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Nick Kituno

@kituno.bsky.social
141 followers 110 following 35 posts

@hsj.co.uk Senior Correspondent | NHS workforce and Greater Manchester. Views my own.

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Reposted by Nick Kituno
Henry Anderson @henryanderson1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Row over future of the NHS CEO role has been resolved in favour of Jim Mackey, HSJ reports. NHS CEO will stay equal rank to the DHSC perm sec, after row over whether to downgrade role, from @kituno.bsky.social www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...
hsj.co.uk
Exclusive: NHS CEO will keep top-tier status
The NHS chief executive is set to have equal rank in government to the health department's permanent secretary when NHS England is abolished - meaning a proposal to downgrade their status has been rej...
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Pleased to announce that I have been promoted to Senior Correspondent at @hsj.co.uk.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/un...
hsj.co.uk
‘Unacceptable’ cuts to bank and agency rates must be reversed, says BMA
Doctors are threatening action against coordinated moves in two areas to cut rates for extra-contractual work.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Doctors in Cheshire and Merseyside say they will be “left with no option but to take a stand” if leaders do not reverse plans to cut rates for extra-contractual work. BMA claims the approach has had a “detrimental impact” on patients and staff, amid similar moves elsewhere. w/ Caitlin Tilley.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Mark Bailie*, NHSE non-executive director, not Mark Cubbon.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Cubbon: “[...] It is the Churchill quote: ‘If I had more time, I would write you a shorter letter’. “I think you probably need a shorter letter.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Mark Cubbon, NHSE’s lead for elective care, cancer and diagnostics, said: “The thinking is amazing. The next task is how you synthesise it down to something that is repeatably consumable at every single level [...]”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Dr Dash: “I had a bit of a personal problem with some of the language in here. This one on self-effectiveness [says], ‘keep safe’. “What does that mean? Does that I mean I walk slowly down the corridor?”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
A draft of the NHS’s first management leadership framework has too much “fuzzy language” and should be simplified, NHS England's board has said. Chair Dr Penny Dash told officials to “tighten up” it up and include a clearer measurement of performance. www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/fu...
hsj.co.uk
‘Fuzzy’ NHS management standards to be revised
The NHS's first proposed skills framework for managers has too much "fuzzy language" and needs to be simplified, the NHS England board has decided.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
#Exc: A long-awaited review into “unjust and unfair” pay disparities between white and minority ethnic staff in the NHS has been launched, @hsj.co.uk can reveal. The @nhs-rho.bsky.social has commissioned the first-ever review into it with @uniofsurrey.bsky.social. www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/ex...
hsj.co.uk
Exclusive: ‘Unjust’ NHS ethnic pay gap to be reviewed
A long-awaited review into "unjust and unfair" pay disparities between white and minority ethnic staff across the NHS has been launched.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/nh...
hsj.co.uk
NHSE workforce chief departs
NHS England's chief workforce, training and education officer is leaving this summer, ahead of the appointment of a new director for "people" in the health department.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
New: Dr Navina Evans, NHS England’s chief workforce, training and education officer, is leaving this summer. @hsj.co.uk story up soon.
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Reposted by Nick Kituno
Dave West @ HSJ @davewwest.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
The huge & very useful annual survey of NHS staff has sadly got lost over the past 7 frenzied days luckily @kituno.bsky.social has unpicked one of the most important themes here in the first of a NEW MONTHLY WORKFORCE BRIEFING www.hsj.co.uk/expert-brief...
hsj.co.uk
On Call: The workforce issue the NHS cannot solve
Essential insights into the latest workforce challenges facing NHS staff. Analysis on the key questions around recruitment and retention, staff wellbeing, and equality, diversity and inclusion. You ar...
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Reposted by Nick Kituno
Honey de G @girlnextshore.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
A #patientsafety reform whose introduction was delayed due to concerns about cost and staffing in the Treasury and NHS could have detected Lucy Letby’s murders earlier, Jeremy Hunt has suggested. @kituno.bsky.social's report on @hsj.co.uk here >> www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...
Reform delayed by Treasury could have stopped Letby, says Jeremy Hunt
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
And with that, Hunt has concluded giving evidence.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt says implementing the medical examiners recommendation was unrelated to the Letby conviction. He said he implemented it had not been done for some time and Treasury officials were worried about its costs. Guesstimates it cost around £40m per year.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “That kind of thing tends to get crowded out because they are being kept on such a short leash by their managers in NHS England. I do think that is culturally very bad for the NHS.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “It means they are rushed off their feet. They’re worried about the numbers that they’re going to be giving to NHS England next month.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “They spend a lot of their time trying to tick boxes to show that they’ve been hitting a particular target in this department or a particular target in that department.“
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “If you look at what is different about the way the NHS is run [compared to] nearly every other healthcare system in the world, it’s that the CEO of a hospital will be assessed against 100 targets every year.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “There were some big problems in the structure of the NHS that made it difficult to develop a constructive culture that I felt we needed. I think there are too many targets.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “If a doctor makes a mistake, they are worried that if they are open it, they’ll lose their job. “It’s easier for a hospital to fire a doctor and say, ‘I’m very sorry about what happened, but we had a rotten apple and we got rid of him or her,’ than to change working practice on the ground.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt suggests that inquiry judges should produce a progress report two years on from initial recommendations. “That might be a way to jolt the system to implement stuff that’s been put in the long grass. I don’t think [trusts] could pull the wool over the eyes of any judge.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “There are just so many recommendations now that things just get forgotten or lost.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “They might send an email around to everyone and say: ‘You need to be aware of the risk of malicious harm in your work and doing it’.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “I saw a recommendation [paraphrasing] to ‘raise awareness of the possibility of malicious harm’. “In reality, that is actually a useless recommendation if you pump it out to 250 trusts.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “If a baby died because something went wrong in a hospital in Blackpool, you would hope things would change in a maternity unit in Cornwall, so the same thing couldn’t happen.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “What we need is something at the centre that not just catalogues these inquiries, but prioritises them. Perhaps with a traffic light system [...]”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “I think the medical examiner system, when it works well, is incredibly important to a healthcare system.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “[It was] something that I look at as being one of the things that we took too long to implement. “It came across my desk again in 2023 as something that required additional funding, which the NHS were not willing to fund. I made it happen as Chancellor.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt is asked if he sees the significance of recommendations for implementing medical examiners: “I think of all the things that could have meant that what happened was spotted earlier, and the dots were joined up, it would have been having [them].”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Hunt: “Insofar as lessons were not learned from previous inquiries that could have been, or the right systems were not in place that could have prevented this appalling tragedy, then I do bear ultimately responsibility.”
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Jeremy Hunt begins his evidence by apologising to families: “It happened on my watch. “Although [as health secretary] you don’t bear direct personal responsibility for everything that happens in every ward in the NHS, you do have ultimate responsibility for the NHS.” #ThirlwallInquiry
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Earlier during evidence, Dr Benneyworth said: "One medical director said to me: 'I've got 390 recommendations sitting at my trust board. How do we manage that? How do we prioritise them? How do we track them?' "We decided to look at this as an issue."
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Organisations use different types of language when making recommendations, and therefore lack consistency, which can lead to differences in how they are interpreted, she says.
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Nick Kituno @kituno.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
We should be able to "decommission" recommendations because some go out of date and are succeeded by others over time, says @hssib.bsky.social chief Dr Rosie Benneyworth at the #ThirlwallInquiry. "We need to be able to say: 'This recommendation is no longer relevant. Let's stand it down'."
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