board members and system partners. Integrity, resilience, and a passion for innovation will be key to your success. 

We are a complex organisation by any measure, employing nearly 10,000 staff and delivering a wide range of services, all united in our commitment to providing the highest standards of care. As one of the largest acute trusts in the country, we serve 450,000 residents in Preston, Chorley and South Ribble, and provide specialist services to 1.8 million people across the wider region. 

There’s important work ahead as we continue our improvement journey, build stronger clinical leadership, and work with partners across the system to deliver seamless care. This is a significant opportunity to shape the future of healthcare in Lancashire and South Cumbria — and you’ll be joining a high-performing executive team and a community of passionate, skilled clinicians.

We look forward to welcoming a new member to our team who shares our commitment to making a positive impact on healthcare in our region. 

 

 

Our board of directors is a unitary board and has a wide range of skills with a number of directors having a medical, nursing or other health professional background. The non-executive directors have wide-ranging expertise and experience, with backgrounds in finance, audit, estates, property, business development, primary care, organisational development, and research. The board believes that it is balanced and complete in its composition, and appropriate to the requirements of the organisation. The board has overall responsibility for the implementation of our strategy, policy and performance.  

Public board meetings are held bi-monthly and agenda papers are published in advance, which you can view here. 

Each director has a unique and interesting background. If you would like to find out more about the members of board, please click here.  

 

 

Governors are elected by patients, public and staff, or nominated by some of our partner organisations. Elections to the Council of Governors take place at the beginning of each year, and governors generally serve a three-year term of office, beginning and ending in April.

Governors attend meetings of the Council of Governors, representing their local communities, and working together to advise and influence how we develop and deliver services.  This means discussing topics such as major new service developments, the annual report and accounts, and how members are being recruited and kept informed.  

The Council of Governors holds four formal meetings each year and they are open to the public. The agenda papers are published in advance and are available for the current year and previous years. Regular workshops are arranged to support Governors to keep up to date about the NHS, the healthcare needs of the local community, and our strategy and performance. All members of the Council of Governors have a responsibility to declare relevant interests as defined in Sections 11.39 to 11.43 of our Constitution. 

To find out more about our current public and staff governors, click here. 

 

 

 

At Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, we take equality, diversity and human rights seriously and want to ensure they are part of every aspect of our work. We believe that at every level within the organisation equality, diversity and inclusion should impact the provision and delivery of services, the employment of staff, the management of the workforce, the development of policies and functions and how we engage and interact with our local community. 

We recognise that the population we serve and our workforce is extremely diverse and is becoming even more so. For this reason, we have a business, moral and ethical, as well as a legal duty, to treat everyone fairly and without discrimination. 

To achieve our vision statement of providing Excellent Care with Compassion and fulfil our Big Ambitions, we have developed an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for 2021 – 2026. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the heart of what we do, people caring for people. We commit to treating everyone we come into contact be that patients, their families, carers, colleagues, temporary workers, volunteers and colleagues from other organisations with dignity, respect, kindness and understanding. It is our vision that we make it every colleague’s responsibility to be consciously inclusive in everything we do for our colleagues and communities. You can view the strategy here. 

You can find out more about Equality and Diversity, including links to our Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) and our Gender Pay Gap report on our website, here. 

 

 

About the Area

Chorley and Preston are very well situated for motorway links and public transport.

For those members of staff who have moved to join us, or simply enjoy visiting new places around the country or even further afield, we have fantastic connections by rail, car and plane nearby to get you wherever you want to go.

Lancashire is a diverse county, from the sweeping coastline in the west and famous seaside attractions of Blackpool, to areas of outstanding natural beauty and picturesque countryside of the Ribble Valley, and historical Lancaster, home to a medieval castle, and thriving culture and arts scene.

A beacon for foodies, there are bustling local markets, gastropubs, artisan producers and michelin-starred restaurants.

Lancashire is also the perfect location from which to visit the attractions of the North West and beyond. The Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Manchester and Liverpool are on the doorstep, and Scotland and London are just a train journey away.

