The four NHS organisations are: NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB; Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust; and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB chief executive, Kevin Lavery, said: ‘We welcome this additional support from NHS England for the ICB and our trusts, as we recognise the severity of the situation that we are in.

‘We take responsibility for the challenges we face in Lancashire and South Cumbria and recognise that there is more to be done in relation to our financial position. We will continue to work in partnership with NHS England and our partners across the system to deliver changes and make improvements. Despite the hard work of colleagues across our system, we have unfortunately not made the improvements that we had hoped to by this point.'

Lancashire and South Cumbria was one of a number of regions included in an investigation and intervention process last year with NHS England North West providing support on challenges in finance, performance, governance and leadership.

With the four services having not improved sufficiently, however, a recommendation has been made by NHS England to place them on NHS Oversight Framework (NOF) Segment 4 and to receive intensive support from the National Recovery Support Programme.

Oversight and coordination of the improvement plan and support package for each organisation will be led by improvement directors appointed by NHS England.

A spokesperson for NHS England North West said: ‘As part of our work to ensure delivery of high quality, sustainable health services across the region, we have been working with NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) over the last 12 months to address challenges facing the system, including significant issues around finance, performance and governance which are also reflected in a number of the NHS trusts within that system.

‘Despite providing targeted support to the ICB, the ICB's financial position has continued to deteriorate, alongside several trusts in the system, and a number of urgent actions have been taken to address the in-year position and to ensure that the system moves towards a sustainable financial footing.  

‘An independent team has worked with leaders across the system to identify immediate opportunities for improvement, aimed at supporting the challenged organisations to ensure they are able to continue to provide high quality and safe services which meet the health needs of their local population.

‘We will be working with these organisations through the Recovery Support Programme to deliver the necessary improvements and ensure staff are able to continue providing safe, high-quality services to their patients.'