HSJ will hold a Twitter debate today at 12.30pm on the future of NHS payment system, following the acknowledgement by Monitor and NHS England this week that it needs to be overhauled. We will also cover the best of the debate on HSJ Live.

14.04pm: Health secretary Jeremy Hunt tweets about his frontline work experience: “Just finished helping out on reception at GP surgery in Wandsworth, thanks Debbie for looking after me”. @Jeremy_Hunt

12.52pm: The HSJ twitter chat on payment by results is underway under the hashtag #HSJPayment.

11.13am: The Daily Mail carries a page-two story headlined “Whistleblowers ‘still barred in NHS trusts’”.

The paper said: “a letter [has] emerged in which [Sir David Nicholson] tells an NHS employee he cannot help them speak out because a ‘legal process’ had concluded foundation trusts are ‘separate legal bodies’ from the Department of Health.”

The paper said the letter came days after Sir David told the Health Select Committee he would personally help whistleblowers.

In a statement NHS England said: “Sir David has always been clear he would intervene where he believed individuals were being stopped from whistleblowing. Sir David though, does not, and has not had the power to direct NHS foundation trusts”.

10.37am: Joe Farrington-Douglas, head of public policy at the British Red Cross, has had a letter published in the Telegraph today. “The Big Society may be out of fashion in Westminster but if this new generation of older people is going to be looked after there will need to be full collaboration between the NHS, social services, voluntary organisations, families and neighbours,” he writes. Read the whole thing here.

10.32am: Crispin Dowler’s story on planned major reforms to payment by results is now free to anyone registered on HSJ.co.uk, in advance of the Twitter chat we will be hosting on the subject from 12.30.

10.20am: Kings Fund senior fellow Nigel Edwards is disputing the Telegraph’s story about A&E admissions.

“Here is a link to the data the Telegraph should have used http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/weekly-ae-sitreps-2013-14/”, he tweets.

“To clarify A&E HES has not yet got full coverage. As more hospitals go on the no.of attendances recorded goes up.Its capturing recording”

“The A&E sitrep data say 2011/12 21,481,402 2012/13 21,724,841 an increase of 240k or 1%. Jan to Jan as DT reported is higher +450k not 1m”.

9.42am: Rob Findlay - @nhsgooroo - tweets: “March’s bed pressures HAVE caused a big increase in the waiting list. Details to come #nhswaits”

9.40am: Rob Findlay - aka @nhsgooroo - Tweets: “One-year-waiters hit new record best of 473 at end Mar’13 (vs. 665 Feb’13; 5,149 Mar’12) #nhswaits”. Follow Rob’s tweets for more analysis of elective performance.

9.33am: Results from a Macmillan Cancer Care survey show some serious care failings, including not receiving food, and being given the wrong drugs.The Guardian covers the story here.

9.30am: Figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre suggest A&E attendances rose fairly steeply in 2012. We have covered the figures, as has the Telegraph.

The Telegraph has also higlighted support provided by the Red Cross because of severe care needs.

9.26am: The government has published latest workforce data for the Department of Health and its national arms-length bodies.

9.21am: The Financial Times has reported that Sir Michael Rawlins, who recently left NICE as chair, has taken a role at a pharma company.

It reports: “The outgoing chairman of the government’s medicines advisory body has joined the board of a pharmaceutical company just weeks after his retirement, raising concerns over a potential conflict of interest.

“Prof Sir Michael Rawlins, who spearheaded the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) since its creation in 1999, has been appointed as a director of Intra-Cellular Therapies, a New York-based biotech business developing a series of experimental medicines. The move comes at a time of growing debate over the “revolving door” between senior public and private sector posts.”

9.15am: It appears the NHS is gearing up to invent the biggest shift in NHS payment systems since the introducion of payment by results. Crispin Dowler reported on the payment overhaul on Monday: “Clinical commissioning groups will be encouraged to experiment with different ways of paying for care next year, in what could be the start of the biggest reform of NHS payment systems since the introduction of payment by results.

“A discussion paper published this week by NHS England and healthcare sector regulator Monitor said the current system, under which around £29bn a year is spent based on nationally fixed “tariff” prices, was not always founded on good information and was often cited as a barrier to integrated care.

“Payment by results still paid for activities rather than patient outcomes and its annual cycle of new prices inhibited long-term planning, the paper added. It said some commissioners - faced with “patchy information and sometimes inappropriate incentives” - had already been opting to negotiate local prices.”

8.25am: Joe Rafferty, the chief executive of Mersey Care Trust, tweeted yesterday that the emergency mental health payment by results system could provide a model for the future. @JR_MerseyCare said: “Look at mental health PbR. It’s well thought through compared to acute version. Makes money flow to community. Challenge but right.”

8.24am: HSJ will hold a Twitter debate today at 12.30pm on the future of NHS payment system, following the acknowledgement by Monitor and NHS England this week that it needs to be overhauled.

8.45am: Exporting any NHS organisation into the Middle East comes with problems. As with any part of the world, it is important for organisations with little prior exposure to the region to establish a strong network and build long-term relationships when developing their presence.

On our Innovation and Efficiency channel Simon Shooter explains the likely implications.