![James Illman](https://d3e6tmgg461bic.cloudfront.net/Pictures/80x80/P/Pictures%2Fweb%2Ff%2Fr%2Fw%2Fjamesillman_dsf8954_439503.jpg)
James Illman
James is a bureau chief for HSJ. He covers performance --- especially as it relates to electives --- and the NHS in the East of England. He has also been writing about the recovery of acute care services in the health service post-covid.
His series of articles exposing care failings at East of England Ambulance Services Trust was named “investigation of the year” at the inaugural Press Gazette specialist media awards in 2018. James joined HSJ in 2012 after four years on Local Government Chronicle. Before his time at LGC, he worked for business title Legal Week.
Contact info
- Tel:
- 020 7608 9066
- Email:
- james.illman@hsj.co.uk
- News
Long waiters increase raises fresh questions over key NHSE target
The number of 65-week elective waits has increased for consecutive months with the figure rising by more than ten per cent to around 56,000 in May, NHS England’s latest statistics show.
- HSJ Local
Former Blair aide to chair teaching trust
Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust has appointed Labour peer and former top Number 10 adviser Baroness Sally Morgan as its next chair.
- HSJ Local
Troubled ICS diverting 400 electives each week under new model
One of England’s most challenged systems is diverting around 400 patients a week, mostly long waiters, away from its largest trust towards private hospitals and neighbouring NHS providers, after setting up a new “coordination centre”.
- HSJ Local
Trust hit by strike over backpay dispute
Another trust faces strike action by healthcare assistants, as a dispute which began in the North West spreads to other parts of the country.
- News
Exclusive: Streeting has ‘total confidence’ in Amanda Pritchard
The shadow health and social care secretary has “total confidence” in NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard, he has told HSJ.
- News
Labour expects trusts to pay ‘time and a half’ to staff delivering ‘40,000 extra appointments’
Trusts should pay staff around “time and a half” for the additional shifts required to hit Labour’s manifesto pledge for an extra 40,000 elective appointments a week if the party wins power, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has told HSJ.
- Expert Briefing
Labour would shackle the service to a target NHSE wanted to ditch
After Wes Streeting committed a Labour government to hitting the four-hour A&E target within a first term in office, the key question NHS leaders will want answering is “how?”, writes James Illman in this week’s Recovery Watch.
- News
Streeting commits to hit four-hour target in first term
Wes Streeting has reiterated Labour’s commitment to hitting all the NHS’s headline performance standards in its first term, including the four-hour A&E target, if it wins power.
- HSJ Local
Deputy CEO leaves trust amid criticism from tribunal judge
A trust deputy CEO has left his role just weeks after a judge criticised his conduct and the credibility of his evidence in an employment tribunal ruling.
- News
Progress on 65-week cases stalls as waiting list rises
The number of 65-week waiters has risen back up to more than 50,000, halting six consecutive months when the cohort was falling, NHS England’s monthly data shows.
- News
Six trusts drop into ‘most challenged’ group
Six more trusts have dropped into the “tier 1” group for the most challenged providers for their elective or cancer performance.
- HSJ Local
Trust scraps suicides review
A trust has announced it is scrapping a major suicides review, prompting concerns about the “devastating” impact the surprise move could have on some grieving families.
- HSJ Local
Directors ‘should face disciplinary action’ over unfair dismissal, judge says
Former Norfolk and Waveney system leaders should face “further investigation and those responsible face disciplinary action”, as they “conspired” to unfairly dismiss an assistant director, a judge has concluded.
- News
Long-waiters fall by a third despite ‘stubbornly high’ elective list
Trusts cut the number 65-week breaches by 35 per cent between February and March, reducing the long waiter cohort significantly from around 75,000 to around 49,000, according to NHS England’s monthly data.
- Expert Briefing
Recovery Watch: The ICBs on the slide against the main elective target
Recovering services from the covid crisis is a big task for NHS leaders for the foreseeable future. The Recovery Watch newsletter tracks prospects and progress. This week by HSJ bureau chief and performance lead James Illman.
- News
Exclusive: NHSE targeting 50% cut to waiting list
NHS England is floating proposals to cut the elective waiting list by nearly 50 per cent to under 4 million over the next five years, HSJ can reveal.
- Expert Briefing
Recovery Watch: Why are referrals lower than expected?
Recovering services from the covid crisis is a big task for NHS leaders for the foreseeable future. The Recovery Watch newsletter tracks prospects and progress. This week by bureau chief James Illman.
- News
Updated: NHSE launches new elective waiting list count
NHS England will today take a decisive step towards the first major change in how service’s elective waiting list is collected and reported for 17 years.
- News
Revealed: The ICSs ‘diverting’ the most GP referrals through controversial model
There is huge regional variation in the rate at which health systems are preventing patients joining the elective waiting list through “advice and guidance” to GPs, according to analysis by HSJ.
- HSJ Local
Medic to review dozens of suicides linked to trust
A trust has appointed a chair to lead an independent review into dozens of suicides that were sparked by allegations of record tampering.