It’s time for the HSJ team to take stock and make their predictions for what the New Year could bring for the NHS, from the survival of Healthwatch, to why the NHS App could be in for a tough year.

Also, the biggest estates challenges facing trusts and why the ‘choice’ row is set to escalate. 

Thanks for listening to the Health Check podcast this year and Merry Christmas from all at HSJ.

This week we bring you the latest in our series of HSJ Health Check podcasts tracking the development of the government’s planned Health Bill.

On this episode Dave and Annabelle are joined by Mark Dayan and Sarah Reed from the Nuffield Trust and we focus on the abolition of NHS England, drawing on research the think tank has just published.

We cover how this could be an opportunity to reset how the NHS operates within government, why the dramatic reduction in headcount could do more harm than good, and how officials could learn from historic NHS reforms.

The government made bringing down elective waits its key target for the NHS, and ministers often celebrate how much the list has fallen since Labour came to power.

However, we reveal the part that waiting list clean-ups have played in cutting the list this year – alongside growing some types of activity, and other reforms – and why some experts are raising concerns about patients being wrongfully removed.

Also this week more on the deal that will see the NHS pay more for new medicines.

https://www.hsj.co.uk/quality-and-performance/exclusive-nhse-ramps-up-waiting-list-cleaning-drive/7040427.article

Sir Jim Mackey is expected to end his tenure as ‘transition CEO’ of NHS England next year, so we ask what sort of candidate could be up for the “impossible” job of running the health service. 

Also, we dig into what the budget means for the NHS, including how much the pot will be reduced by to pay for the massive redundancy programme.

This week Ben Clover fills in for Annabelle Collins and is joined by Ella Deverux and Zoe Tidman.

The team discuss Ella's exclusive on the NHS App breaking cancer diagnosis news to patients ahead of a human, plus Zoe takes us through where the service is on finance, including a trust down to one day's operating costs.

NHS England has finally launched its much-delayed voluntary redundancy scheme so on this episode we cover everything we know so far and the questions that remain.

Health secretary Wes Streeting also acknowledged this week in a speech to NHS leaders he has not resolved the redundancies quickly enough and that things had been particularly hard for integrated care boards.

In the same speech, Mr Streeting revealed the eight trusts that are in line to become ‘advanced foundation trusts’ and “front runners to a more autonomous and integrated NHS”. 

This week the team look at what happens when the 2nd most stressful thing that can happen to a trust coincides with winter pressures. Plus NHS England's big ask from ICBs. This week's podcast is hosted by tech editor Ben Clover, standing in for Annabelle Collins, and he is joined by Joe Talora and Mimi Launder

NHS England has published its planning guidance - now rechristened the “Medium Term Planning Framework” - so this week we cover what it will mean for the service, with guest Daniel Elkeles, CEO of NHS Providers.

We dig into promises to end what NHSE claims is “an operating model that had become overly bureaucratic”, the challenging performance targets and what ‘integrated health organisations’ could look like in reality.

Also an update on the NHS Provider/Confederation merger, which was finalised this week.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, one of the biggest acute providers in Europe, was seen as an example of how a trust can turn things around, despite its size and complexity. 

However, over recent months it has come under intense scrutiny, with a major maternity scandal unfolding and serious concerns about governance and leadership.

Its former CEO Sir Julian Hartley also stepped down from his role leading the Care Quality Commission this week, describing it as being “incompatible” with concerns raised about care provided at the trust, some of which while he was in charge.  We cover the latest developments, its quality improvement journey and when things started to go wrong. 

Also this week we discuss a legal challenge to a big EPR procurement in the north west and the ripple effect this could have. 

This week the HSJ Health Check podcast explores how Labour hopes a fundamental change in the relationship between patients and services can turn the NHS around.

We’ll also ask whether the government has shot itself in the foot with its the ill-conceived pledge to abolish NHS England and slash staff at commissioning bodies.

This week we take a look at two of the hottest topics in the NHS – productivity and technology.
We’ll ask whether trusts really are getting more productive – and whether it’s fair to compare one to another.

