Emily Townsend

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 1st March 2026

HSJ Podcast: Has Baroness Amos been set up to fail?

NHS maternity care continues to be under the spotlight, so on this week’s episode we unpick the web of different national reviews and how trusts could be asked to improve services.We cover Baroness Amos’ interim report … NHS maternity care continues to be under the spotlight, so on this week’s episode we unpick the web of different national reviews and how trusts could be asked to improve services.We cover Baroness Amos’ interim report …

BBC • 20th December 2024

Woman's Hour - Appearance to talk about maternity diverts - BBC Sounds

The star of Normal People is now taking on the lead role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Read more The star of Normal People is now taking on the lead role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Read more

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 2nd December 2024

Directors on the stand at Thirlwall Inquiry

This week, the podcast looks at accountability in the NHS and the Thirlwall Inquiry. This week, the podcast looks at accountability in the NHS and the Thirlwall Inquiry.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 22nd November 2024

Named and shamed

This week guest host Ben Clover is joined by emergency care correspondent Matt Discombe and safety correspondent Emily Townsend. The team unpack the many policy implications of announcements made at last week's NHS Providers conference, as well as a big moment in the main auditorium. A worrying development with echoes of the Noughties also comes under the spotlight

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 21st October 2024

The magic administrator

This week the team discuss whether the NHS's whole safety, safe-staffing and quality system is getting overhauled, plus was it one simple trick that slashed waiting times at a trust? Guest host Ben Clover is joined by HSJ reporters Alison Moore and Emily Townsend.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 4th October 2024

Watching the watchmen

This week bureau chief Ben Clover is joined by colleagues to talk about what happens next for the Care Quality Commission, plus one of the biggest issues faced by the services This week bureau chief Ben Clover is joined by colleagues to talk about what happens next for the Care Quality Commission, plus one of the biggest issues faced by the services

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 13th September 2024

Inquiries - who are they for?

Guest host Ben Clover is joined by Emily Townsend and Zoe Tidman to look at the first weeks of the Thirlwall inquiry into the management response neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester, the Lampard inquiry into the d… Guest host Ben Clover is joined by Emily Townsend and Zoe Tidman to look at the first weeks of the Thirlwall inquiry into the management response neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester, the Lampard inquiry into the d…

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 23rd August 2024

Chairs in the hot seat

Emily Townsend, HSJ’s care quality correspondent takes us through the CQC’s most recent patient satisfaction data and the team discuss the sometimes counterintuitive results. Workforce reporter Nick Kituno goes into some of the detail and background to his recent story on whether only the “super wealthy” can now afford to chair an NHS trust or ICS board. Send views and questions to guest host ben.clover@hsj.co.uk You can listen to HSJ Health Check on this page, or subscribe on Spotify, Apple...

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 12th August 2024

Carrying the can for corridor care

This week's HSJ podcast looks at the latest development in Shropshire's troubled health system and hospitals, and NHS England's move to ramp up the rollout of the federated data platform. https://www.hsj.co.uk/shrewsbury-and-telford-hospital-nhs-trust/ceo-who-led-trust-through-scandals-announces-departure/7037595.article https://www.hsj.co.uk/technology-and-innovation/nhse-u-turn-mandates-trust-use-of-the-fdp/7037578.article

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 30th May 2024

Busted budgets and bullying in Birmingham and the Black Country

NHS England has announced incentives and penalties in a bid to improve the health system’s financial plans, so this week we discuss what the new regime involves and if it will make any difference to the national £3bn def…

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 10th May 2024

CQC inspections become the inspected

The tables have turned for the Care Quality Commission. This week HSJ revealed the government is launching a review of it’s new inspection regime and whether its ratings are properly incentivising care improvements. We d…

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 18th April 2024

What the coroners say

This week guest host Ben Clover discusses alarming developments in urgent care plus the Silicon Valley firm getting established in the NHS, with HSJ reporters Emily Townsend and Joe Talora.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 4th April 2024

The latest safety crisis for maternity care

On this episode we discuss the quality of maternity services in the NHS, which have remained firmly in the spotlight. We cover a recent HSJ investigation into delayed inductions of labour and cover the broader challenges facing maternity services amid multiple inquiries and more 'inadequate' CQC ratings. Also more on why families whose babies died in the East Kent maternity scandal are still having to prove legal liability to get any compensation.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 21st July 2023

Who’s to blame for the latest A&E crisis?

On this week’s episode we get into the debate sparked by comments made by a senior NHS director who called for an “absolute solution”. Also this week, the results are in on which integrated care systems are the most digitally mature. But did the NHS need to pay McKinsey £7m to tell them? Featuring Emily Townsend and Joe Talora and hosted by Annabelle Collins. You can listen to HSJ Health Check on this page, or subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and all the other popular podcas

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 7th June 2023

21 days stuck in A&E

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.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 4th May 2023

Overwhelmed hospitals failing to treat patients in emergencies

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.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 10th March 2023

Everything you need to know about the NHS staff survey

This year’s NHS staff survey results have landed, so on this episode, we bring you the need-to-know findings and insights into how the NHS workforce are feeling. Our team is joined by Chris Graham, the chief executive of the Picker Institute – the charity that organises the survey – and we discuss everything from the worrying drop in staff feeling safe to report clinical errors, to the shocking results once again reported by ambulance trusts. Also with Annabelle Collins, Alison Moore and Emily T

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 8th February 2023

HSJ Podcast: Should police have a role in healthcare?

We also discuss the battle in the NHS over how involved the police should be in managing community patients, and look at the state of mental health services more generally in a week when they have come under scrutiny from the National Audit Office. You can listen to HSJ Health Check on this page, or subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and all the other popular podcast platforms. Send feedback and questions for our journalists to annabelle.collins@hsj.co.uk.

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 2nd February 2023

Still early days for scandal trust to turn a corner

The debate over single patient rooms has raged for many years, but emerging news from Liverpool’s new hospital suggests it could be a game-changer for cutting patients’ length of stay. We discuss the impact of the much-maligned city trust’s new hospital on patient flow.Also this week – we hear about the growing frustration in Manchester over the delay to the New Hospitals Programme, and we analyse our exclusive interview with the CEO of scandal-hit Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust. Featurin

HSJ Health Check podcast 🎙️ via SoundCloud • 23rd December 2022

What does 2023 have in store for the NHS?

The HSJ team make their predictions for what the New Year could bring for the health service, including a return to deficits, tough times for the hospital building programme and a big year for mental health reform. Thanks for listening to the Health Check podcast this year and Happy Holidays from all at HSJ.