In this episode of The PJ Pod, we explore the main changes and implications for practice of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)’s chronic heart failure guidance update.

On 3 September 2025, NICE released its updated guidance on ‘Chronic heart failure in adults: diagnosis and management’.

The guidance mentions the role of pharmacy for the first time and has implications for an expanded role for primary care in managing heart failure. 

The guidance makes several recommendations, including on the use of combination treatment of the four main types of treatment: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), beta-blockers (BBs), mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2s (SGLT2s) inhibitors — also known as the four pillars — in the early treatment of heart failure. 

In this episode of The PJ Pod, clinical editor Caitlin Killen talks to Paul Wright, consultant cardiovascular pharmacist at Barts Health NHS Trust, to learn more about the guidance and its implications for practice.

This episode was produced by Geoff Marsh.

New chronic heart failure guidance: what does it mean for practice?

We're joined by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Paula Sussex in our latest episode of Making Complaints Count. 

Paula speaks to senior caseworker James Glover about her first few months in the role and shares what most excites her about the future.

Episode seven | Paula Sussex, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Better use of technology, the transition from analogue to digital, and greater innovation are at the heart of the 10 Year Health Plan. This includes plans to make the NHS app a gateway to the entire NHS, integrate AI into clinical pathways, create a new Health Data Research Service, make genomic sequencing at birth universal, utilise wearable technology in treatments as standard, and to improve uptake and adoption of medicines.

What are the potential benefits of greater use of technology and innovation in the NHS? Are there any risks associated with this? How deliverable is the 10 Year Health Plan’s vision for the use of technology and innovation in the NHS? What are the barriers to greater adoption of technology and innovation more broadly? And how can these be overcome? How can investment in technology and innovation be protected and prioritised?  

To discuss these questions and more, we were joined by an expert panel including:

Matthew Chisambi, Director of Imperial College Health Partners
Johan Kahlström, President and Managing Director, UK and Ireland at Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK
Sam Roberts, Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

This event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

We would like to thank Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK for kindly supporting this event.

How can changes to NHS technology help deliver the 10 Year Health Plan?

Poor public service performance was a key reason for Labour’s victory in the 2024 election. Following the new government’s first multi-year spending review and a major reshuffle, this event brough together a panel of experts to discuss how successfully Labour has managed public services since coming to office.  

This event brought together a panel of experts to discuss these key questions:

What was Labour’s public service inheritance?

How much progress has the government made on public services since the election?  

What impact with the spending review have on public service performance?

What are the biggest public service challenges that need to be addressed over the rest of the parliament?

What are the implications for the budget?

As the Institute for Government published the latest edition of Performance Tracker, written in partnership with the Nuffield Foundation, which featured new analysis on the performance of public services, Amber Dellar, Stuart Hoddinott and Cassia Rowland, presented the key findings. They were joined by Stephen Bush, associate editor and columnist at the Financial Times.

This event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government, with an introduction by Mark Franks at the Nuffield Foundation.  

This event was kindly supported by the Nuffield Foundation.

How successfully have Labour run public services?

https://thecommunists.org/2025/11/18/news/striking-doctors-sent-on-suicide-mission/

Why do the unions continuously fail to make the link between medics’ conditions and the destruction of the NHS? The ritual call to ‘Kick the Tories out’ has long been an essential component of the fake-left’s control over the working-class movement. And this inability to understand the system or recognise the nature of our class enemies in turn explains working-class impotence in the face of the direst threats to our lives and livelihoods.


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Striking doctors are being sent on a suicide mission

This podcast discusses a UK Supreme Court judgment concerning a long-running Value Added Tax (VAT) dispute between the HMRC and the NHS Lothian Health Board. The core of the case revolves around a late claim by NHS Lothian to recover input VAT paid between 1974 and 1997, utilizing a window of opportunity created by the Finance Act 2008 following key rulings on retrospective time limits. The judgment details the procedural history, noting the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) and Upper Tribunal rejected the claim due to insufficient evidence to quantify the recoverable tax, while the Inner House of the Court of Session overturned this, citing the EU principle of effectiveness. Lady Rose, writing for the Supreme Court, analyzes the legal standards for proving input tax deduction, arguing the Inner House erred by separating the right to deduct from the obligation to quantify the amount claimed and by misapplying the EU principle of effectiveness to the burden of proof.

HMRC v NHS Lothian Health Board (Scotland) [2022] UKSC 28

https://thecommunists.org/2025/11/03/news/labour-party-patriotism-racist-imperialist/
While claiming to stand ‘against racism’, Wes Streeting is engaged in a viciously racist campaign against a doctor who opposes genocide.
 The ‘Butcher’s Apron’ is the flag of a bloodthirsty and malevolent class of exploiters that continues to preside over the most horrific colonial as well as local crimes. Those who are appalled by the genocide in Gaza today are starting to realise that this is one in a long string of British imperialist atrocities, and that zionism itself is but a reflection of the extreme supremacism of the British ruling class.

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Labour party patriotism is racist and imperialist to the core

In this episode of Consultant Conversations, Dr Luke Yates explores getting involved in research as a consultant with Professor Terry Quinn. As a seasoned academic, Professor Quinn has held various leadership and educator roles in clinical research, and shares top tips for those new to research (and those keen to get back involved), including educational and development opportunities, funding opportunities, who to speak to for support and advice, and more.


