News
Reporting on the organisations, decisions and money shaping health and care in the United Kingdom.
NHS trusts face continued uncertainty over major hospital redevelopment projects as the New Hospital Programme’s revised timetable pushes construction further into the 2030s, while questions remain over when individual schemes will receive confirmed capital allocations.
Callum Reid30 August 2026
Virtual wards are entering a more targeted phase as the NHS shifts from rapid expansion towards improving utilisation, with frailty and respiratory pathways among the most established models and clinical workforce, patient selection and rapid escalation remaining critical to success.
Eleanor Whitfield30 August 2026
NHS trusts are facing growing commercial and legal challenges as major electronic patient record procurements are delayed or disrupted by supplier disputes, highlighting the complexity and risk involved in delivering large-scale digital transformation.
Callum Reid30 August 2026
Pharmacy First consultations have risen sharply as the NHS encourages GP practices to refer suitable patients to community pharmacies, with growing activity signalling a wider shift in how minor illness is managed across primary care.
Eleanor Whitfield30 August 2026
Nursing vacancies have fallen significantly as the NHS expands its permanent workforce, but trusts still spent £7.37bn on bank and agency staffing in 2025/26, keeping temporary workforce costs firmly in focus.
Callum Reid30 August 2026
Mental health trusts continue to face pressure from out-of-area placements, with thousands of inappropriate placements recorded during 2024/25 despite a national ambition to eliminate them and renewed NHS England targets for localising inpatient care.
Callum Reid30 August 2026
Integrated care boards are facing continued pressure to reduce costs as the NHS enters a new multi-year financial planning period, following a major restructuring that required boards to cut running and programme costs by around 50%.
Eleanor Whitfield30 August 2026
New government data shows manufacturing problems accounted for 62% of reported UK medicine supply issues in 2025, strengthening the case for investment in domestic pharmaceutical production as ministers seek to make supply chains more resilient.
Eleanor Whitfield30 August 2026
Standalone diagnostic capacity is clearing backlogs, but staffing the sites is proving harder than building them.
Eleanor Whitfield29 August 2026
Trusts report that governance, not accuracy, is the main barrier to putting approved tools into service.
Priya Raman29 August 2026
Network consolidation has changed who runs laboratory services, how samples move and where the money goes.
Eleanor Whitfield29 August 2026