Four HSJ correspondents make their predictions for the NHS in 2021, from the vaccination programme and more reorganisation, through to change at the top, staffing and mental health.

Annabelle Collins, Dave West, Nick Carding and Rebecca Thomas also look back at how our 2020 forecasts panned out. Which was not too terrible, despite the cataclysmic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

This week has seen the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine administered in the UK, but the continuing covid pressures on the NHS remain, with concerns raised about the health service being overwhelmed in coming weeks and months.

We explore what impact this would have on care provided and what is being done to mitigate it.

The vaccine programme rumbles on and we discuss the roll out in primary care expected next week and some of the sticking points faced by GPs.

Featuring Alastair McLellan, Annabelle Collins and Jasmine Rapson.

The UK is the first country in the western World to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech covid vaccine and now the baton has been passed to the NHS to successfully deliver it. 

This week on the podcast we unpick this huge piece of news and discuss the incredibly complicated logistics behind rolling out a vaccination programme this big, why its essential the government gets the communication spot on and how the NHS is approaching this challenge.

We also discuss the crucial role primary care could have in getting the country and economy back on track. 

Featuring Annabelle Collins, Jasmine Rapson, Jack Serle and Dave West.

This week has seen a flood of coronavirus related news so the podcast this week discusses two other important happenings, that might have been given more attention in normal times.

First up, we analyse what the Chancellor’s spending review means for the NHS and the day-to-day running of hospitals, the thorny issue of staff pay and an unfulfilled promise on social care.

We also discuss the latest development in the undoing of the 2012 Lansley Reforms and the timeframe for new NHS legislation.

Featuring Annabelle Collins, Tom Norton and Dave West.

With delays to promised long-covid support clinics, warnings from the former health secretary and unions about protecting staff pay, and trusts accused of penalising staff during their recovery - we dig into why its crucial the NHS provides adequate support sooner rather than later for this debilitating condition.

We also discuss the enhanced role for the Care Quality Commission over hospital food inspection, following a review of nutrition in the NHS prompted by seven inpatients dying after eating sandwiches. We pick out other recommendations from the report including must-do’s for the board, the creation of “super-kitchens”, and CEOs and patients to eat the same food.

Featuring Sharon Brennan, Nick Carding and Annabelle Collins.

On the podcast this week the team dig into how the NHS is already mobilising to deliver a covid vaccine and some of the hurdles it could face in this enormous task. The stakes are high for the health service and the nation: Eminent vaccine guru Sir John Bell this week said vaccines could get life back to normal by spring – provided the delivery is not “screwed up”.

We also ask if the Test and Trace can really find a firm footing during the lockdown “window”, check in on staff testing, and look at how covid hit the emergency care system in October.

Recorded in the middle of another dramatic week for the NHS, the latest HSJ Health Check takes stock of whether primary care really has seen long-lasting innovation during the pandemic, and debates if a mood-measuring watch for GPs is the answer to burn-out.

We also discuss progress towards the “40 new hospitals” (or thereabouts), and the long-running saga of Chorley emergency department which a local campaign group now wants closed after ten years of campaigning for the opposite.

Featuring Nick Carding, Annabelle Collins, Lawrence Dunhill and Jasmine Rapson.

“Acute trust boards did not always see mental health care as an integral part of patient care”, said the CQC in a new report on mental health that could have easily gone under the radar. We hear from senior correspondent Rebecca Thomas on why this report matters, if true integration between mental health and acute care are some way off, how the pandemic has further damaged this and whether leaving mental health out of the ’40 new hospitals’ capital announcement was significant.

We also share the very latest insights into the impact covid is having on the NHS according to new NHS England data. Also featuring Dave West and Annabelle Collins.

On the podcast this week we try to get to the bottom of the political furore and ensuing confusion engulfing the North West, including a lesson on just how long it takes to heat up Manchester’s Nightingale Hospital.

We also discuss what impact the continued rise in covid-19 admissions could have on non-covid NHS work, and look at new data which shows an unusually high number of excess deaths at home in the South East. Does this mean the NHS needs to fundamentally change the way it delivers palliative care? Featuring Sharon Brennan, Annabelle Collins, Lawrence Dunhill and Alison Moore.

As covid wave two crashes onto the NHS in the north of England, HSJ Health Check discusses the last minute scrambles to try to protect elective care, and mass-test staff.

While covid-19’s second wave appears a little less destructive than the first, it is bringing steeply rising admissions in the areas most affected --- and sparking a somewhat chaotic reaction as health systems try to prepare for it while keeping planned care on track.

With the focus in the summer on restoring elective care while the sun shone; government did not fund the NHS’s request for extra covid step-down are; and there’s now also a scramble to start routine testing of asymptomatic staff.

Featuring HSJ’s North West and North East correspondents – Lawrence Dunhill and Matt Discombe – with deputy editor Dave West.