Health landscape report: 3 February – 7 February

  • Latest news

This weekly report shares new data and policy information relating to general practice, with selected facts and figures highlighted.

This report is a flexible summary, with the aim of sharing and highlighting a wide range of data and policy information relating to London general practice published in a given week. Where we view information to be of significant interest it is reproduced directly below the links to make the key points quicker to digest.  

Please feel free to share any useful stats/links you think we could include in future reports.  

Official bodies    

NHS Digital 

Department of Health and Social Care 

UK Health Security Agency 

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 

Ofsted 

BMA 

Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies  

The Health Foundation 

  • New planning guidance signals the major task ahead for the NHS [2/7].  
  • The Prime Minister has pledged the ‘biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth’. Last week, the government set out its priorities for the health service followed by a flurry of national policy documents, signaling the start of the annual NHS planning round for 2025/26 – but how far does this go towards delivering that promise?   
    • Fewer national targets, but a major task ahead. 
    • Finances are extremely tight. 
    • Can the 10-year plan square the circle of recovery alongside reform? 

 Ipsos 

  • The cost of living continues to be the most important issue facing London [2/3]. 
  • The cost of living continues to be seen as the most important issue facing London (75% – no change since 2023) by Londoners. The top five most important issues are: 
    • Cost of living (75%, N/C since 2023) 
    • Housing affordability (59%, +5 ppts since 2023) 
    • Crime and policing (55%, +8 ppts since 2023) 
    • The NHS/ GP services (48%, +1 ppts since 2023)   
    • Homelessness and rough sleeping (46%, +1 since 2023) 

Nuffield Trust 

  • Why is it so difficult to estimate expenditure on health and care at the end of life? [5/2]. 
  • This report with the Health Economics Unit, commissioned by Marie Curie, is a comprehensive analysis of public spending costs at the end of life for over a decade. In this accompanying blog, Sarah Scobie and Theo Georghiou discuss the challenges that make understanding the costs of end-of-life care more difficult and emphasise why it’s important to improve the situation. 

Healthcare Leader 

  • Exclusive: System development funds used to prop up ICB finances [2/10]. 
  • Millions of pounds from the system development fund (SDF) have been used to support other financial pressures across 26 ICBs in 2023/24, according to an exclusive investigation. 
  • In total, 29 ICBs reported £182.3m of underspend from their SDF allocations. Of these ICBs, 26 of them – which reported £176m underspend in total – said this went to the overall financial position of the ICB or ‘other pressures’ and priorities in the system. The remaining three did not declare where the money was spent. 

The King’s Fund 

  • When it comes to prevention spending in the NHS, ‘some is not a number, soon is not a time’ [2/6].  
  • This government wants to turn the health care system in England from a service that treats us when we are sick to a service that helps prevent ill health. That is going to need some fundamental rewiring of how money works in the NHS. If the government is serious about prioritising prevention, then some decisive, timely decisions need to be made about how money is distributed and managed in the NHS, says Siva Anandaciva. 

General Medical Council 

  • Doctors using AI share thoughts on its growing use in medicine [2/6].  
  • Doctors who use artificial intelligence, see benefits for their own efficiency and for patient care in a resource-stretched NHS and, although they recognise there are risks, they feel confident in managing them, according to a study published by the General Medical Council. 

 Policy Exchange 

  • Not Fit for Purpose 
  • Reflecting on the proposals on LBC during an interview with Paul Brand, Dr Sean Phillips, Head of Health and Social Care and the lead author of ‘Not Fit for Purpose: An Appraisal of the ‘Fit Note’ and Assessments of Fitness for Work’ (2024), remarked that the current system “wasn’t working”, that there had been a “complete inversion” and a “massive increase” in the number of functional assessments conducted remotely that the Government ought to review and that “medical evidence” should be used in all instances claims are made for health-related benefits. 

London Trusts    

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust 

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