‘We need to be ambitious’: Harrogate hospital trust boss sets sights on the future
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust must “be ambitious for the future”, its boss has said, as it aims to transform services and improve care.
Chief Executive Jonathan Coulter was speaking at the trust’s (HDFT) annual meeting on Monday, where he set out his vision for the organisation amid financial pressures and a changing NHS.
HDFT recorded a £23.8m deficit in 2025/26, against a backdrop of wider NHS funding challenges.
NHS England reported that 108 trusts ended the year in deficit. Across wider local NHS organisations and services, a combined deficit of £563m was recorded.
But the year also saw significant investment and efficiency savings at HDFT - £20.4m was saved and £50m invested in capital projects, with a further £25m planned this financial year.
Director of finance Jordan McKie said the trust was now undertaking a “significant recovery programme”, while working with commissioners to ensure services were properly funded.
He said HDFT nevertheless performed “relatively well compared to peers” on nationally measured areas, including elective care, emergency treatment and cancer services.
Patient safety also improved, with moderate-harm incidents falling by 21 per cent.
Meanwhile, 96 per cent of responses to the Trust's Friends and Family Test were positive.
The proportion of patients receiving planned treatment within 18 weeks increased from around 68 per cent to 75 per cent, while Emergency Department performance reached 78 per cent within four hours in March.
Cancer treatment standards were achieved and waiting lists continued to fall, with no patients waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment for several months.
Staff engagement also improved, with more than 3,300 colleagues taking part in the NHS Staff Survey. Some 67.6 per cent said they would recommend HDFT as a place to work, while 74.5 per cent said they would be happy with the standard of care provided by the trust for friends and family.
Mr Coulter said the trust wanted to become an “outstanding hospital and community provider” and a national exemplar for children's public health services.
HDFT is continuing its investment programme at Harrogate District Hospital, including the new Day Case Surgery and Imaging Centre, which will feature two operating theatres, two treatment and procedure rooms, a day-case ward and a new radiology department.
The radiology department is due to be completed around December, with ageing equipment also being replaced.
A new operational “nerve centre” went live in April, helping staff monitor patient flow and hospital capacity.
The hospital's main entrance is also being redesigned, with work including upgraded reception and self check-in facilities, new informal seating areas and additional toilets, including a Changing Places toilet.
Costa Coffee and M&S Food will also move onto the site, replacing the Café Bistro and WH Smith. The trust says the project is primarily commercially funded and will not take money from frontline care, patient services or staff budgets.
Looking to the next decade, Mr Coulter said HDFT needed to bring different parts of the health and care system together around patients.
“We need to properly join our primary care, community care, hospital care, voluntary services, mental health etc, around the patient,” he said.
He also wants to strengthen partnerships with teaching hospitals to ensure “real resilient services here in Harrogate” and secure the trust's long-term financial sustainability.
The NHS 10-Year Plan will see three major shifts - from hospitals to communities, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention.
Mr Coulter said there would be difficult work ahead, but added: “If you start from the place where people are engaged, that are motivated, that want to be working as part of the trust, I'm really confident that we can meet any of those challenges and deliver the improvements that we need.”