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

Earlier this year, Labour’s Wes Streeting pledged a “war on waste in the NHS”, claiming the service was squandering as much as £10bn. As part of the new efficiency drive, the party promised to halve spending on management consultants.

Yet just a few days into Mr Streeting’s tenure, HSJ has reported that NHS England has ordered consultants into nine integrated care systems at risk of missing their financial plans.

Consultancy firms will be tasked with carrying out a rapid review to find ways to quickly bring down spending.

ICSs on the list include all three North West systems and three in the Midlands, as well as Mid & South Essex, South East London and South Yorkshire.

NHSE has told systems they must deliver their control totals, which it issued last month. Even so, the planned deficit is thought to stand at just over £2bn.

For NHSE to act this early – coming just a month after it unveiled the new financial targets – is an indicator of the deep concern that this year’s financial outlook must be causing.

 

Triple trust team-up

Three trusts in the South West are set to appoint a joint chief executive and joint chair as part of a move to a “group model” of leadership.

Great Western Hospitals FT, Royal United Hospitals Bath FT and Salisbury FT will make the joint appointments by January next year, with a view to implementing the model by April.

The trusts are insisting the move will not involve a full merger or a change in legal status as this would not offer “value for money”.Instead, each trust will retain its own board and appoint a deputy chief executive reporting to the group CEO, while a joint committee will oversee the work of the group.

The trusts have been working together as part of a provider collaborative known as the Acute Hospital Alliance since 2018, and already have limited joint working arrangements.

Plans are already in place to procure a single, shared EPR across all three trusts, which will be supplied by Oracle Cerner.

Also on hsj.co.uk

In our expert briefing Following The Money, Henry Anderson speaks to Simon Worthington, the finance director of Leeds Teaching Hospitals, who has retired after more than 20 years as a financial leader in the NHS. He tells Henry about his time at the city’s trust and how the finance profession has changed over those years. And in Comment, Chris Ham explains why Labour’s proposed 10-year plan for the NHS echoes similar reforms enacted two decades ago, a plan he helped to shape.