A foundation trust that shelved plans to build a new hospital until after the election has given itself a six month deadline to decide whether to abandon the project, plus breaking health news and comment throughout the day

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5.36pm Lord Howe has rejoined the Ministry of Defence as minister of state and Lords spokesman on defence. He had been parliamentary under secretary of state for Quality at the DH since May 2010. Previously he was parliamentary under secretary of state at the MoD, from 1995 to 1997.

On rejoining the MoD, Lord Howe said: “Having worked at the Ministry of Defence before, it is a great privilege to return as minister of state and House of Lord’s spokesman on defence. I look forward to working with my military and civilian colleagues once again in the months ahead, ensuring that our both our serving personnel and veterans are fully recognised for the enormous contribution they have made to the country.

“I recognise the hard work of my predecessor Lord Astor, and I am committed to carrying on his impressive record in delivering the government’s defence agenda in the House of Lords.”

4.10pm A new NHS owned company overseeing an £800m integrated older people’s services contract will have to hit outcomes based targets to secure up to 15 per cent of its income, its chief has told HSJ.

Keith Spencer, chief executive of UnitingCare Partnership, said the proportion of income based on achieving specified outcomes agreed with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group would taper upwards over the five year deal.

The company, a limited liability partnership, was established by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and Cambridge University Hospitals foundation trusts after they won a tender last October for the largest NHS outcomes based contract to date.

Chesterfield Royal Hospital FT’s primary care branch, Royal Primary Care, will start to deliver services at three of the five surgeries currently run by Holywell Medical Group on Friday.

Two more surgeries are due to close tomorrow following financial pressures and recruitment difficulties.

It comes after North Tees and Hartlepool FT had to sell back the land it purchased for the new site five years ago to the previous owner.

A condition of the sale was that if the trust did not secure funding for the new hospital, it had the option to sell the land back to previous owner, Wynyard Park Limited, by 12 May.

11.00am The Health Foundation has appointed Gavin Larner as a new policy associate.

Mr Larner will lead on a set of projects seeking to better understand how national and local policy can support NHS staff in improving quality and efficiency of care.

He will join the Health Foundation on secondment from the Department of Health where he is director of quality, responsible for professional regulation, the Care Quality Commission, and the government responses to the Mid-Staffordshire public inquiry and the Morecombe Bay and Savile investigations.

He has spent 21 years with the Department of Health, working in NHS strategy, pay and pensions, health inequality, heart disease, public health strategy, drugs misuse, communications as well as ministerial private offices. He has also had a spell in the NHS, helping to develop national and specialist services at South London and the Maudsley Foundation Trust for a year.

10.50am Doctors must avoid prescribing drugs to patients needlessly as it may be causing them harm, according to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

The Daily Mail reports that the Academy warns a culture of “defensive medicine” and lack of knowledge is leading medics to overdiagnose and overtreat patients.

10.40am The Daily Mail reports that British women head a global league table for alcohol abuse, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

One in five female graduates regularly drink “hazardously” compared with one in ten for those with lower levels of education. Hazardous is defined as consuming at least twice the safe limit of 14 units a week for women and 21 units for men.

7.00am Good morning and welcome to HSJ Live. In case you missed yesterday’s health news, why not check out our handy new Executive Summary - the perfect way to catch up on what you might have missed.

It was deficit double vision for King’s College Hospital Foundation, which could see its shortfall double as financial pressure in the acute sector mounts, and the health service bid a fond farewell to “pecs dance” Dr Dan Poulter, as the new ministerial health team fell into place.