All articles by Emily Townsend
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NewsCQC chair nearly said no to job
The government’s chosen candidate to chair the Care Quality Commission has revealed she initially turned the opportunity down, and that the regulator’s former chair had told her it was not a “great idea”.
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NewsExclusive: ‘Landmark’ safety policy was barely tested before launch
The “Martha’s Rule for maternity services” was used just 13 times in a national pilot before being cited by government and adopted by ministers as a solution to the maternity crisis, HSJ can reveal.
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NewsMany maternity units have ‘structural difficulties’, PM admits
The prime minister has admitted “structural difficulties” similar to those faced by a rural maternity unit recently forced to close over staff shortages are widespread across the NHS.
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NewsICBs must retain some responsibility for trust performance, says CEO
Integrated care boards must continue to be involved in improving the performance of provider trusts, an ICB chief executive has claimed.
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NewsRevealed: Dozens of maternity units at risk of closure
A national NHS leader has told HSJ he expects more maternity units to close, while analysis suggests dozens face similar problems to a hospital where births were suspended this month.
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NewsRevealed: CQC ratings gap triples over a decade
The proportion of acute trusts with an overall Care Quality Commission rating that disagrees with at least one of their main hospital sites has tripled over the past decade, analysis reveals.
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NewsHospitals must report on 25 maternity ‘deliverables’
Trusts have been told to report on 25 maternity asks by next month as part of the service’s response to two damning reviews.
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News‘Golden hellos’ offered in bid to reopen unit
A trust is offering “golden hellos” to obstetric consultants to plug gaps at a rural maternity unit, where it suspended births this week, after a recruitment round failed last month.
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NewsGovernment adviser pushes for patient safety probe
Wes Streeting and the government’s maternity adviser are urging a safety body to consider investigating the NHS’s handling of a “severe yet poorly recognised” condition which can cause “life-changing harm”.
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NewsCEO calls for payment system shake-up
Block contracts should be replaced by payment by results to tackle “fundamentally wrong” year-long waits for children’s services, a trust chief has told HSJ.
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NewsNHSE hires charity chief to create new directorate
NHS England has appointed a charity CEO to the new role of national director of patient experience.
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HSJ LocalI was told to close down 4,000 safety reports, claims manager
A senior NHS manager told an inquiry into more than 2,000 deaths he was asked to remove thousands of outstanding safety incident reports while his trust was in the middle of the probe.
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NewsMaternity ‘sidelined by boards and poorly understood by medical directors’
Maternity services, despite numerous scathing reviews, are still sidelined by trust boards and often poorly understood by medical directors, who view them as being outside the mainstream and delivered by “slightly odd folk”, a leading expert has told HSJ.
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NewsCQC names new CEO
A senior civil servant who has run the food safety regulator will be the new CEO of the Care Quality Commission.
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NewsCQC chief faces ‘inherent conflict’
The chief executive of the Care Quality Commission is set to become responsible for deciding whether to remove “safe space” protection from whistleblowers’ information, which a former health minister has called an “inherent conflict”.
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News‘Catastrophic outcomes’ threat from ‘inappropriate’ maternity tools
Hospitals are persisting with using variable methods and tools to measure the growth of unborn babies, which experts say is leading to avoidable deaths, HSJ can reveal.
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HSJ LocalCEO admits underestimating requirements of deaths inquiry
A trust has been slow to provide records to an inquiry examining more than 2,000 deaths, because it underestimated the resources needed, its former CEO has admitted.
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NewsMinisters remove adviser from national taskforce over ‘conflict of interest’
A medical adviser to the national maternity and neonatal taskforce has been asked to leave by ministers after they recognised “the depth of family concern” about his appointment.
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NewsGovernment picks CQC chair without competition
The government has revealed its preferred candidate to be the next chair of the Care Quality Commission, as a cross-bench peer who has overseen major national healthcare reviews.
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NewsMackey issues 10-point ‘urgent’ maternity plan
The CEO of NHS England has ordered trust boards to enforce joint accountability for maternity between medical directors and chief nursing officers, following criticisms of “siloed” leadership in major reviews.