FabStuff Podcast

In the last election Jonathan Ashworth lost one of Labour’s safest seats. On New Years Day this year, Jonathan suffered a major stroke, aged just 47. In this revealing podcast Niall and Roy discover how this former key member of Labour’s leadership views the plight of the government and the Prime Minister he helped to secure the leadership after disastrous Corbyn years   In a frank exchange, Jonat...

If there is one clear sign that the NHS is not working, it is the state of its accident and emergency departments. Across the UK, under all sorts of different political regimes, the story is the same. Patients spend hours even days, many waiting for a bed and the incontrovertible evidence that thousands of lives are being lost as a result.  In their latest podcast Niall and Roy hear from Dr Ian Hi...

Did you know that you are likely to die 20 years younger if you have a learning disability? Did you know that the great 10 year NHS Plan mentions learning disability 0 times?  In their latest podcast Niall and Roy seek to understand the dire state of health support for individuals with learning disabilities and their families. Their guest is Professor Jim Blair, a nurse and academic who has campai...

In the latest Podcast, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham reveals that the government has agreed to appoint a new Health Commissioner who will be jointly accountable to the Mayor and to the government for health and social care services.  The Mayor said that the Commissioner would have dual accountability, as the ICB chair for NHS purposes and as a health commissioner to the combined Greater Ma...

In their latest podcast, Niall and Roy have a fascinating exchange with Paul Farmer CBE, the leader of Age UK, Britain’s largest charity campaigning and providing services for older people. Have older people got it too easy? Little more than a generation ago, pensioners were seen as among the poorest and most vulnerable groups; today the vast majority have never had it so good. Yet Paul argues tha...

Listen as  Niall and Roy delve into the world of nursing,  with the leader of the Royal College of Nursing (the  world's largest nursing union) Professor Nicola Ranger. In a frank exchange, Nicola reflects on the crisis of recruitment and retention, the fact that nurses spend too much of their time on pointless tasks, the unprecedented levels of low morale and the possibility of strike action...

The British Medical Association are never far away from the headlines but what is their real game? In their latest In the Loop podcast, Niall and Roy have an in depth discussion with Dr Tom Dolphin the BMA chair who leads one of the most powerful trade unions in the country, if not the most powerful. In a revealing exchange Tom reflects on the growing militancy of doctors and their willingness to...

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To start their 2026 podcasts, Niall and Roy make a departure from their usual focus on the politics and management of the NHS, and explore the worrying state of our young people.  The awful reality is that youngsters in the UK appear to be unhappier than nearly all their European counterparts.  Their first guest of the New Year is David Gregson an entrepreneur and philanthropist who has embarked o...

Niall Dickson CBE and Roy Lilley with their latest guest Dr Charlotte Refsum  In their latest In The Loop podcast Niall and Roy lock horns with Dr Charlotte Refsum Director of Health Policy at the Tony Blair Institute. In a frank discussion Charlotte a former GP,  reveals how the former Prime Minister is still closely involved in policy development and she lays out the stark choices facing the NHS...

Niall Dickson CBE and Roy Lilley with their latest guest Rob Webster CBE  For this next edition of In The Loop podcast Niall and Roy come together with Rob Webster one of the most prominent NHS managers and a huge advocate of integration. Rob heads up the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership an integrated care system.  And like every other system in the country he is grappling...

In their latest podcast Niall and Roy engage with Sarah Woolnough the Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, one of the country’s leading health think tanks. In a frank discussion, Sarah defends the role of think tanks and laments the government’s failure to embrace public health and prevention in its first year in office.  She is highly critical too of the decision to kick the social care can down t...

EXCLUSIVE Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive  NHS England in conversation with Niall Dickson & Roy Lilley ... in a frank interview Sir Jim talks about the difficulties he is facing and the fact taking on what he thought would be the job and how it's actually worked out, are two very different things! In this wide ranging conversation he accepts the pending redundancies are a cause for great...

In their latest venture In the Loop, Niall and Roy turn to mental health and conduct the first interview with Claire Murdoch,  NHS England’s outgoing mental health director since she dramatically resigned earlier this month after nearly ten years on the job.    In the podcast, Claire says she quit because she felt she no longer had political support and reveals her dismay at the failure of the new...

The latest podcast from Niall and Roy sees a somewhat different take on the current state of the NHS from Dame Jennifer Dixon, the longstanding and respected Chief Executive of the Health Foundation.  Jennifer, who once practised in paediatrics before moving into public health, accuses the government of being disrespectful and menacing in its approach as it seeks to reform the service and argues t...

In their latest podcast Niall and Roy have a fascinating exchange with Professor Lord  Darzi, the eminent surgeon and former government minister whose independent investigation earlier this year laid bare an NHS that is failing at so many levels and which has lost public confidence. In the podcast, Ara Darzi reveals how shocked he was to find that staffing was not the issue, but that instead there...

In this episode of their Podcast In the Loop Niall and Roy step on to new ground in a fascinating discussion with Professor Tas Qureshi. a General and Gastro-intestinal Surgeon at Poole Hospital in Dorset. But Tas has another role – he has made a number of trips to Gaza as a volunteer, giving up his free time to support his fellow surgeons there as they deal with the most horrifying of trauma inju...

In their latest podcast Niall and Roy invite Dr Penny Dash, the new chair of NHS England, to join them. Within weeks of her appointment the secretary of state announced that NHS England was for the chop and that he would subject the NHS to a major reorganisation. But Penny is unphased and says the current system is riddled with complexity and duplication and could not have survived, although she a...

In this latest podcast Niall and Roy talk to Dr Bill Kirkup CBE, who has headed some of the major enquiries into failing NHS services, including paediatric cardiac surgery in Oxford. Liverpool Community Services, and the high-profile investigations into maternity services at Morecambe Bay and East Kent Hospitals. In a frank discussion, Bill reveals that he does not believe enquiries have made thin...

In their latest podcast Niall Dickson and Roy Lilley are joined by former health secretary, foreign secretary, and chancellor,  Sir Jeremy Hunt.  In a fascinating insight, reflecting on his years in power, Sir Jeremy reveals how terrified he was to find himself responsible for the NHS knowing nothing much beyond his own constituency issues. Over time he says he learned how to work the system to se...

In this podcast on social care reform with Niall Dickson and Roy Lilley,  Sir Andrew Dilnot, the former Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies pulls no punches when it comes to the missed opportunities of successive governments.  As the author of the definitive 2014 report on social care reform, he shows his frustration and dismay at this government’s failure to tackle a crisis that is now l...

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What happens when a leading banker groomed in the disciplines and attitudes of the private sector finds himself in charge of the NHS in England?  Surely he will be highly sceptical at least, suspicious and critical at best?  But no - the story of Richard Meddings the outgoing NHS England Chair is of a Damascene conversion.  In this podcast with Niall Dickson and Roy Lilley, Richard reveals himself...