Find out more about where to live and explore here: https://www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/where-to-live-and-explore

 

 

Working with us in whatever capacity, means being a part of one big team. We think our colleagues are fantastic and are the real driving force behind making us such a great place to work, which is why we love to celebrate them at every opportunity. We also love to reward them for choosing to grow their career with us, so we ensure that all doors remain open for progression and colleagues are given the chance to develop their skills, learn new ones, and take on extra responsibility when they’re ready to try a different challenge. Sounds pretty good, right? We think so and we know you will too!

Here we take pride in caring for our colleagues as well as our patients. We recognise that working in a busy environment requires help with a healthy work-life balance, support for family life and deserves financial security for when you’re ready to retire; we also believe in ensuring that our staff get the chance to reach their full potential when working with us, which is why we open lots of doors for career progression once you join our team. With us, the sky truly is the limit!

Whether they’re on the frontline or working behind the scenes, each member of our nearly 10,000-strong organisation plays an integral part in keeping our hospitals running smoothly for our community.

So how do we ensure that they’re supported when times get tough, can confidently speak their minds and share their thoughts, and feel secure in their abilities to provide excellent care with compassion?

Well, we have integrated our very own Health & Wellbeing team and centre into our organisation, who work hard to implement fantastic initiatives for physical and mental wellbeing year-round, help managers provide appropriate advice, encourage staff to take part in national health campaigns, and bring amazing activities to staff onsite to provide accessible ways of unwinding and exercising.

Read more about them here: https://www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/health–wellbeing

Our People Plan

Our People Plan, sets out our vision for creating a great place to work at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This strategy responds to what our colleagues told us they value and expect from us. It sets out the steps we will take to improve the experience of work for all colleagues, how we plan to influence the tone in the organisation through evolving the culture we wish to foster to enable everyone to achieve, feel engaged and able to deliver our organisational vision and ambitions.

Our ambitious strategic aims are:

• To attract, recruit and resource
• To be inclusive and supportive
• To be well led
• To deliver a responsive, future focused and enabling service
• To create a positive organisational culture
• To engage, retain, reward and recognise

This role will lead the teams who do all the above, supporting our employees at every stage of the colleague lifecycle.

You can view the full Our People Plan 2023-2026 here.

Our Digital Presence

At Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, our Communications team work hard to maintain and enhance the reputation of our Trust, working alongside our partners in the wider system to keep our communities up-to-date with the latest information.

We regularly post on our social media channels, and you can find us here:

• Facebook
• X
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Our website

 As well as managing the social media accounts, website and intranet, the Communications team also develop relationships with regional and national media outlets to secure print and broadcast coverage. We regularly work with the BBC, The One Show, ITV, Sky, Channel 4, Channel 5, Talk TV and many local and national radio stations and print publications. 

The Trust has also featured in several TV documentaries – the most recent being ‘Cause of Death’ which recently completed a third series on Channel 5, showcasing the work of colleagues involved in helping to determine a cause of death. You can find the all the series on My5 here. 

Our People Awards

The ‘Our People Awards’ is our annual recognition programme and a chance for us to showcase the hard work, dedication and achievement of our colleagues and teams at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. 

It’s an opportunity for us to come together as one team and celebrate colleagues who have gone 'above and beyond’, demonstrated best practice and live our Trust values and behaviours.

 

Details on Application

Application for this role will be through our dedicated TRAC recruitment system where you will complete some key information, using the Supporting Information section to write a personal statement to support your application and also attach your CV.

Here is the link to apply

https://feeds.trac.jobs/redirect/824/vacancy/7201456

Timelines

Closing Date for Applications: Midnight on Sunday 1st June, 2025

Final Interviews: Mid-June 2025

If you’re curious, ambitious, and ready to make a difference, we’d love to talk.

For an informal conversation please contact one of the following:

Sarah Morrison our Chief Nursing Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, at sarah.morrison@lthtr.nhs.uk

Gerry Skailes our current Chief Medical Officer at DrGeraldine.Skailes@lthtr.nhs.uk 

Neil Pease our Chief People Officer at neil.pease@lthtr.nhs.uk

 

 

Supporting documents:

Medical Leadership Structure

Job Description and Person Specification