The must read stories and talking points in the NHS

A&E action plan

Health leaders have announced a package of measures to drive up A&E standards in the wake of this week’s budget announcement.

In a letter to senior CCG, trust and council leaders, Simon Stevens and Jim Mackey spell out a number of plans to improve performance.

The document, seen by HSJ, follows chancellor Philip Hammond announcing £100m for capital investment specifically in accident and emergency departments.

The measures include altering the terms of the sustainability and transformation funding conditions so that trusts can secure the 30 per cent-related slice of cash just be hitting A&E targets.

The other headline is NHS England’s national urgent and emergency care director Pauline Philip has been appointed by both organisations as joint leader to implement the changes.

But questions remain over how these changes will be implemented.

While trusts might welcome simplifying the criteria for obtaining their share of the £1.8bn STF funding, it is not clear how elective care and cancer targets will be monitored.

Under previous STF guidelines trusts could lose STF cash for missing both targets, but there has been no indication of what penalties will be levied for failure now these are not under part of the scheme.

It is also not clear how Ms Philip’s role will develop, nor what powers she will have. With Mr Mackey set to leave NHSI in the autumn at the end of his two year secondment, is  Ms Philip being lined up to take over?

Sir Leonard Fenwick latest

HSJ has published two stories about the circumstances in the run up to Sir Leonard Fenwick, chief executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals FT, going on extended leave earlier this year. The trust confirmed Sir Leonard’s absence on 12 January. He is the longest serving trust leader in the NHS.

The new stories are:

High profile STP lead named

Dame Julie Moore, chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham and HEFT, is to be confirmed as the new lead for the Birmingham and Solihull sustainability and transformation plan.

Senior sources in the health economy have told HSJ that the acute trust chief executive has been named as the successor to Mark Rogers, who stepped down last month. Her appointment has yet to be formally announced.

Mr Rogers stepped down as Birmingham city council chief executive last month, days before a government appointed panel criticised the local authority’s leadership for its control of a programme of work to transform the organisation and make it financially sustainable.

UHB and HEFT, which are merging, have a combined turnover of more than £1.4bn and provide the vast majority of acute care for the Birmingham and Solihull patch, making Dame Julie one of the most powerful hospital leaders in the country and the dominant provider chief in the city.