NHS

When a death reaches the national news, a particular kind of work begins inside some NHS organisations. Information governance teams wait to see who opens the file. This month it was Yorkshire, where two ambulance service staff are under investigation over access to the records of a man killed by a tiger. Earlier this year it was Southport, where nearly 50 staff at a single Liverpool trust were found to have looked inappropriately at the records of injured children. In Nottin

On the day the payroll run falls due, a trust finance director looks at a cash balance that will not cover everything. Staff must be paid. The invoice run is what gives. Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust has described exactly this, paying only a little over a fifth of its non-NHS suppliers on time because it had to withhold payments to meet payroll without emergency support. The decision is rational. It also signals that something in the system's plumbing has gone w

The longer the question sits in the in-tray, the more the practical advantages narrow. Councils will settle on workarounds and hospitals will build local habits, and these will be hard to unpick later.

A small feature reaching a third of English pharmacies shows how far the government's digital ambitions depend on contractor integration, funding and evidence of benefit

Free flu and pneumococcal vaccination through outreach teams and mobile vans offers a practical measure of community-based care, winter pressure and inclusion health in England

A mobile Copilot classroom at Berkshire Healthcare shows how trusts are turning to automation to close budget gaps, and how much must go right before saved minutes become saved money

Successful applicants will spend 12 months on live NHS projects focused on the safe deployment and evaluation of artificial intelligence in clinical settings

Conflicting accounts of a Kent and Medway departure test the credibility of the drive to cut NHS leadership costs and sustain public trust