Trust Board Members
As we have moved into a Group arrangement between Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), we now have a Group Trust Board, which meets bi-monthly in public. This Board undertakes the business of both organisations. For details of Trust Board members, please see below:
Elaine Baylis QPM - group chair
Elaine has over 30 years’ experience working in the public sector in Lincolnshire. With a background in policing, her career in the force culminated in the role of assistant chief constable with accountability for service delivery.
She worked extensively with communities, enabling active influence of local policing, reducing crime and disorder and ensuring services considered safeguarding vulnerable members of the community.
An experienced strategic commander with particular interest in responding to emergencies, in 2005 Elaine was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service.
Elaine was previously a director and trustee of Urban Challenge Lincoln, an organisation that delivers a range of services to the community and voluntary sector, and since 2005 has held a similar post at Lincolnshire Action Trust, an organisation that aims to improve the skills and employability of offenders and prisoners.
She was also the independent chair of the Lincolnshire Adults Safeguarding Board from 2012 to 2016, she was previously chair of LCHS from April 2015 until March 2023. Elaine became chair at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust before becoming Group Chair in April 2024.
Professor Karen Dunderdale - group chief executive
Karen has held board level roles as a Chief Nurse, Chief Operating Officer, Deputy CEO and acting CEO. In addition, she held the role of vice chair of her local hospice for a number of years. Her more recent role as director of nursing was at Walsall Healthcare Trust where her leadership supported the Trust achieve Outstanding for Caring. Karen qualified as a registered nurse in 1991 and her clinical experience has been in cardiology. She became a cardiac nurse specialist developing cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure services. She has a PhD in Health Related Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure from York University, has contributed substantially to the development of cardiac nursing, and raised expectations nationally within the nursing profession. In 2017 Karen joined the National nursing team at NHS Improvement working for Dr Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England contributing to the wider nursing and patient experience agenda. Karen is passionate about delivering high quality fundamental nursing care.
Claire Low - group chief people officer
Claire joined the Trust in October 2023 in an interim role alongside her role at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust where she has worked as deputy director of people and organisational development since December 2021 before starting work in the director position in October 2022. She was then appointed group chief people officer in 2024. She has a long career spanning over 20 years of working in people services within the NHS and acute trusts and has worked in operational HR, recruitment, transformational projects and deputy director roles, and more recently acted as Director of People at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust for a period of two years. Claire is passionate about the people agenda and investment in training and development of staff, she graduated from her part-time MBA, which she completed under the apprenticeship scheme at her previous Trust. Claire is also a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and is embedding a ‘just and learning’ as part of the transformation agenda for the People Directorate.
Sam Wilde - director of finance and business intelligence
Sam joined LCHS as interim director of finance and strategy on June 1, 2018, having worked as associate director of finance for Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.
Sam graduated in 1996 having studied finance and accountancy before going on to complete an MBA at Durham University. He has worked in the NHS for six years interspersed with experience of working in the private sector for Rolls Royce PLC and Astra Zeneca.
Dr Colin Farquharson - group chief medical officer
Dr Farquharson trained at the University of Dundee, then undertook general medical training in Tayside, followed by a period of research sponsored by the British Heart Foundation. He then progressed with advanced training in Cardiology in Yorkshire, as well as at Harefield Hospital (UK), Los Angeles (USA) and Adelaide / Melbourne (Australia). He achieved Completion of UK Specialist Training (CCST) in Cardiology/General (Internal) Medicine in June 2005. He worked as a Consultant Cardiologist at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby, between 2005-2012, concurrently holding the honorary academic post of Senior Lecturer at Hull-York Medical School. He then took up the post of Senior Staff Cardiologist/Professor of Cardiology at Royal Darwin Hospital, Australia between 2012-2015. He returned to North East Lincolnshire in 2016, as a Consultant Cardiologist and the Deputy Medical Director of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust before joining the team at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Dr Farquharson is also a Royal College of Pathologists accredited Medical Examiner.
Nerea Odongo - Group Chief Nurse
Kathryn Helley - group chief clinical governance officer
Vacant - chief operating officer
Ian Orrell
Ian joined LCHS in February 2023, on an interim basis. Ian has a wealth of experience in the public sector, particularly with large and complex councils. He has experience of working within senior corporate leadership teams to help reshape and deliver quality frontline adult and children social care services, as well as delivering professional support services.
Ian also has over 30 years as a qualified accountant and previous experience in non-executive roles where partnership approaches were taken to improve service provision.
Gail Shadlock
Gail is a highly experienced director with a professional background in human resources and organisational development and extensive general and project management experience working in the UK and abroad. Gail has worked both as an executive director and as a non-executive director and has led and contributed to significant transformational change across the following sectors; private sector – FTSE 100 and FTSE 350 (major projects include mergers, acquisitions and flotation of a company on the London Stock Exchange); public sector – NHS, police, local government; third/not for profit sector – charity supporting people with learning disabilities and a housing association with a national footprint.
Jim Connolly
Jim has a had a varied career in the NHS as a nurse, working in a range of clinical, managerial and executive roles. He worked as a Director of Nursing and was the National Director for Continuing Healthcare with NHS England. In addition he works with the Care Quality Commission as a specialist advisor on governance. Prior to joining LCHS he was a Non Executive Director at Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group and is supporting the vaccination programme as a vaccinator at the Meres Clinic in Grantham.
Rebecca Brown MBE
Rebecca Brown began her career in the NHS as a nurse in 1989.
From 2012 to 2016 Rebecca was Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Northampton General Hospital. In 2016 Rebecca took on the role of Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Kettering General Hospital. In 2018 She joined Leicester’s Hospitals as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive. She took on the role of Chief Executive in early 2020. Rebecca successfully lead the Trust during the pandemic, with Leicester Hospitals leading nationally on research and treatment of Covid.
Rebecca has played an integral role in the development of wider system and partnership working within the NHS and latterly with social care, local government and the independent sector.
In 2000, Rebecca was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen for Services to Nursing.
Rebecca also holds a Non Executive role for ULHT.