HSJ Health Check

Eating disorder services in the NHS are at crisis point, with lockdown making an already pressurised situation even worse. With both adults’ and children’s admissions rocketing, the number of specialist beds has not kept pace, leaving patients stranded without the care they need on general medical wards. This week we are joined by two experts in this field who warn unless leaders and managers treat this area as a priority, lives will be at risk. They argue for ringfenced funding, investment in workforce and proper targets for both adult and child services. Featuring Annabelle Collins, Rebecca Thomas, Dr Agnes Ayton and Dr Ashish Kumar from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

A tale of three regions – what happened next? After the first covid wave we took a deep dive into three regions in England – now as the third wave ebbs away we have returned once more. We ask, how did things pan out for them over the rest of last year? And what are the main challenges the health systems will be grappling with over the coming months? Featuring Rebecca Thomas, Jack Serle, Lawrence Dunhill and Annabelle Collins.

Boris Johnson has appointed a new health adviser, well known to NHS health policy circles. Samantha Jones – former NHS England director and hospital chief – is to leave the private sector and move into the civil service. We discuss what this could mean for the NHS and whether this is a precursor to an even bigger job. Along with this we cover more significant people moves in the health service this week and an update on the government’s ‘40 new hospitals’ building plan; with two new builds accelerated we ask what this could mean for the original projects. Can we expect a bun fight for the money? Featuring Nick Carding, Annabelle Collins, Alison Moore and Dave West.

The NHS has been given its planning guidance for the first half of this year 2020-21 – and it strikes a markedly different tone to previous years. But what else would you expect from 2021? We break down why it is more about systems than trusts, why activity rather than output is king, and provide some more insight on what its means for the NHS’s finances and workforce. We also discuss NHS England’s latest intriguing appointment – Timothy Ferris, a primary care physician who leads a non-for-profit medical group in the US. He will soon start in his new position as head of service innovation and transformation, but could an even bigger job be on the cards for him in the not-to-distant future? Featuring Alastair McLellan, James Illman and Annabelle Collins.

For the first time ever the leader of a mental health trust has been named HSJ’s top chief executive for 2021, and in a surprising turn of events, three former top-table leaders have fallen out of the top 50 altogether. Why their fall from grace? And was it an act of utter hubris or just plain posturing? We discuss the health secretary’s suggestion the new NHS bill would give him the power to veto senior NHS board appointments. It turns out, this was not quite the case. We also touch on the swinging pendulum of power between the DHSC and the NHS and why the Chorley reconfiguration row is a red herring. Also discussed: the ‘lumpy’ vaccine supply and Dominic Cummings turning on the DHSC. Featuring Sharon Brennan, Annabelle Collins, Alastair McLellan and Dave West.

This week has seen the publication of not one but two huge sets of data – the biggest workforce survey in the world and the latest NHS performance stats – and we’ve crunched them both. We go beyond the headlines and discuss the mixed picture presented in the NHS staff survey data – it might come as a surprise that more staff are recommending their place of work despite being in the middle of a pandemic. We also discuss the top – and bottom – NHS trusts and why the experience of minority ethnic staff continues to be concerning. And we dig into the latest NHS performance stats, which revealed a huge rise in the number of patients waiting over a year. Featuring James Illman, Dave West, Nick Kituno and Annabelle Collins.

In a last minute controversial intervention Matt Hancock has torpedoed plans in Lancashire to consolidate emergency services. This has frustrated local NHS leaders and could potentially stifle future planning and innovation. And raises the question, is he even allowed to do this in the first place? Plans are also being worked up this spring to get the spiralling elective waiting list under control – we discuss the challenges health service leaders are grappling with right now when trying to get non-covid work back on track. Featuring James Illman, Lawrence Dunhill and Annabelle Collins.

Reasonable or “unnecessarily hostile”? This week’s HSJ Health Check debates whether its right for a trust to threaten its staff with disciplinary or regulatory action if they try and have their second covid jab early. University Hospitals Birmingham FT sent an email to its workforce doing just this. Could this have been communicated better? We also discuss whether mandatory vaccination could be on the cards for health professionals and whether there is a role for the regulators here too. And it may come as a surprise to some, but data has revealed patient good will towards the health service has dropped sharply since the autumn. A symptom of the continued impact on electives? Or could this change direction considering the success of the vaccine programme? Featuring Annabelle Collins, Matt Discombe and Rebecca Thomas.

One of the pandemic’s apparent success stories has been  the development and operation of an NHS covid-19 data store. Holding  information on everything from ventilators to vaccinations, the data  store has driven the NHS and government’s decision-making throughout. However,  privacy campaigners have raised concerns about the way in which  sensitive NHS data could be used by the companies involved in the data  store. And what does the future hold for the data store once the  emergency rules on information-sharing can no longer be justified? In  this podcast, HSJ’s Nick Carding quizzes the UK head of Palantir – one  of the main companies involved in the data store - about its work on one  of the most important government data projects.

HSJ revealed this week NHSX – the tech agency set up by Matt Hancock not quite two-years ago – is set to merge with NHS England. We ask what this says about the government’s tech ambitions, who could be parachuted in to lead the new directorate and why a separate agency was created in the first place. We also cover the surprising news almost 2 million people have been added to the shielding list and bumped up the vaccination priority groups. Why leave it so late in the pandemic to make such a significant decision? Featuring Sharon Brennan, Nick Carding and Annabelle Collins.