The Government published its integration white paper, “Joining up care for people, places and populations” last week. The white paper provides more detail of the expectations for place-based working between the NHS and local government.

Delayed discharge continues to be a serious issue for NHS Trusts, particularly in times of COVID-19 where the NHS is facing unprecedented pressures. In this insight, we summarise our top tips for minimising causes of delay and other actions you can take.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has finalised new standard clauses (known as the IDTA, or ‘international data transfer agreement’) to support international data flows. Find out how to use the new clauses in our insight.

If you are thinking of taking legal action regarding a tenancy, considering whether you have done all you can to assist the tenant beforehand is vital. We summarise a recent example and explain the practical aspects you need to consider.

The government is opening a consultation on fixed recoverable costs in low value clinical negligence claims. The proposed scheme aims to avoid litigation and speed up the exchange of evidence for faster agreement on liability, causation and quantum.

The vast majority of the inquest cases relate to acquisition of Covid-19 during hospital admission and staffing/resource issues. In a recent case a Coroner was critical of a decision not to escalate a patient’s care to ICU.

This year is likely to see a resurgence of non-Covid trials which have been postponed or paused in the last two years, and new trials for Covid treatments and vaccines (e.g. those based on conventional vaccine technology).

Read the latest developments regarding the impending Public Inquiry, including what this means for you.

Delays to non-Covid treatment is the leading type of claim against NHS Trusts to date, followed by Hospital-Acquired Covid (HAC) and failure to treat Covid appropriately.

The pandemic has seen an acceleration in the use of technology: remote GP consultations, the use of apps for ‘track and trace’ and AI as a diagnostic reporting tool (e.g. in radiology), with legal issues likely to centre on information governance.

Two cases awaiting decisions from the Court of Appeal could have a significant impact for healthcare organisations.

In this year’s forward view, we consider issues ranging from fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence claims, claims resulting from COVID-19 treatment, major inquiries, clinical trials and healthcare technology.