NHS reforms

‘No realistic prospect of progress’ for integrated health and social care, PAC warns

19.10.18: The government is still “a long way” from achieving an effective strategy for integrated health and social care and has been urged to create a 10-year plan for integrated care alongside the NHS’s 10-year plan. In a report...

NHSI wants business cases for wholly-owned subsidiaries in new consultation

18.10.18: NHS Improvement (NHSI) has opened up consultation on proposals over how wholly-owned subsidiaries (WOS) are approved and regulated, requiring NHS providers to submit a business case when setting up subsidiary companies. Under the proposed c...

Hancock: Ineffective NHS ‘fetish’ with project pilots must be replaced with ‘agile iteration’

10.10.18: We have to fight against the NHS’s “fetish about piloting everything” and instead implement a system of “agile iteration” where projects are tested, learned from, and expanded organically over time, the health and s...

Deal or no deal?

10.10.18: Dr Andrew Dearden, BMA treasurer and Brexit lead, takes a look at what different Brexit scenarios could means for both patients and healthcare professionals alike. Since the EU Referendum, the BMA has extensively explored the impact of Brex...

NHS ‘brand’ to be globally exported in bid to raise £7bn post-Brexit funding

12.09.18: The government is looking to export NHS expertise across the globe as part of an effort to boost funding and investment post-Brexit. Up to £7bn of opportunities will be targeted over the next 10 years, with the NHS’s expertise s...

NHS IT systems ‘costing lives’: Hancock unveils £200m digital fund and five app trials

06.09.18: Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock has described the NHS’s IT systems as “stuttering,” arguing that they are putting lives at risk and are in need of a serious upgrade. “It’s time to bring the health...

Boss promises no hospitals at risk when major foundation trust merger goes ahead

23.08.18: The boards of both South Tyneside and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS foundation trusts are supportive of a formal merger between the two providers and have promised that neither hospital will cease to exist under the plans. Proposals to brin...

Don’t just consult on an NHS 10-year plan – co-create it

03.08.18: Dean Royles, strategic workforce advisor at Skills for Health and co-author of ‘An Introduction to Human Resource Management’ published by Oxford University Press, makes the case for radical collaboration to plan for the future of th...

Care and compassion when it matters the most

03.08.18: Kirstie Stott, managing director of The Inspiring Leaders Network, writes for NHE to ask: how do we shift to seeing our senior leaders as also needing care and compassion when it matters the most? The recent report from The Kings Fund, &lsq...

Flat-pack buildings could save our NHS

01.08.18: The NHS needs to regenerate its rapidly deteriorating estate – and fast. With time of the essence and budgets stretched, conventional capital building projects are out of reach for many trusts. Phil Davies, director of procurement at NHS S...

Transforming hospital pharmacy: one year on

25.07.18: Andrew Davies, professional lead for hospital pharmacy at NHS Improvement (NHSI), runs through the significant developments that have taken place across the health service since trusts produced local pharma plans as part of Carter Review recomme...

As the NHS turns 70, it’s time to get serious about transformation

18.07.18: Matthew Macnair-Smith, membership and policy manager at NHS Confederation, takes a look back at the last 70 years of the NHS and argues that it’s now time we get serious about transformation. Famously, Lord Lawson described the NHS as...

NHS fast approaching winter dead-end as June performance welcomes Hancock with ‘baptism of fire’

13.07.18: Growing demand and a lack of performance improvement compared to June last year suggests that the NHS is heading towards another harsh winter, in what is proving to be “a baptism of fire” for the new health secretary. Responding...

NHS still largest buyer of outdated tech ‘popular last time England was in World Cup semi-final’

13.07.18: The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has revealed that NHS hospital trusts still own a staggering 9,000 fax machines, making the health system the world’s largest buyer of a technology “that was in popular use about the last time Engl...

NHS should offer GP partners salaried employment, says Lord Darzi

19.06.18: GPs should be offered the option of moving to salaried employment, according to Lord Darzi. The former Labour health minister’s recommendations are set out in his 10 point plan for the NHS, published by the Institute for Public Policy Res...