The Health Foundation podcast

By The Health Foundation

What's The Health Foundation podcast about?

Interviews with experts and high-profile guests discussing the most important issues affecting the future of health and care for people in the UK.

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The Health Foundation podcast episodes:

03.25.2024
42: Our health: is it the economy, stupid? – with Torsten Bell and Diane Coyle
What's happened to our economy and what does it mean for our health? Many developed economies have been growing more slowly since around 2008, but the UK economy has been struggling more than most. Wages haven't risen since 2008 leaving the...
02.27.2024
41: Two commissions on the future of the NHS – with Rachel Sylvester and Parveen Kumar
Given the huge pressures on the NHS it's perhaps inevitable people ask, what's the future of it? The NHS and social care are struggling to deliver care and support to people who need it. With services so stretched, waiting times at...
01.26.2024
40: Why aren't we working? – with Sacha Romanovitch and Oliver Coppard
About a fifth of us of working age – just under 9 million people in the UK – are not looking for or are not able to work. Recently the biggest growth has been among those reporting long-term illness, now...
12.20.2023
39: The year that was – 2023
Join us as we look back at the pick of the pod in 2023. It's been a turbulent year: the NHS under pressure, the health of the population not improving as fast as we’d like and economic inactivity remaining stubbornly high,...
11.27.2023
38: Keeping up with AI in health care: what we need to do next
AI technologies are advancing rapidly. Yet when it comes to AI in health care we're still in the early stages. The prize could be big – the question is what will it take to realise the benefits? The applications of AI...
10.20.2023
37: What do the main political parties really have in store for health? – with Rachel Wolf and Stephen Bush
Episode 37. A general election is expected in 2024 and no party can ignore the NHS − but what do they plan to do on health?
09.29.2023
36: Going private: what’s happening and is it a bad thing? – with Sarah Neville and Hettie O’Brien
Episode 36. With deep public concern over access to NHS care, and policymakers exploring how the independent sector can help get waiting lists down, are we slowly sliding towards a mixed model of health care?
09.08.2023
35: Our health in 2040: are we getting sicker? – with Jeanelle de Gruchy and Kevin Fenton
Whatever we are doing on health, it isn't enough to prepare for the wave of morbidity that is clearly in sight. Recent Health Foundation modelling estimates 1 in 5 will be living with major illness by 2040, mostly because more...
07.28.2023
34: NHS at 75: The huge promise of technology – with Navina Evans and Penny Pereira
In our series marking the NHS’s 75th birthday, we’ve been setting out the big challenges and opportunities ahead for the health service. In this third and final installment, we ask how the potential of technology might be unlocked to benefit patients,...
06.29.2023
33: NHS at 75: Is political leadership up to the challenge? – with Alan Milburn and Stephen Dorrell
As we approach the NHS’s 75th birthday in July, we’re releasing a series of three podcast episodes setting out the big questions facing the health service. This second episode explores the role of political leadership in addressing the big challenges in...
05.31.2023
32: NHS at 75: What are we up against? – with Professor Jagjit Chadha and Anita Charlesworth
The fact the NHS survives by a kind of miracle is one of its endearing British features – so said former health secretary, Kenneth Clarke. Well, can that miracle continue? As we approach the NHS’s 75th birthday in July, we’re launching...
05.08.2023
31: How chronic stress weathers our health – with Dr Michelle Kelly-Irving and Professor Nish Chaturvedi
How healthy we are in part depends on the many different exposures we've had over our life – including to physical, psychological and social factors. Chronic exposure to psychosocial stress – for example, poverty or other disadvantage – leads to prolonged...
03.24.2023
30: AI in health care: hope or hype? With Professor Sir John Bell and Dr Axel Heitmueller
News of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. We seem to be on the cusp of a revolution in how the latest AI models will change our lives – and health and care could be at the centre of those changes. AI...
03.08.2023
29: International Women’s Day: Voices in health care – with Dame Jane Dacre, Dr Nikita Kanani and Dr Gabrielle Mathews