Professor Terry Quinn is David Cargill Chair of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Glasgow and is Honorary Consultant Physician in Stroke and Geriatric Medicine. Professor Quinn has a broad research portfolio, with core research interests in trial methodology, functional assessment, and neuropsychological consequences of cardiovascular disease. He has published extensively on topics relating to stroke, cognition and test accuracy, and is Principal Investigator for a number of studies. Learn more: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cardiovascularmetabolic/staff/terryquinn

Dr Luke Yates is a member of RCPE's Recently Appointed Consultants' Committee (RAC) and a Consultant Physician in NHS Lanarkshire.


-- Links --

NIHR Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Course - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/clinical-research-courses-and-support/good-clinical-practice

NIHR Introductory Courses - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/health-and-care-research-introduction/introductory-courses

NIHR Research skills e-learning - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/research-skills

Cochrane Learn - https://www.cochrane.org/learn

NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) - https://rdn.nihr.ac.uk/

NIHR Be Part of Research - https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/

NIHR Associate PI Scheme - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/clinical-research-courses-and-support/associate-principal-investigator-scheme

NHS Research Scotland - https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/

RCPE Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Course - https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/events

RCPE Event, Bridging NHS care with curiosity: clinical research unplugged - https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/events/bridging-nhs-care-curiosity-clinical-research-unplugged

NIHR Impact Prizes - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/our-impact/impact-prizes

RCP NIHR position statement: Making research everybody’s business - https://www.rcp.ac.uk/policy-and-campaigns/policy-documents/rcp-nihr-position-statement-making-research-everybody-s-business/

Commercial clinical trials in the UK: the Lord O’Shaughnessy review - final report - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commercial-clinical-trials-in-the-uk-the-lord-oshaughnessy-review/commercial-clinical-trials-in-the-uk-the-lord-oshaughnessy-review-final-report

The James Lind Alliance: https://www.jla.nihr.ac.uk/


Recording date: 5 November 2025


-- Upcoming RCPE events --
https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/events

-- Become an RCPE Member --
https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/membership/join-college

Feedback: cme@rcpe.ac.uk

The edited music used in this podcast, 'Corporate' by ProLuxeStudio (available on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/proluxestudio/corporate-free-download), is licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

This podcast is from the Recently Appointed Consultants’ Committee (RAC) of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE).

Consultant Conversations

Getting involved in Research (04 Dec 2025)

This charity single is a festive portrait of Horton Hospital at its best—staff, patients, and the entire Banbury community woven into a bright, upbeat Christmas scene. The lyrics turn everyday hospital life into a celebration: tinsel on IV stands, porters in antlers, physios dressed like trees, and even the X-ray machines getting in on the sparkle. It leans into the reality of a busy hospital, but flips it into something warm, human, and unmistakably local.
The song highlights the dedication of the nurses, doctors, cleaners, cooks, porters, and everyone who keeps the children’s ward running, especially through the winter pressure. Its hook—“Dashing through the wards”—captures that frenetic, compassionate energy that defines Horton’s staff at Christmas.
This track is designed to raise funds for the children’s ward, but also to remind Banbury and Oxfordshire why Horton matters: a place where care doesn’t stop, community shows up, and Christmas spirit cuts through the clinical setting. It’s cheerful, grounded, and proudly Horton—aimed at bringing people together to support the hospital’s youngest patients when it counts.

Dashing through the wards

The PJ Pod’s final episode of the year looks ahead to our editorial team’s predictions for pharmacy in 2026. What big changes are coming for the world of pharmacy — and what impact will this have on pharmacists’ day-to-day work?

We also look at the biggest stories of 2025, including a new contract that was deemed the best deal in the past decade, the ten-year health plan and the greater role that pharmacists will play in preventing ill-health within the community, as well as a government consultation on pharmacists combatting medicines shortages by being able to amend prescriptions in limited ways.

Tell us about your own predictions and join our conversation on social media using the hashtag #PJPod, or email us at: editor@pharmaceutical-journal.com.

This episode is presented by Siobhan Chan, senior features editor, and produced by Geoff Marsh.

Thank you to Corrinne Burns, Royal Pharmaceutical Society correspondent; Graham Clews, news editor; Caitlin Killen, clinical editor; Joanna Robertson, senior clinical reporter; and Sophie Willis, investigations editor, for their contributions.


What will 2026 hold for pharmacy?

RCPE's Podcast Series 'Consultant Conversations' by the Recently Appointed Consultants' Committee (RAC).

The edited music used in this podcast, 'Corporate' by ProLuxeStudio (available on SoundCloud), is licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Comedy songs and dark-humour originals from a working radiographer. Satire, protest, and indie experiments. 

I write comedy, satire, and straight-up originals about life in radiography, healthcare, and the wider mess. Expect protest anthems, awkward truth, and hooks that stick. If you like Bo Burnham, Weird Al, and indie left-turns, you’re in the right place.

Genres: Alternative, Indie, Singer-Songwriter, Comedy
satire, protest, indie, acoustic, alt-pop

Spotlight tracks:
	1.	“Where You Fell”
	2.	“Gone but Not Forgotten (Lost Souls)”
	3.	“Lazy Like a Monday”
	4.	“Pass the Light Around”
	5.	“All Are One (Defending Every Soul)”

Marxist analysis of current events and scientific socialist theoretical insights from the CPGB-ML. Get educated and get organised!

The leading think tank working to make UK government more effective. 

Stay up to date with all of our commentary, analysis and events by visiting our website and subscribing to our newsletter.

Making Complaints Count is our podcast where we'll be exploring the power of complaints and how organisations can use them to listen, learn and improve. 
 
Each episode we'll be joined by experts working in the health and public sector, complaints champions and those who have experienced the complaints journey first-hand.

Keeping you one step ahead of developments in pharmacy, medicines and the pharmaceutical sciences. Brought to you by the team behind The Pharmaceutical Journal.

New tracks tagged #Nhs