Alastair McLellan
Alastair McLellan has been the editor of HSJ, mostly, since 2002. He has overseen the launch of the award-winning HSJ Intelligence and HSJ Solutions and the move to make HSJ a purely digital service. Under Alastair’s leadership HSJ has been named specialist information service of the year three times since 2010.
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LeaderStreeting is Lansley reborn
The government’s abandonment of its stricture against a top-down reorganisation would be breathtaking if it was not so tragic.
LeaderWhat the abolition of NHSE means for the service’s leaders
A few hours after Sir Jim Mackey told trust CEOs that NHS England was to be abolished, its outgoing chair Richard Meddings held his leaving do in the same room.
NewsMackey must be Streeting’s ‘chief adviser’, says ex-NHSE chief exec
It is essential new NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey becomes the health secretary’s “chief policy adviser”, according to the only person to have run the service from the top of NHSE and within the Department of Health.
LeaderPlanning round could be a ‘bloodbath’ without a change of course
Daniel Elkeles is to be congratulated on his appointment as the chief executive of NHS Providers. He has proved himself not only a successful CEO, but one who is prepared to speak truth to power and challenge conventional thinking. He is the right person for the job ahead.
LeaderNHS England reaches a tipping point
The decline of NHS England’s power and influence has been a gradual, not sudden, affair. The direction of travel has been clear to most for at least three years, but HSJ contends the shift in the leadership of the service has, over the last few months, reached a tipping point.
LeaderThe return of grown-up financial planning offers hope for 2025
The most pressing task facing NHS England and the service it oversees in the next three or four months will be to agree on a trust by trust, system by system financial and operational settlement that is both credible and acceptable to both parties and the government.
NewsICB chairs made dames in New Year Honours
Two integrated care board chairs, one a former health secretary and the other a leading antiracism campaigner, have been made Dames in the 2025 New Year Honours.
HSJ InteractiveDigital transformation will be key to ‘last chance’ NHS reforms
Two conflicting views wove through the HSJ and IBM event on how information technology might help deliver the forthcoming 10-year NHS plan.
NewsTrust ‘support and admin staff’ targeted for cuts in 2025-26 by NHSE
NHS England will hold discussions with every trust about the potential for cutting of its non-clinical workforce early next year.
LeaderThe return of austerity to the NHS means making tough choices
The implications of last month’s budget are now being fully understood throughout the NHS – and the conclusion of leaders at all levels is that austerity will return to the service for 2025-26.
LeaderNot having a row about failing managers
There are many better things Wes Streeting could focus on than picking rows with NHS managers, writes HSJ editor Alastair McLellan.
NewsNHSE desire to please govt forcing finance chiefs to agree undeliverable plans
One of the NHS’s foremost finance figures has joined the chorus of senior healthcare leaders raising serious concerns about the damaging effect of the way the service’s annual planning round is conducted.
LeaderMental health is not a priority for this government
This government is fond of declaring it is committed to “three shifts” in health and care policy: hospital to community, analogue to prevention, and treatment to prevention.
NewsGlobal majority leaders are now part of the NHS establishment
What will strike readers first about the 2024 HSJ list of the most influential people in health policy and the NHS with a global majority background is how unsurprising it is.
LeaderThe future of NHS England
NHS England is to have a new chair, albeit the current incumbent Richards Meddings has agreed to stick around until March in line with the government’s tactic of getting the previous administration to ‘own’ a very difficult winter.
News‘Offer GPs the consultant contract’ to reform primary care
GPs should be “brought into the NHS” by being offered the chance to be employed under the consultant contract, according to one of the country’s leading trust chief executives.
NewsLocal leaders should run NHSE regions, suggest trust CEOs
NHS England’s regional leadership should largely constitute senior executives seconded from local NHS organisations, some of the country’s leading trust CEOs have suggested.
NewsNo point in having ‘honest conversations’ with centre on finance, say trust CEOs
Trusts are increasingly deciding there is little benefit in resisting the imposition of unrealistic financial plans demanded by NHS England, some of the country’s leading provider chief executives have told HSJ.
NewsShrink the centre to boost local management, Darzi concludes
The NHS needs to urgently reconfigure the “balance of its management resources”, says Lord Darzi’s report into the state of the NHS.
HSJ LocalCEO expresses ‘extreme concern’ about trust performance
An acute trust chief executive has warned that his organisation will struggle to “provide high-quality, timely, and financially affordable care” over the winter.