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Expert BriefingRecovery Watch: This year’s validation trick
Elective recovery and returning the NHS to meeting the 18-week standard by 2029 is the government’s main performance priority. The Recovery Watch newsletter tracks prospects and progress against this goal. This week, by bureau chief James Illman.
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NewsRevealed: Cancer doctor hiring freezes rise in nearly every region
Cancer centres in nearly every region of England reported significant rises in recruitment freezes to oncology posts over the past year, according to new figures shared with HSJ.
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NewsNew ‘simpler’ NHSE performance regime for acutes has 50% more metrics
The number of metrics used to measure the performance of acute trusts by NHS England has been increased from 23 to 35.
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CommentWait list growth in April cancels out March ‘sprint’
The trajectory for “18 weeks” recovery was missed by a record margin
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NewsBiggest climbers and fallers in trust league table
Sharply divergent performance in the last quarter of 2025-26 saw dramatic movement within NHS England’s league table for acute trusts, with six providers moving up or down rankings by 30 places or more.
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NewsCorridor care cases hit 90k in May
More than 90,000 cases of corridor care were recorded in English NHS hospitals in May – an average of 3,000 per day – according to the first official stats on the scale of the problem.
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NewsRevealed: The trusts sharing £86m prize for March A&E sprint
NHS England has revealed the trusts which will share an £86m prize pot for delivering improvements to A&E waiting times in March.
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NewsRevealed: Hospitals with the most ‘red line’ 24-hour waits
At least one in 10 A&E patients wait more than 24 hours at many hospitals, despite NHS England telling trusts to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to such long waits, new figures have revealed.
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NewsGovernment will be ‘incredibly lucky’ if current elective care plan works
The government and NHS England is wrong to think that improvements in productivity, and not increased funding, will result in shorter elective waiting lists, the leader of the NHS Alliance has claimed.
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NewsExclusive: NHSE pays three trusts £1m each to remove patients from waiting lists
Three trusts were paid more than £1m for removing patients from their waiting lists through “validation” exercises last year, HSJ can reveal.
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Expert BriefingRecovery Watch: How trusts drove near-record improvements
Elective recovery and returning the NHS to meeting the 18-week standard by 2029 is the government’s main performance priority. The Recovery Watch newsletter tracks prospects and progress against this goal. This week, by bureau chief James Illman.
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NewsHospital accused of delaying ambulances to eliminate corridor care
A hospital trust has been accused of delaying the offloading of ambulance patients so it can maintain zero “corridor care”.
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News21 trusts ‘delivered year’s elective recovery in single month’
Twenty-one trusts delivered their entire 2025-26 elective improvement in March alone, analysis shows, prompting concerns about the “fragility and sustainability” of the NHS’s waiting list recovery.
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NewsNeighbourhood plans ‘in danger’, says top five trust leader
The government’s neighbourhood health agenda is “in danger of not happening” amid a lack of clarity over governance structures and funding, the chair of England’s fourth-largest trust has claimed.
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CommentTarget hit as unreported removals spike
Most but not all of the waiting list improvement was caused by validation
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NewsElective target hit after spike in ‘unreported removals’
NHS England has hit its 65 per cent waiting list for 2025-26, but experts said the “majority of the improvement” in March was driven by a “record” spike in “unreported removals”.
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CommentSaying ‘no’ to referrals is the morally right thing to do
The NHS cannot meet rising elective demand within its current resources. Introducing referral thresholds is no longer a theoretical option, but a practical necessity to protect patients with the most serious conditions
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NewsNHSE rows back on controversial target
NHS England has rowed back on what was widely understood to be a new target for the proportion of patients it wanted “diverted” away from waiting lists, after accusations it was rationing care.
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NewsDHSC ran nine-day recruitment for national role
The Department of Health and Social Care left an application window of just nine days to recruit a co-chair who will oversee delivery of its national cancer plan.
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CommentYear-end elective ‘sprint’ off to a slow start
Sensible things are happening, but too slowly for 18 weeks recovery