Health on the line 

Through the Health on the line podcast, NHS Confederation Chief Executive Matthew Taylor offers the informed insights of a very well-connected insider. He introduces each episode with commentary on the latest developments in the health service offering his own take on the issues of the moment.  

The series isn’t new, having first aired in August 2021 and has included some well-known health commentators from the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman to Dame Kate Bingham; the Covid pandemic is an inevitable theme running throughout many episodes.   

In a recent episode, he talks with great ease to former Labour Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt after the publication of her report looking at the first few months of the Integrated Care System. It’s the second episode with her, and unlikely to be the last given the centrality of her place in the new way of thinking about healthcare. 

Having spent the Blair years inside government as an advisor, and after that heading up the esteemed Royal Society of Arts, Matthew Taylor is clearly very comfortable leading the NHS Confederation through the last few difficult years. 

Health on the line is a fortnightly podcast offering ‘fresh perspectives on the healthcare challenges of our time.’ His interview with London Ambulance Service CEO Daniel Elkeles is excellent. They clearly like and respect each other and he manages to get Daniel to open up and give us all a glance inside the operations of the largest ambulance service in the UK. In this interview they talk about Leo McCann’s book on the life of the paramedic which inspired the review in the last issue of Emergency Services Times. 

The episode is called, ‘The biggest barrier we have is thinking is silos’ and is well worth 40 minutes of your time. With 35+ podcasts to choose from, the archive is a treasure trove of insight into what healthcare leaders really think.