It's Friday afternoon. What better time to sort out your entry to the #MJAawards @phoebeivy.bsky.social @davewwest.bsky.social @madlendavies.bsky.social @abirimmer.bsky.social @andrewgregory.com @cbwickware.bsky.social Enter here before June 1: mjauk.org/enter-the-20...

The Streeting legacy - Health Bill bang on 200 pages just dropped on Parliament publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...

Let's remain optimistic for the Single Patient Record, no matter how low its chances might seem

Some irony in Healthwatch England's findings being cited in the case for the government's proposed NHS Modernisation Bill - the bill that will also scrap HWE

Do poor towns really have the worst hospitals? Analysis here of new data that helps map NHS provider quality against their patient deprivation profile. lawrencedunhill.substack.com/p/do-poor-to...

It's not just DHSC where morale is plummeting; the HSJ reports that morale declined in every NHS integrated care board that answered the NHS staff survey in 2025 Worth remembering that these are the people who are supposed to deliver Streeting's 3 shifts www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...

Shades of Herbert Morrison.

New ICB chairs in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester will for the first time report to their elected Mayors (as health commissioners), as well as to NHS England/SofS on their NHS responsibilities. Could make for an interesting dynamic

Co-chairs named for DHSC advisory group on frailty & dementia MSF , including @jkdhesi.bsky.social & neighbourhood health guidance is expected to (finally) land this week I understand The centre has been slow on integrated care policy lately, but they're some small steps forward...

DHSC declining to confirm a Phase 2 for the neighbourhood implementation programme In reply to a Parliamentary question from @helenmorganlibdem.bsky.social

Don’t blame the government – NHS ‘conservatism’ is holding back change stark piece on HSJ today from @joemcmanners.bsky.social - about the stalling of 'neighbourhood health' & associated agenda to shift power and resource to the community www.hsj.co.uk/service-rede...

#ntsummit Baroness Casey mentioning the ageist way that Dementia/Frailty gets labelled in effect as social problems not clinical diagnoses/medical problems and so get marginalised in funding/service priorities

Enjoying this recipe but I live in south London www.ft.com/content/c506... Anyone know if south London has a favourite carbonara ?

Yes, flatlining www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Details of public health grants to councils were published yesterday (we're shifting treatment to prevention, remember) But they appear to confirm my story from December that the grant will be held flat in real terms / eroded over the next three years. (lnkd.in/eXQx3Jbb)

Details of public health grants to councils were published yesterday (we're shifting treatment to prevention, remember) But they appear to confirm my story from December that the grant will be held flat in real terms / eroded over the next three years. (lnkd.in/eXQx3Jbb)

This just popped up on my phone from LinkedIn. Not that I'm in the slightest qualified to go near the job but being a Trust or ICB CEO right now just seems like a bitterly awful job to want to do. I wouldn't do this, or any other Trust or ICB CEO job, if you added a zero to the end of the salary.

Trying to get AI to improve my productivity sure is eating into my productivity

New data from #PublicHealth Wales shows early life really shapes long-term health—15% of children born in 2022 were already overweight by age 2. Feeding practices and early environments make a huge difference. If we support families better, we build a healthier Wales. 🔗 phw.nhs.wales/news/new-dat...

Excl: NHSE “urgently” reviewing home birth services Comes as @hsj.co.uk investigation reveals widespread fragility and safety risks — including concerns highlighted by multiple coroners Warning follows deaths of Jennifer & Agnes Cahill w/@alijanemoore.bsky.social www.hsj.co.uk/patient-safe...

Hospital admissions with flu are back at "low" levels in England. www.gov.uk/government/s...

CEO forced out by chair wins £1.4m settlement from @zoetidman.bsky.social www.hsj.co.uk/countess-of-...

Exclusive: CEO forced out by chair wins £1.4m settlement www.hsj.co.uk/countess-of-...

DHSC published its impact statement for the 10 Year Health Plan this week (yes, that is 6 months after it published the plan) It's more measured and clear-eyed than the original document and quite a contrast to some of the effusive optimism in the plan Some of the things that caught my eye 👇

Indications that the flu in 2025, though infections started spreading early, was substantially less deadly than the last two years. That

For all of those who - think we are still in the middle of a raging pandemic 😷 - believe conspiracies about the covid vaccines 🤡 I have some more data for you to ignore or explain away

This will hack off some boards who have been desperately trying to reduce costs while believing it was what they were being asked to prioritise.

