This week bureau chief Ben Clover is joined by colleagues Nick Kituno and Zoe Tidman.

The long-awaited NHS workforce plan finally arrived last week, missing lots of the detail that managers and professional associations were crying out for. What was in it, what was not in it and a few surprises are covered in this week’s podcast.

Also, what are the prospects for the NHS’s crumbling estate. Correspondent Zoe Tidman takes us through the latest in the convoluted quest to get some refurbished hospitals finished this side of 2030.

This week HSJ is joined by Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, and Richard Murray, chief executive of the King’s Fund, who are both nearing the end of long stints at the think tanks.

Two of the most influential voices on health policy and leadership, the pair reflect on what has gone right and wrong over the last three decades, and why history keeps repeating itself.

They spoke to Annabelle Collins and Lawrence Dunhill.

NHS England’s surprise decision to hand US tech giant Palantir a further £25m deal this week without a competitive process provoked a mixture of fury and confusion. We explain what the new contract means and why its so controversial.

Also this week, we review the latest government mandate for NHS England and its luke-warm response to the Hewitt review of integrated care systems.

We're joined by Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation chief and HSJ Health Check fan, to discuss Amanda Pritchard's speech and other developments on day one of the ConfedExpo conference.

We discuss data revealing the true scale of long A&E waits for mental health patients and what acute trusts are trying to do about it without any extra national funding.

Also: most GP practices are still using old-fashioned paper records, despite a commitment four years ago to get rid of them. We discuss whether it’s worth GPs’ time and money to make the switch. 

With Annabelle Collins, Joe Talora and Emily Townsend. 

Targets to reduce the number of outpatient appointments are not being met by trusts. On this epsiode we discuss why the number of outpatient appointments has remained stuck at £124m, despite pressure to cut them, and what is being done about it.

Also this week, an update on integrated care systems’ finances and what is worrying them at the moment, plus a preview from HSJ’s forthcoming interview with NHSE chief financial officer Julian Kelly. 

For more on outpatient appointment challenges, read James' Recovery Watch column: https://www.hsj.co.uk/expert-briefings/recovery-watch-new-data-lays-bare-outpatient-transformation-failings/7034898.article

After seemingly endless delays, the fate of the ‘40 new hospitals’ has finally been revealed by the government.

The government’s 40 “new hospitals” has dominated headlines - and decisions - over NHS capital funding in recent years, but this week HSJ revealed dozens of trusts are still waiting for money promised by the previous big capital programme.

We discuss why over £1bn is yet to be received for capital schemes announced in 2017 and 2018 and what impact this has had on services.

Also this week, an update on the latest chapter in The Christie Foundation Trust’s whistleblowing saga, after the publication of a CQC report that downgraded the trust's treasured ‘outstanding’ rating. 

This week bureau chief Ben Clover stands in for Annabelle Collins and introduces two important stories, one that got national coverage and one that HSJ broke. Deputy editor Dave West takes us through the strange delay of some community diagnostic centres, which some suspect is politically-motivated as the government looks to what it can deliver before an election next year. Correspondent Mimi Launder then takes us behind the announcements on the primary care recovery plan. This received a lot of national attention earlier this week but HSJ obtained internal documentation showing just how patchy the roll-out is of some of the technology the government is counting on.

On this week’s episode Alastair reveals why NHS England’s elective recovery director Jim Mackey is replacing David Sloman as national operations lead later this year.

We also discuss why Tim Ferris was the right man for the national transformation job, but arrived at the wrong time.

Also this week: what’s next for the Agenda for Change pay deal and concerns raised about the poor care experienced by eating disorder patients in acute hospitals.