NHSE tells ICBs to slow elective referrals
NHS England has told integrated care boards they need to slow down elective referrals dramatically – nearly eliminating year-on-year growth – with high-profile waiting list targets under threat.
Hospital sends GPs 15,000 letters in a single day
A “technical failure” caused a hospital trust to send 15-20,000 discharge letters to local GP practices on the day before the Easter bank holiday weekend, some of which dated back four months.
Revealed: The systems set to gain and lose hundreds of millions
Nine integrated care systems are set to lose hundreds of millions in NHS funding relative to others in coming years – while eight stand to make big gains – under new NHS England funding policy.
ICBs in dispute with provider over ‘ticking timebomb’ drug costs
Multiple NHS commissioners are embroiled in a legal row with a private company they say is “intensively” marketing its online weight-loss drugs service, which could cost them hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Revealed: The ICBs with greatest ‘opportunity’ to avoid admissions
The systems which NHS England says have the greatest “opportunities” to boost their use of same-day emergency care can be revealed for the first time.
NHSE commends ICBs for ‘strong leadership’
The quality of leadership at 13 integrated care boards has been praised by NHS England in its latest formal assessment of their performance.
Revealed: 14 ICBs cutting spend on the third sector
Nearly half of all integrated care boards are due to cut their spending on voluntary, community and social enterprise services this financial year, HSJ analysis suggests.
Three ICSs responsible for a quarter of very long diagnostic waits
Just three integrated care systems were responsible for nearly one in four 13-week waits for key diagnostic tests in recent months, HSJ analysis of official data has found.
Revealed: Three-fold variation in emergency response time by ICS
A threefold variation in ambulance response for serious, urgent conditions has been revealed in new figures.
Eleven ICSs warned of ‘significant concern’ about overspending
Around three quarters of England’s 42 integrated care systems have been unable to set balanced budgets for 2024-25, NHS England has revealed.
Threefold ICS variation in GP phone access revealed
Patients trying to reach their GP are almost three times as likely to fail to get through in the worst-performing integrated care systems than the best, according to analysis of new annual figures.
Exclusive: NHSE begins to claw back funding from ICSs to pay off historic debts
Three-quarters of integrated care systems face funding cuts of up to £20m as a result of NHS England’s insistence they start paying back overspends from previous years, HSJ analysis has discovered.
Trust’s ‘leadership behaviour’ attacked by six ICBs
Six integrated care board chiefs in the Midlands have written to an ambulance trust over a “pattern of behaviour” they claim its leadership team has displayed since its Care Quality Commission rating was downgraded.
‘Untenable stalemate’ is halting GP practice upgrades, say ICBs
An “untenable stalemate” in funding has virtually halted GP practice building work, despite national commitments to expand primary care, multiple NHS organisations are warning.
Trust appoints new chair from ICB
An acute trust in the West Midlands has appointed a new chair from its neighbouring integrated care board.
£800m deal to transfer control of community services to acutes
An integrated care board is planning to hand over control of community services worth an annual £80m to two acute trusts for the next five to 10 years.
Two ICBs appoint chief executives
Two integrated care boards in the Midlands have made their interim chief executives substantive.
Exclusive: Government and NHS in talks over £1bn funding gap
Government is in talks with national NHS leaders over how to fill an urgent funding gap of at least £1bn this financial year, HSJ has learned, as new analysis shows all 42 local integrated care systems were behind their own plans less than halfway through 2023-24.
Exclusive: Tenfold variation in beds revealed by NHS England audit
The number of NHS community beds per head of population varies by more than 10 times between integrated care systems, an NHS England audit seen by HSJ suggests.