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

The healthcare sector is under increasing pressure to fill workforce gaps, upskill existing staff, and retain talent, and your organisation is probably no different.

This week, the team look at two long-running and contentious issues in the NHS.

The government has awarded above-inflation pay rises for most NHS staff for 2025-26, but senior managers will see their earnings fall in real terms.

Government pay advisers have raised concerns about trusts spending an estimated £7m a year on recruitment firms "to pursue the same talent" for executive posts.

With NHS funding stretched to its limit, real transformation demands more than just balancing the books - it calls for honest, evidence-based decisions about what to start, stop and sustain, writes Andi Orlowski

A trust medical director has been appointed as the chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission.

Repeated refusals by NHS England to fund extra staff was a key factor in a patient's death, a coroner has said.

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

iCARE and WSIC find new ways to enable both public trust and technological advances in healthcare

A city's five trusts have decided to "accelerate" plans to form a major £2bn hospital group, moving to a shared CEO and chair by next spring.

A trust has called in a private provider to help address very long diagnostic waits, but admits they remain at a "standstill" without "further investment".

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.

A bold digital future for health and care is possible - but only with clear vision, sustained investment, and the humility to learn lessons from past failures, writes Tom Hardie

Staff were effectively "locked in" a hospital at night during a power cut that led to a major incident being declared last year, HSJ can reveal.

A teaching trust's contract management was "poor or non-existent", thanks to a fractured relationship with its own subsidiary, a review has found.

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

The ideas, policies and challenges at the heart of the NHS goal for net zero emissions, from HSJ sustainability correspondent Zoe Tidman

Another major inquiry into patient safety within NHS maternity departments is being considered, HSJ has learned, this time by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.

A struggling acute trust has announced plans to share a chief executive with its neighbouring community provider as it explores a new group model.

One of the final seven trusts without an electronic patient record is set to partner with its neighbour to implement Oracle Health's system

Top-performing systems will be able to spend up to £25m above their usual capital allocations under an upcoming NHS England rewards scheme, HSJ can reveal.

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

In many areas the NHS is still in the foothills when it comes to using artificial intelligence, with most of the innovation found in diagnostics and speech dictation.

Integrated care board CEOs and directors should often be paid more than trust peers, under new guidance published today.

Seasonal growth has overwhelmed recent sluggish improvements, writes Rob Findlay

NHS England has confirmed the appointment of a new strategy director.

A hospital trust is involved in a row with the British Medical Association amid concerns over a 'bullying culture', it has emerged.

Reform UK has taken control of a swathe of councils. David Walker explores what this might mean for the NHS

Steve Black questions key claims in a new report on general practice

NHS England has awarded a firm a £13.3m contract to provide "tiger teams" to help a handful of trusts install their first electronic patient record.

A former NHS England regional director who retired last year has been hired to oversee the abolition of the organisation and its merger into the Department of Health and Social Care.

NHS England is axing dozens of performance indicators covering workforce, inequalities and patient safety, saying local organisations should be measured on "short-term priorities" this year.

Vulnerable patients at a struggling A&E died or needed intensive care after their needs "were not met" while being cared for in surge spaces and waiting areas, inspectors have warned after an unan...

The 10-Year Plan must include a funded, strategic workforce recovery plan to overcome post-pandemic workforce challenges, write Nick Krachler and Ian Kessler

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

NHS England has revealed its new "model ICB blueprint", which will see more than a dozen functions transferring out of integrated care boards and includes requirements to cut the number of board membe...

An integrated care board has appointed an acting chair after the previous boss stood down suddenly earlier this year.

An acute trust and a mental health trust in the Midlands have announced they are to share a chair, which they say will create more opportunities for joined-up care.

University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust has joined four other trusts in NHS England's most challenged category for all three of elective, diagnostic and cancer performance.

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

A hospital trust has been criticised for its "poor" and "defensive" investigations into three deaths, which a coroner has linked to care by a single surgeon.

A leading midwife and chair of government maternity inquiries has cited "significant concern about safety and wellbeing" following a substantial cut to nationally ring-fenced funding.

Essential insight into England's biggest health economy, by HSJ bureau chief Ben Clover.

A former health minister has been appointed chair of a trust.

With the 2025-26 pay review body report imminent, Anita Charlesworth analyses different data comparing NHS pay and its implications for policymakers

A large acute trust plans to cut more than 700 additional jobs and admits it will miss key performance targets this year due to its "unsustainable" deficit.

NHS managers should receive "cultural intelligence training" to tackle issues such as "the legacy of the British Empire" and improve the experience of overseas recruits, the National Guardian's Office...

Maternity, prevention, mental health and children's services are the national budgets seeing the biggest cuts after government and NHS England decided to slash ringfenced allocations, HSJ analysis rev...

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