HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

As winter approaches, with the days growing shorter, the warnings from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine are growing more frequent and anxious. Responding to the Labour government’s first Budget Dr Ian Higginson, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “We commend the government’s ambition to start...

This is Part 1 of the latest Lowdown overview of the financial state of the NHS, drawing on ICB and trust board papers and other sources. Most of the work was done in the second half of October. Since this draft was completed, the Health Service Journal has published a...

When The Lowdown first started in early 2019, the backlog maintenance bill for England’s NHS was estimated at £6 billion. By 2021, it had risen to £9 billion. In 2022, it reached £10.2bn. But with the Tory government’s infamous policy of ‘austerity’ in full swing and restricting capital spending in the NHS up to...

It’s another autumn, and the private healthcare sector is again attempting to convince journalists and the public that it is booming. The publicists for the private hospitals are keen to take the stigma out of wealthy people paying up to jump lengthy NHS queues for elective treatment: David Hare, who runs the Independent...

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust have outraged trade unions and campaigners by outsourcing parts of their finance department in the desperate effort to cut spending. The Trust faces a £104m deficit as the inadequate NHS budget has come under pressure. In total, 84 staff, many of whom have been loyal employees for up...

Comment by Irwin Nash The Health Service Journal has reported that “A hospital chief executive (of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT)) has apologised after being filmed telling staff his trust had already decided to outsource its facilities management services”. It is unclear how this apology went...

More than 20 radiographers, radiology assistants and associated support staff, members of the GMB employed by Frimley Health have opted to suspend action following their 100% ballot vote to strike. They are fighting Trust plans to outsource the contract for MRI services at the new £25m Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC)...

The views of Irwin Nash on the government’s recently launched NHS consultation Many campaigners will react with despair and disappointment to Wes Streeting’s “consultation” on the future of our NHS. The shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, who studiously avoided any engagement with campaigners or health unions before the election, is unlikely...

Talking therapies services in Derbyshire will move to private providers in 2025, as the current NHS provider, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has decided not to bid for the new contract. As a result around 80 staff will have to leave the NHS whether they want to or not, and...

The private equity-owned company, HCRG Care, has been awarded a contract to lead all adult and community services across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) Integrated Care System, which could be worth up to £1.3bn over nine years. The ICS’s community services are currently split across separate...

Comment from a local correspondent There is a Labour government. It was elected on a manifesto which made commitments, especially around a new deal for workers. It signalled a change in direction and reform for our NHS. Ministers stepped in and resolved the major disputes over pay. However, across the...

The notorious Labour Party conference bureaucracy may have successfully shunted a Socialist Health Association motion on Physician Associates off the prioritised agenda last month, but the controversy shows no sign of dying down since the change of government in July. Indeed, so great has been the professional concern at the...