Today, women make up around half of all doctors and two-thirds of all medical students. So, has equality in health care finally been achieved? When International Women’s Day began in 1909, women were still barred from entering medical school. Today women...
01.28.2023
28: Low life expectancy in the north east, and what to do about it – with Alice Wiseman and Professor Clare Bambra
Improvements to life expectancy slowed in the last decade, and in some communities even went into reverse. In England, the north east region has the lowest life expectancy. The last decade and a half has seen a worrying increase in...
12.20.2022
27: The year that was – 2022 round-up
What a rollercoaster year it's been. In this Christmas round-up, we're looking back over our 2022 podcast episodes and pulling out some top insights for you to reflect on. Our chief executive Dr Jennifer Dixon shares clips from: Catherine Howarth and John...
12.10.2022
26: Is ill health driving economic inactivity, and what can be done about it? – with Sarah O’Connor and Professor James Banks
We're all familiar with some of the challenges ahead in the UK: a fiscal squeeze, limp productivity, a labour shortage and an ageing population with increasing needs. As Andy Haldane put it in our recent REAL Challenge lecture, two routes to...
10.22.2022
25: What to do about dying? – with Richard Smith and Libby Sallnow
We don’t like to think about death. To many, death and dying have no value and are relegated to the margins of our lives. So how could we die better in the UK? How do we bring death back into...
09.22.2022
24: Does a new Prime Minister signal change in health and social care? – with Rachel Wolf and Isabel Hardman
A new Prime Minister, government and health secretary, all facing a formidable array of challenges. Prime Minister Liz Truss has said that putting the NHS ‘on a firm footing’ is one of her top three priorities (alongside the economy and energy)....
08.24.2022
23: From white coat to grey suit: should more clinicians manage the NHS? – with Dr Stephen Swensen and Dr Dominique Allwood
In meeting the huge challenges facing the NHS, technology is often looked to as the great hope. Yet studies suggest good management is a more active ingredient for success. Over the years numerous reports have called for more clinicians to manage...
07.27.2022
22: A tale of two hospitals: the pandemic and its aftermath in Berlin and London – with Professor Heyo Kroemer and Professor Tim Orchard
The pandemic challenged every health care system in the world. But what can we learn from one another aboutin the way we responded, and how we might improve for future threats? In this episode we look up close at the experience...
07.08.2022
21: How the public thinks about health, and why it matters – with Dr Jacqui Dyer and John Hume
Ask the public about health, and they often put the responsibility on the individual and the NHS. And yet we know the context in which we live and make choices really matters. The context that governments, businesses, employers and investors have...
05.26.2022
20: Reforming health care: reflections from a former health minister – with Lord Norman Warner
The NHS is experiencing an unusual set of pressures at the moment, with waiting lists of 6.5 million, staff shortages, ambulance delays, long waits and much more. Meanwhile, public satisfaction with the NHS has nosedived, according to the recent British Social...
04.22.2022
19: Will the rising cost of living be paid for by our health? – with Dame Clare Moriarty and Bim Afolami MP
This year households across the UK are facing the biggest squeeze in living standards since the 1950s. Most of us will feel the impact, but poor households are being hit the hardest. We know that poverty and the stress of...
04.04.2022
18: Time to get tougher on the risk factors fraying our health? – with Professor Kevin Fenton and Richard Sloggett
For the last decade, gains in life expectancy have been stalling. We’re living more years in poor health too, with a 20 year gap in healthy life expectancy between women living in the richest and poorest areas. The biggest risk factors...
02.25.2022
17: Tackling the drug problem in the UK and Portugal – with Dame Carol Black and Dr João Castel-Branco Goulão
Like many other countries, the UK has a growing drug problem. In England around 3 million people take drugs and drug deaths are the highest on record at nearly 3,000 a year. In the last decade, heroin-related deaths have more than...
01.24.2022
16: Are businesses and investors really serious about improving our health? – with Catherine Howarth and John Godfrey
Those of us working in health often focus on the government as the main agent to get things done, especially when it comes to public health. But think of all the others out there with power, particularly commercial and investment...
