Read Jack Serle's latest HSJi Review, which notes that the Department of Health and Social Care is at pains to tell us at every opportunity since the arrival of its new management that the NHS is broken.

Debating whether or not this new departmental leitmotif is true is the health policy wonk equivalent of arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The health service is unquestionably beset with an array of deep-seated problems. None of them is more self-evident to the public, patients and staff alike than the state of its estates. Read the full article here.

Latest investigations

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust

The trust has won the contract to deliver adult community services. This will involve taking on 500 staff. The trust was moved into tier 2 of NHS England’s cancer performance regime this summer. As well as closer monitoring by the NHS regional team, the move means UHCW has had to sign up to improvement targets. The trust is a leading player in the PathLake project, a nationally significant scheme which uses artificial intelligence in cellular pathology to improve the time taken to diagnose cancer. It is expanding its targeted lung checks programme.

North West London ICS

The ICS is moving towards one large acute provider and one large community and mental health provider. Its acute trusts are working closely together through its provider collaborative. Twenty integrated neighbourhood teams will be developed. The NWL system is still claiming it can break even this year, although this will require support from NHSE and the acute providers delivering their highly ambitious £141m savings programme. The system is trialling a digital system to fix its low cancer screening rate.

Cyber security in the NHS

Cyber security is a very significant and growing issue for the NHS. It is also one for which the service relies very heavily on the support and expertise of private sector partners. Annual spend by the Department of Health Social Care and NHS England on cyber security fluctuates, but can be as high as £50m. Combined trust spend is around £200m. This does not include cyber security elements included in major IT deals, such as those for electronic patient record systems. Central cyber security budgets have recently been raided to help meet overspends elsewhere, raising the sector’s vulnerability.

Data

The following datapoints were updated last week:

• Number of beds, Length of stay of Scotland in 2023-24
• Outpatient waiting list, Elective waiting list of Scotland in July, Aug, Sep
• 18 week waiting target, 12 week waiting target – inpatients, 13 week waiting target – outpatients of Scotland in Q2 2024-25
• Elective activity Recovery of ICS in Q2 2024-25
• Online/video GP consultations of ICS in Q3 2024-25
• Number of cases waiting over one year, Proportion of cases waiting over one year of Acute, community, MH and specialist in Sep
• Treatment started within 28 days of assessment (%), Patients receiving secondary mental health services of Wales in Q2 2024-25