The must-read stories and debate in health policy and leadership.

Back in 2014 someone had the bright idea of looking at the configuration of stroke services in Kent and Medway, with one option being to move to a smaller number of hyper-acute stroke units.

Eight years later the number of stroke units has fallen from seven to three (partly due to staffing challenges) but there are still no hyper-acute units in the county and won’t be for another two years. The go-live dates for the three proposed units – at Maidstone Hospital, Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford and the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford – have just slipped back by another year as commissioners re-examine the likely activity and bed numbers.

A combination of a drawn-out process to reach a decision (only made in 2019), judicial reviews and subsequent health secretaries sitting on a report by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel lie behind the delays to date.

But going forward the position seems fraught. Will the review reopen the arguments for a fourth unit – potentially in Thanet? If a new hospital is built in Canterbury will it be worth building the Ashford unit if it will have to move within a few years? The future shape of stroke services still seems uncertain.

A cure for procurement?

A new “central commercial function” for NHS procurement will simplify the routes through which trusts and integrated care systems buy goods and services, NHS England chief commercial officer Jacqui Rock has told HSJ.

The new “function” is being developed by NHS England will also set a national commercial strategy, improve the quality of procurement data flowing to the centre and professionalise the procurement and commercial workforce.

Ms Rock attempted to allay fears expressed to HSJ by some leading figures in the sector that the CCF is a means to begin incorporating NHS procurement into the Government Commercial Function – a Cabinet Office agency that either buys on behalf of departments or provides intensive support to department procurement efforts.

“We’re certainly not planning on being part of that,” Ms Rock told HSJ. “This is being built by the NHS for the NHS.” She said some elements of the GCF may be “leveraged” to the benefit of the NHS’s CCF, such as adapting their procurement playbooks (compendiums of best practice).

Ms Rock also emphasised that CCF’s “service offering” will not make it mandatory for local procurement and commercial teams to buy through specified routes, such as NHS Supply Chain or the Crown Commercial Service.

Also on hsj.co.uk today

In news, we report on findings that there were dramatic increases in prescribing spend for the treatment of mental health conditions after the pandemic began, and The Primer – our weekly rundown of health coverage across the media – turns its attentions to the sucesses or otherwise of Health Week.