And this episode explores why health service leaders need to be keep their egos in check – but only when it comes to tech. With Henry Anderson, James Illman and Joe Talora.

The HSJ Health Check podcast is tracking development of the government’s planned Health Bill. This week we talk to Ian Dodge, who shaped several major pieces of NHS legislation as a national director at NHS England and the Department of Health.

Mr Dodge reflects on the lessons that can be learned from two decades of NHS restructure Acts: They rarely succeed in transforming services, take longer and are more complex than thought, and open the door to a range of unpredictable challenges from outsiders and political opponents.

We talk about where these attacks might come, and the dilemmas facing goverment itself about what to include. 

Mr Dodge says ministers have already missed the chance of sticking to a very slim piece of legislation, abolishing NHS England as straightforwardly as possible. “The 10-Year Plan blew that out of the water with a whole heap of things that the government decided to abolish,” he said. “Already this thing has ballooned.”

On timing, NHSE is unlikely to be abolished until “sometime between 1 October 2027 or 1 April 2028… and it will take up a vast amount of time and effort.”

Send views and questions to annabelle.collins@hsj.co.uk.

You can listen to HSJ Health Check on this page, or subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and all the other popular podcast platforms.

This week we discuss an exclusive story about a major expansion of cancer testing centres that will see the private sector take on a bigger role delivering NHS services.

We’ll weigh up the success of the community diagnostic testing programme so far - and ask if one crucial factor could be holding it back. 

Also, an update on plans to launch a ‘single patient record’, following revelations that NHS England wants to launch a prototype by the end of the year.

This week two more integrated care board chief executives have quit, the latest in a string of resignations amid major changes to their role.

We discuss what’s driving this leadership churn and also an update on the delayed redundancy scheme.

And we reflect on Labour's first year in charge of the NHS, asking what drove the government to gamble on a major reorganisation of accountability.

HSJ Health Check returns this week, just as NHS England unveils new performance rankings for every trust in England.

We unpick how the league table is drawn up, ask who exactly it is aimed at, and whether it will have any meaningful impact on performance and transparency. 

Also, more on the cost of the latest doctors’ strikes and the financial asks facing trusts this year.

We are sorry for the poor quality audio at some points in this week’s podcast - we encountered problems with the platform we use to record it. We tried to clean it up as much as possible as we wanted to publish the discussion rather than scrap it all together this week.

This week on the last HSJ podcast before the summer recess, we cover what is going on with more than £2bn that NHS England wants to take off overspending trusts. 

Henry Anderson and Dave West dig into this, and Wes Streeting’s promise to move some of this money into deprived areas – asking if this will actually work.

Also an update on plans for manager regulation after the government published its proposals earlier this week. 

This week the HSJ team looks at the upcoming resident doctors' strike, plus how satisfied the public is primary care. Bureau chief Ben Clover, standing in for Annabelle Collins is joined by workforce correspondent Nick Kituno to talk about the BMA's latest strike action following the dramatic policy intervention made by NHSE Boss Sir Jim Mackey earlier in the week. Ben and primary care correspondent Caitlin Tilley then go through what the latest data shows about the public's impression of primary care services, and progress towards making the NHS App the service's front door.

Penny Dash's long-awaited review into safety and quality came out this week and put cost-effectiveness at the heart of implementing future recommendations from reviews and inquires.

We cover the biggest changes - including the scrapping of Healthwatch - and whether yet more upheaval will be worth it.

Also this week an update on the government's neighbourhood health plans as the next bit of the strategy is revealed.

The 10-Year Health Plan has been published, so this week Alastair McLellan and Dave West cover what really matters in the 150-page document, and why it's such a disappointment.

Also, what happened to the last chapter on delivery? 

This week we cover concerns about the safety of certain AI technology used in the NHS, as NHS England tries to exert order over a chaotic market.

We also discuss the health secretary’s announcement of a “national maternity investigation” and the unanswered questions surrounding this unusual decision.

And finally, we talk more about HSJ revelations this week that a patient died as a result of the cyber attack on a south east London pathology system last year.