Wes Streeting at the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk puts great emphasis on NHS modernisation (against opposition), patient power, technology, and prevention. "The job of listening to patients can't be farmed out to an arms length body" ie HW @davewwest.bsky.social @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social

Good confidence that the NHS flu bed count will continue its fall this week. This counts positive tests (NOIDS causative agents report) and tends to be a decent leading indicator.

Oof - Streeting accuses "some parts" of the NHS of having "oversteered" on reducing deficits and are therefore "underdelivering on elective activity" (Ie not cutting waiting lists fast enough)

Wes Streeting is so far majoring on patient power and choice, enabled by tech, in speech at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk - favoured Nye Bevan quote today is (a modified version of) "a public megaphone will be put in the mouth of every complainant"

A (positive) pre-Christmas flu update, thanks to UKHSA for publishing a day early RSV (mostly affects the very young and very old) at a fairly high rate & some signs it is still rising, though

Flu numbers barely changed since last week and still in the medium band. Of course it is still possible that it spikes higher over the Christmas period but that doesn't seem the most likely outcome. Admissions with flu are considerably lower than 2022/23 peak.

Some more assessment of this from over on LinkedIn

On the latest episode of the HSJ Health Check Podcast: Nuffield Trust policy experts @markgdayan.bsky.social and @sjanereed.bsky.social join Anabelle Collins and @davewwest.bsky.social to share lessons from their research about the abolition of NHS England. 🎧 Listen 👇

Given the govt's comittment to a) shift care from treatment to prevention and b) shift spending away from hospitals, its hard to justify the decision to keep spending on public health flat for the next three years when the NHS will see real terms spending growth

Indeed. What do you think @davidjbuck.bsky.social ?

"A challenge unlike any since the pandemic" - really? Have we all forgotten about December 2022? Ambulance response times for category 2 emergencies like heart attacks and strokes hit 92 minutes on average! The target is 18 mins. Yesterday's data says 32 minutes. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I've got to say, I'm not sure why this has become such a big media story. I might be wrong but my current view is that it's overblown. Flu arrived early, which is why it's breaking 'time of year' records, but it's only in the medium threshold and could peak lower than last year, let alone 2022-23.

Finally, it's worth saying that actuaries typically use a different measure of life expectancy which is forward looking, but more subjective. This has NOT recovered from the pandemic - we remain more pessimistic about the outlook for future mortality rates than we were before.

Drilling deeper there is lots going on below the headline statistics. Life expectancy in Scotland is 2 years lower than UK average. Across UK, life expectancy has improved for pensioners but has not recovered from the pandemic for younger people. I'll save more detailed analysis for future posts.

ONS focus on 3-year periods, the latest ending 2022-24. My chart instead looks at the individual years. This paints a different picture. The impact of the pandemic is sharper but so is the subsequent recovery. Life expectancy in 2024 had fully recovered back to the high point seen in 2019.

Life expectancy in the UK has recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Yesterday, ONS released the latest National Life Tables and analysis of life expectancy in the UK. This is so called "period life expectancy", an objective but necessarily backwards-looking calculation. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Interesting. The VPAG repayment rate will go down to 14.5% in 2026, but not due to capping instead from "a slowdown in the growth of NHS use of newer medicines across 2025". www.abpi.org.uk/media/news/2...

This is a welcome & reflective intervention. 'Overdiagnosis' is a simplistic & stigmatising explanation for what, in reality, is a complex interplay of health, social & economic factors. The focus should be on getting people the right support at the right time www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Now 15 years for migrant care workers to qualify. Do ministers have any understanding of the desperate state of the social care sector? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

CEO leaves ICB after just five months, from @zoetidman.bsky.social A sad development for Cathy who was a great chair in West Yorkshire & something of a personification of the NHS's current dilemma: Deficit & waiting list recovery, versus reform and partnership www.hsj.co.uk/cheshire-and...

flu latest, from UK Health Security Agency