Read Jack Serle's latest HSJi Review, which highlights how the shock announcement of the NHS's abolition is finally starting to settle, while people are starting to appreciate the full ramifications of another announcement that may have been overshadowed: cutting integrated care board costs by 50 per cent.

This will mean yet more staff cuts to organisations just getting over slashing their admin costs by 30 per cent last year. Read the full article here.

Latest investigations

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust

June 2025 was supposed to see Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust complete the transition from largely paper records to an electronic system from Cerner. The installation is now expected to finish in autumn 2025. Operating the system will cost the trust £3m a year thereafter. However, a range of delays are endangering the deadline. BHR achieved savings of £30m in each of the previous two financial years. However, despite that it is likely to deliver a deficit of over £50m for 2024-25. The trust has set a £50m savings target by NHS England for 2025-26, around 6 per cent of its total expenditure. Delivering on this would require the elimination of 770 jobs, around a tenth of the trust’s employees, and have a major impact on services.

Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust

Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHC) now shares a chair with Gateshead Healthcare Foundation Trust (GH). Sir Paul Ennals is also the interim chair of neighbouring Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals FT (NUTH). The three trusts have also established a joint committee, a strengthened form of governance that locks in their shared decision-making. The moves are part of plans for the trusts to work more closely together as the Great North Healthcare Alliance, which also includes North Cumbria Integrated Care FT (NCIC). Hitting NHC’s £42m CIP for 2025-26 will be very challenging as it represents 4.8 per cent of total expenditure. NHC is one of the strongest performers in the country against national elective and cancer waiting time standards thanks to its commitment to innovation.

The Dudley Group Foundation Trust

Diane Wake, the chief executive of Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, has taken on the same role at Dudley Group Foundation Trust on an interim basis. The two trusts already share a chair in former NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson. Currently, there is an elective hub at Cannock Hospital, run by RWT, and a small hub at Walsall Manor Hospital run by WHT. The system is now advancing plans to establish an elective hub in the south of the system to serve the DGFT and SWBHT’s catchment areas. Despite the 2025-26 financial year having already started, discussions about the scale of the trust’s cost improvement programmes are still ongoing.

Data

Last week, the following datapoints were updated:

• E-COLI HOSPITAL-ONSET CASES (12-MONTH ENGLAND AVERAGE, 12-MONTH REGIONAL AVERAGE, 12-MONTH ROLLING COUNT), MRSA hospital-onset cases (12-month rolling count), C-Diff hospital-onset cases (12-month rolling count) of Acute in Jan
• A&E waiting target, Emergency admissions of Acute in Q4 2024-25
• Emergency care streaming indicator, Type 1 Departments - Major A&E %, Emergency care streaming indicator, Type 3 Departments - Other A&E/Minor Injury Unit, Four hours A&E performance (all patients), 12 hour A&E waits,12 hour A&E waits (% of total attendances), A&E attendances, % beds occupied by delayed discharges, Discharge delays due to ‘internal’ reasons, Discharge delays due to ‘external’ reasons of Acute in March
• Discharge delays due to ‘internal’ reasons, Discharge delays due to ‘external’ reasons of ICS in March
• Super stranded patients of Acute in March
• Number of cases waiting over one year, Proportion of cases waiting over one year % of Acute, community, and specialist in Feb
• Faster Diagnosis Standard of Acute in Feb
• A&E Performance, Emergency admission per 1000 population of ICS in Q4 2024-25
• Population(Summary info under map) of ICS in 2025-26
• C-diff rate, MRSA rate of Scotland in Q3 2024-25