HSJ Health Check

This week bureau chief Ben Clover is joined by colleagues to talk about England's crumbling hospitals plus whether or not the money will be there for the elective catch-up

This week bureau chief Ben Clover is joined by colleagues to talk about what happens next for the Care Quality Commission, plus one of the biggest issues faced by the services

This week the team discuss what the Labour party conference means for the NHS, plus the latest on AI and cybersecurity following the summer’s major ransomware attack

This week guest host Ben Clover and colleagues discuss the big Streeting meeting plus a new player in primary care.

Guest host Ben Clover is joined by Emily Townsend and Zoe Tidman to look at the first weeks of the Thirlwall inquiry into the management response neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester, the Lampard inquiry into the deaths of mental health patients in Essex and the module of the covid inquiry covering the NHS response to the pandemic. The team discuss what we’re likely to learn and what impact...

This week on the HSJ Health Check podcat guest host Ben Clover is joined by reporters Henry Anderson and Mimi Launder. Henry takes us through the latest in what the new government does and does not expect this winter as the service is told there’s nt going to be any extra resources this year. Mimi analyses the next steps in the government’s dispute with GPs and what might happen now the British Me...

This week guest host Ben Clover is joined by Nick Kituno and Emily Townsend. They discuss one of HSJ's most-commented stories of recent months: Chairs - what they do, what they should do and whether they get paid enough. The team also analyse the recent CQC inpatient survey, which has some counter-intuitive results

This week's HSJ podcast looks at the latest development in Shropshire's troubled health system and hospitals, and NHS England's move to ramp up the rollout of the federated data platform. https://www.hsj.co.uk/shrewsbury-and-telford-hospital-nhs-trust/ceo-who-led-trust-through-scandals-announces-departure/7037595.article https://www.hsj.co.uk/technology-and-innovation/nhse-u-turn-manda...

This week's HSJ Health Check podcast discusses the Chancellor's big interventions in the NHS pay, funding and reform - and fresh HSJ analysis showing the spread of huge deficits around England. With Nick Kituno, Henry Anderson and Dave West.    Read - Revealed: ICSs planning the largest deficits https://www.hsj.co.uk/finance-and-efficiency/revealed-icss-planning-the-largest-deficits/703757...

On this episode we unpick the fast moving situation surrounding the GP ballot for “collective action” and the crucial pay negotiations between the BMA and the new government.   We also discuss a recent mortality review done by long-troubled Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust and why campaigners are still calling for a statutory public inquiry into avoidable deaths at the trust over the last deca...

This week we discuss the ongoing harm done by long ambulance handover delays and what the new government should do to address this problem. Also more on the health policy experts hired by Wes Streeting to help draw up a ten-year plan for health, and our analysis of his first few days in office. *After this podcast was recorded the health secretary announced he had commissioned former minister, sur...

While the rest of the country was watching the football, HSJ  met shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting in a café in Ilford for a wide-ranging interview. On this episode we bring you the highlights from his conversation with Alastair McLellan and James Illman.  We also cover the sudden resignation of the Care Quality Commission’s chief executive, the huge leadership challenges faci...

This week we’re joined by Sally Gainsbury and Leonora Merry from the Nuffield Trust think tank, who help us join the dots on the key issues for the NHS in the election campaign.     We cover their response to Wes Streeting’s comments  about their manifesto analysis, why the NHS has been notably absent from the election campaign so far and the biggest challenges facing a new government. Also with A...

As the election campaign moves into its final weeks, the shadow health secretary has confirmed a huge policy commitment that wasn’t in the manifesto. This week we look at what Wes Streeting’s commitment to hit 95 per cent in A&E performance for the first time in almost a decade would mean for the NHS.  We also hear about an ambitious plan to “save 300 lives a year” - and how bosses rubber-stam...

This week’s episode comes to you from the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester, where we’re joined by NHS Confederation’s CEO Matthew Taylor and chair Victor Adebowale. We cover Amanda Pritchard’s big speech and the reaction to it, the manifestos, the need for a new government to tackle capital spending, and more. With Annabelle Collins and Dave West. 

The NHS is facing weeks of disruption after pathology services across south east London were hit by a major cyber attack this week, affecting care from blood tests to transplants.    We cover the impact the attack will have on an already pressured system and the big questions facing the NHS and government around strengthening cyber security. 

NHS England has announced incentives and penalties in a bid to improve the health system’s financial plans , so this week we discuss what the new regime involves and if it will make any difference to the national £3bn deficit.   Also this week we focus on two stories from Birmingham – more bullying concerns at University Hospitals Birmingham and an update on the long-delayed Midland Metropolitan U...

Rishi Sunak has called a surprise election, so we cover what could be in store for the NHS over the next six weeks and the different scenarios it could face if there is a change is government. Plus, we consider NHS England’s intervention in the ongoing debate about productivity (and how that might affect the service’s ask for extra capital investment) and also the aftermath of NHSE’s massive restr...

Greater Manchester ICS is under huge pressure to reduce its deficit after suffering a recent financial collapse. And now the ICS must navigate this without its substantive chief financial officer, who has been seconded to a post within NHS England. We discuss if there is a way out of the red and what this will mean for local care quality.  Also this week, a leaked NHSE review that concluded the NH...

The tables have turned for the Care Quality Commission. This week  HSJ  revealed the government is launching a review of it’s new inspection regime and whether its ratings are properly incentivising care improvements. We discuss what prompted this review, which senior NHS figure is leading it and what it could mean for the regulator.  Also this week, a fifth of all of England’s GP premises pre-dat...

We delve into the detail of HSJ's comprehensive survey of integrated care board leaders, as well as new interventions on the future of ICBs from NHS England and Wes Streeting.    From leaders’ biggest worries, and their achievements thus far, to their plans for the future, HSJ Health Check highlights some of the more surprising findings.   Also, more on the shadow health secretary's recent...

This year sets the NHS one of its toughest financial challenges as pandemic cash dries up and funding shortfalls deepen. We hear how three integrated care systems are already warning of significant consequences from the current financial requirements, and explore how the NHS plans to break even in 2024-25. With Henry Anderson, Lawrence Dunhill and Nicholas Carding. Send views and questions to  ann...

This week guest host Ben Clover discusses alarming developments in urgent care plus the Silicon Valley firm getting established in the NHS, with HSJ reporters Emily Townsend and Joe Talora.

2022-23 was probably the worst ever winter for the NHS, after a steep collapse in performance. This year’s been a little better — new figures confirm — but how was this achieved, and what does it mean for coming months?   This week’s HSJ Health Check podcast reviews the latest figures on emergency care performance — across A&E waits, ambulance delays and response times, discharge and length of...

On this episode we discuss the quality of maternity services in the NHS, which have remained firmly in the spotlight. We cover a recent HSJ  investigation into delayed inductions of labour and cover the broader challenges facing maternity services amid multiple inquiries and more 'inadequate' CQC ratings.  Also more on why families whose babies died in the East Kent maternity scandal are s...