23rd January 2023
Emergency delays: 500 patients dying each week
Long waits in A&E were linked to increased mortality and somewhere between 300 to 500 people a week are dying as a consequence. It’s a political choice, says the BMA, not to tackle the intolerable pressure on the NHS.
Nurses and paramedics pay: a fact sheet
The Health Foundation calculates that real terms basic pay for nurses has fallen by almost 10% since 2012. Nurses’ real pay is down £4,300 and paramedics’ real pay is down £5,600. Of course, pay is not the only issue; stress due to unfilled staff vacancies weighs heavily on staff morale.
NHS in crisis: how it got to this
There were no 40 hour waits for ambulances prior to May 2010, and no 24 hour waits in A&E. Very few patients exceeded the 4 Hour A&E wait target, until George Osborne’s austerity regime halted the decade of investment in the NHS and ushered in a decade of decline. The crisis was “year’s in the making” says John Lister.
Streeting’s self referral idea demolished
Wes Streeting has proposed that NHS patients should be allowed to refer themsleves directly to hospital consultants. This idea has not been well received by the GP community. His comments demonstrate a failure to understand the workings of the service over which he’d one day like to preside.
Private healthcare nets £40 million profit
..and pays directors £621,000. Virgin Care, now rebranded as HCRG Care Group, earnt huge sums of money from the NHS and local councils in 2021/22 thanks to more than 35 contracts.
The NHS we need
Read the leaflet written by Keep Our NHS Public that states the founding principles of the NHS – a comprehensive service entirely publicly-run and publicly-funded from general taxation – and to which it should be returned.