12th March 2026

Biggest scandal of all time
ITV programme on VIP lane contracts forces us to consider “…something that is almost too disgusting to contemplate: that when our country faced one of its darkest hours, certain people in charge saw not a crisis, but an opportunity.”

Covid PPE contracts: Tory leaves the Lords
The Conservative peer Peter Gummer will leave the House of Lords after an investigation found he committed five breaches of standards over Covid PPE deals.

Report urges termination of Palantir contract 
A Medact report recommends the commissioners to  decline the implementation of FDP or any other Palantir products in their local data systems and urges NHS England to terminate its contract with Palantir Technologies.

Privatised eye care undermines NHS
High street opticians can refer patients directly to cataract clinics leading to a lowering of the threshold for surgery (provider led demand). Patients in affluent areas are more likely to be referred, increasing health inequalities. The proportion of the budget for eye services spent on cataract surgery has increased at the expense of funding then left for NHS.

Do ICBs have a future?
You may not have access to this HSJ article, but it questions the value of Integrated Care. “Widespread scepticism about commissioners stems from the fact that, despite the NHS’s 30-plus-year experiment with the purchaser/provider split, the evidence for its efficacy is mixed at best. Many think that ICBs simply get in the way.”