Health News Blog

Paramedics are "watching patients die"
The gridlock of patients to hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.

Physicain assistant failure "hairing raising"
The British Madicasl Association (BMA) has compiled a report detailing more than 600 examples of physician associates (PAs) putting patient safety at risk or causing serious harm.

ICB staff to be made redundant
ICBs have been given until the end of May to plan how they will cut their costs. This will involve "reducing costs to cross-system arrangements”. This means merging ICBs into larger groupings.

VIP lane: private company executive arrested
Luxe Listyle Ltd. had no employees, was in thousands of pounds of debts, yet two people involved with the troubled company are being investigated by HMRC for a £25 million frand.

Palantir? There is an alternative
Our health service data, unified and accurate, offers huge possibilities for health research. But handing it all over to a military surveillance company like Palantir isn’t the only option.

UK wide maternity crisis
Crises at Morecambe Bay, then Shrewsbury and Telford, then East Kent - the problem at the heart of the NHS's maternity care failures.

Missing nurses, a morale issue?
A third of England’s acute hospitals are consistently missing more than one in ten of the nurses they have planned for. Is rock-bottom morale the problem?

Mental health budget to fall yet again
This reduction comes despite growing pressure on mental health services and warnings of a deepening crisis. Charities expressed dismay at the news, predicting a further decline in the nation's mental health with repercussions across society.

England's maternity scandal
There’s an ongoing national scandal in NHS maternity care; not just in isolated trusts. The Tory conspiracy over our crumbling  and low morale NHS is being continued under “fingers-in-his-ears” Streeting.

Streeting is Lansley reborn
If it wasn't so sad it would be amusing. A recent of history of political ineptitude in the governance of our NHS. "Health secretary Andrew Lansley clarified that his reforms were about “cutting out waste, reducing bureaucracy and simplifying NHS structures so that we are able to invest more in improving frontline care”. What lies and deception.

Palantir's ideas for our health data
The "data and technology working group" said the FDP would require a “willingness to overcome some of the objections from privacy campaigners regarding Palantir as a supplier”. How true.

Shock and outrage over disability cuts
Many disabled people will lose thousands of pounds a year, including some of the most deprived people in our society, with those already in low-income households expected to suffer most. Cuts will reflect onto increased demand for the NHS.

Why is there litigation in our healthcare?
Do we really need to have legal contracts in the NHS? Shouldn't the provision of healthcare just about funding doctors and nurses in our surgeries and hospitals? Read about stratospheric legal costs - the NHS has so far incurred fees of around £2 million.

What's behind the scrapping of NHS England
Starmer announced the abolition of NHSE ....why? Is it really just about ridding it of bureaucracy and "bringing the NHS back under democratic control? Keep Our NHS England thinks there's more to it, like Streeting taking control and "reform" of the NHS - code for privatisation.

Loud mouth Streeting
First he insults by calling us "Middle class Lefites" (me, middle class?) now he's taken to task after saying "there is an overdiagnosis of some mental health conditions" without offering any supporting evidence.

ICBs ordered to cut costs
The incoming CEO of NHSE, Sir Jim McKie, has told the Integrated Care Boards to cut running costs by 50%. This will "make it next to impossible for some individual ICBs to operate as a standalone organisations, or to carry out the full range of reponsibilities". One leader said it would throw management of the NHS “into chaos”.

PAs: lack of evidence on patient safety
BMA: "It is a sad indictment of NHS bodies and the Government that they all collaborated in the headlong rush to expand the roles of physician and anaesthesia associates without first amassing the evidence that their role was safe." SHA campaign material can be seen here.

Hospital discharge: what's driving deaths?
According to the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health annual report, the number and rate of deaths after discharge from a ward have been gradually increasing since 2017.