12.18.2021
15: That was the year that was: health policy in 2021 – with Lord Victor Adebowale and Hugh Alderwick
In another year shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore some key health policy developments and look ahead to what 2022 might have in store. With Omicron dominating the headlines and a public inquiry into the handling of COVID-19 on the...
11.22.2021
14: Are we seeing the decline of general practice, or its rebirth? – with Professor Katherine Checkland, Dr Rebecca Fisher and Shaun Lintern
For years public satisfaction with the NHS has been highest for general practice. But even before the pandemic, rising workloads and workforce shortages had left many GPs dissatisfied and stressed. Then add a pandemic into the mix, with GPs instructed to...
10.28.2021
13: How can the green agenda help the health agenda? – with Dr Fiona Godlee and Professor Andy Haines
Climate change is a global health emergency. What can we learn from how ‘green’ has gone up the agenda? And how might we apply useful lessons to getting further improvements in another complex and difficult challenge – improving the health...
09.28.2021
12: The most challenging job in the country: Being chief executive of the NHS – with Sir Alan Langlands
Being chief executive of the NHS is one of the most challenging jobs in the country. Since the role started in 1985 there have been nine postholders, with Amanda Pritchard taking over from Sir Simon Stevens this year. Like her predecessors...
08.21.2021
11: We are what we eat: Food, health and inequality – with Anna Taylor and Sarah Hickey
Food is crucial to our health, but it is also a driver of ill health, health inequalities, and damage to the environment. The second part of the National Food Strategy, led by Henry Dimbleby, was published in July 2021. It is...
07.22.2021
10: Low life expectancy in Glasgow, and what to do about it – with Dr David Walsh and Sir Harry Burns
If you think of health in the UK as a fabric, it is the most threadbare in Glasgow. Here, life expectancy is lowest, and one in four men will die before their sixty-fifth birthday. But even after adjusting for poverty and...
06.21.2021
9: Is it time for another Wanless Review? – with Anita Charlesworth and Nick Macpherson
It’s easy to forget the state the NHS was in 20 years ago – long waiting lists, heartrending delays in care, winter crises – and heated debate on whether the NHS model was obsolete. But the Wanless Review set the...
05.21.2021
8: Inside the teen mind: what’s happening to mental health? – with Jean Twenge and Yvonne Kelly
The pandemic has created profound challenges for young people over the past year – with education, work, relationships and social time all affected. We also know about the wider economic trends which pile pressure on teens to make it to college...
04.21.2021
7: Wising up to levelling up – with Professor Diane Coyle and Sir Howard Bernstein
‘Levelling up’ has become an earworm. It featured highly in the Conservative manifesto in 2019, which was referring to improving infrastructure, skills, productivity and economic growth across the country. The idea is to make the UK economy less lop-sided, and...
03.22.2021
6: President Biden’s uphill task on US health care – with Dr David Blumenthal and Professor Ashish Jha
What can the Biden administration accomplish on health and health care in the next four years?
02.22.2021
5: Do we care enough? – with Madeleine Bunting and Professor Dame Anne Marie Rafferty
We all need care at some point in our lives – yet care is so often undervalued. Why is that? What can be done about it?
01.22.2021
4: 'Deaths of despair': A tale of two countries – with Professor Sir Angus Deaton and Sarah O'Connor
Is stalling life expectancy in the US and UK due to the public spending cuts of recent years, or a long-term structural trend? What needs to be done? And might the pandemic accelerate solutions?
12.22.2020
3: After the COVID storm: where next for the NHS? – with Nick Timmins and Dame Jackie Daniel
What is the long-term path for the NHS when the emergency phase of COVID is over? Dr Jennifer Dixon is joined in this episode by Dame Jackie Daniel and Nick Timmins.
11.22.2020
2: What should nanny do next? The government and obesity – with Dame Sally Davies, Harry Rutter and James Forsyth
Obesity in the UK is on the up. What should the Government's role be in tackling it?
10.21.2020
1: How to be health secretary - Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP and Nick Timmins
What is the role of the health secretary? What should it be, and how does it and should it relate to the management of the NHS? The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP and author Nick Timmins discuss how to be health...

