Comment archive
-
CommentBlaming individuals for care failures is sometimes the right response
The Great Ormond Street scandal exposes a growing imbalance in NHS patient safety policy. In moving away from blame, the system has also lost sight of individual competence, leadership responsibility, and the non-negotiables needed to prevent serious harm
-
Expert BriefingPatient Safety Watch: Jeremy Hunt’s sobering realisation about bureaucracy and box ticking
HSJ hosts the Patient Safety Watch newsletter, written by Patient Safety Watch chair Jeremy Hunt
-
Expert BriefingOn Call: What 2026 means for strikes
Essential insights into the latest workforce challenges facing NHS staff. Analysis on the key questions around recruitment and retention, staff wellbeing, and equality, diversity and inclusion. By HSJ workforce correspondent Nick Kituno.
-
CommentNone of the government’s ‘three shifts’ will reduce the cost of healthcare
Andi Orlowski argues why the NHS needs to stop chasing savings and start making explicit value choices
-
Expert BriefingThe Download: Where are the wearables?
The weekly newsletter that unpacks system leaders’ priorities for digital technology and the impact they are having on delivering health services. This week, written by Ella Devereux. Contact HSJ in confidence here.
-
CommentThe National Cancer Plan contains many unanswered questions
The National Cancer Plan is a welcome response to the facts: England lags behind on cancer outcomes, and rising incidence will challenge systems even further. But, says Cancer Research UK, with the right focus on evidence and delivery, the plan could yield results
-
CommentThe biggest drivers of healthcare demand are not what you think
Rising healthcare demand is usually blamed on an ageing, less healthy population. But new analysis suggests this is incorrect
-
CommentIs your performance dashboard revealing what you need to know?
Digital decision-support tools are widespread in the NHS, but their impact remains limited. Digitisation has focused on generating insights without creating the organisational architecture needed to act on them
-
Expert BriefingThe Integrator: The mystery of the Model ICB 2.0
Insider tales and must-read analysis on how integration is reshaping health and care systems, NHS providers, primary care, and commissioning. This week by correspondent Mimi Launder.
-
CommentThe plan to regulate managers is well-intentioned but dangerous
Chief nurses are not opposed to accountability for managers and leaders – but they think the government has designed the wrong system
-
Daily InsightThe mythbuster: Stop counting, start thinking
The NHS traditionally measures capacity by counting staff and beds, but post-covid evidence shows better operational management is even more important than simply increasing resources
-
CommentPatients with dementia are spending too long in hospital
Better dementia care could significantly ease winter pressures on the NHS, but the system is not set up for current needs, let alone future demands
-
CommentYou have until Monday to help influence the NHS's use of AI
NHS leaders are being asked to help shape how AI tools are tested, deployed and governed as the MHRA’s national commission seeks to balance innovation with patient safety
-
CommentNorway provides safer AND cheaper healthcare than the UK – we need to find out why
Jeremy Hunt argues that closing the UK’s patient safety gap must become a core national priority, with new data showing tens of thousands of deaths could be prevented by matching the performance of leading health systems
-
CommentCompassionate leadership is not just about ‘being nice’
Compassionate leadership isn’t the problem for the NHS; practising it superficially is. Real compassion already includes clarity, boundaries, and action
-
CommentHospice care faces a ‘cliff edge’ this spring
Hospices are facing more serious challenges than ever before: costs are rising, demand is growing due to an ageing population, and insufficient funding means at least two in five hospices are planning cuts
-
Expert BriefingThe Integrator: Social care gets a taste of NHS targets and terror
Insider tales and must-read analysis on how integration is reshaping health and care systems, NHS providers, primary care, and commissioning. This week, by deputy editor Dave West.
-
CommentReaching the 'vaccine ambivalent'
As flu strains NHS services, Gloucestershire’s experience shows that local delivery, targeted outreach and convenient access can significantly improve flu vaccination uptake
-
CommentAs a trust CEO I found it hard to keep the focus on improvement
For more than two decades, the NHS has invested heavily in improvement. There have been new operating models, structures, and performance frameworks, as well as repeated waves of leadership development. Yet across much of the service, improvement remains episodic. Gains are made, often at pace – and then lost
-
LeaderThe NHS is too reliant on resident doctors
As the dust settled on the latest resident doctors strike, a group of medical and managerial senior executives met to review how their London acute trust had fared.