What's The Health Foundation podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Health Foundation podcast episodes:

42: Our health: is it the economy, stupid? – with Torsten Bell and Diane Coyle

41: Two commissions on the future of the NHS – with Rachel Sylvester and Parveen Kumar

40: Why aren't we working? – with Sacha Romanovitch and Oliver Coppard

39: The year that was – 2023

38: Keeping up with AI in health care: what we need to do next

37: What do the main political parties really have in store for health? – with Rachel Wolf and Stephen Bush

36: Going private: what’s happening and is it a bad thing? – with Sarah Neville and Hettie O’Brien

35: Our health in 2040: are we getting sicker? – with Jeanelle de Gruchy and Kevin Fenton

34: NHS at 75: The huge promise of technology – with Navina Evans and Penny Pereira

33: NHS at 75: Is political leadership up to the challenge? – with Alan Milburn and Stephen Dorrell

32: NHS at 75: What are we up against? – with Professor Jagjit Chadha and Anita Charlesworth

31: How chronic stress weathers our health – with Dr Michelle Kelly-Irving and Professor Nish Chaturvedi

30: AI in health care: hope or hype? With Professor Sir John Bell and Dr Axel Heitmueller

29: International Women’s Day: Voices in health care – with Dame Jane Dacre, Dr Nikita Kanani and Dr Gabrielle Mathews

28: Low life expectancy in the north east, and what to do about it – with Alice Wiseman and Professor Clare Bambra

27: The year that was – 2022 round-up

26: Is ill health driving economic inactivity, and what can be done about it? – with Sarah O’Connor and Professor James Banks

25: What to do about dying? – with Richard Smith and Libby Sallnow

24: Does a new Prime Minister signal change in health and social care? – with Rachel Wolf and Isabel Hardman

23: From white coat to grey suit: should more clinicians manage the NHS? – with Dr Stephen Swensen and Dr Dominique Allwood

22: A tale of two hospitals: the pandemic and its aftermath in Berlin and London – with Professor Heyo Kroemer and Professor Tim Orchard

21: How the public thinks about health, and why it matters – with Dr Jacqui Dyer and John Hume

20: Reforming health care: reflections from a former health minister – with Lord Norman Warner

19: Will the rising cost of living be paid for by our health? – with Dame Clare Moriarty and Bim Afolami MP

18: Time to get tougher on the risk factors fraying our health? – with Professor Kevin Fenton and Richard Sloggett

17: Tackling the drug problem in the UK and Portugal – with Dame Carol Black and Dr João Castel-Branco Goulão

16: Are businesses and investors really serious about improving our health? – with Catherine Howarth and John Godfrey

15: That was the year that was: health policy in 2021 – with Lord Victor Adebowale and Hugh Alderwick

14: Are we seeing the decline of general practice, or its rebirth? – with Professor Katherine Checkland, Dr Rebecca Fisher and Shaun Lintern

13: How can the green agenda help the health agenda? – with Dr Fiona Godlee and Professor Andy Haines

12: The most challenging job in the country: Being chief executive of the NHS – with Sir Alan Langlands

11: We are what we eat: Food, health and inequality – with Anna Taylor and Sarah Hickey

10: Low life expectancy in Glasgow, and what to do about it – with Dr David Walsh and Sir Harry Burns

9: Is it time for another Wanless Review? – with Anita Charlesworth and Nick Macpherson

8: Inside the teen mind: what’s happening to mental health? – with Jean Twenge and Yvonne Kelly

7: Wising up to levelling up – with Professor Diane Coyle and Sir Howard Bernstein

6: President Biden’s uphill task on US health care – with Dr David Blumenthal and Professor Ashish Jha

5: Do we care enough? – with Madeleine Bunting and Professor Dame Anne Marie Rafferty

4: 'Deaths of despair': A tale of two countries – with Professor Sir Angus Deaton and Sarah O'Connor

3: After the COVID storm: where next for the NHS? – with Nick Timmins and Dame Jackie Daniel

2: What should nanny do next? The government and obesity – with Dame Sally Davies, Harry Rutter and James Forsyth

1: How to be health secretary - Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP and Nick Timmins