Health News Blog

Real cost of PFI
Private investors have earned more than £523 million in profits and interest payments from hospital contracts with 36 NHS trusts over the past five years.

A sensible approach to NHCs
Campaigner John Lister suggests a more thought-out approach to establishing Neighbour Health Centres. For a start, for each one, define a list of services that aren't available nearby that they should offer .  

Another privatised service taken back into NHS
Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust has said it had “formally taken responsibility” for several specialist secure services, previously provided by St Andrew’s Healthcare in Northampton. It was one of  NHS’s biggest independent healthcare providers and was barred from accepting new patients after revelations of poor care.

Can you trust private healthcare?
Inadequate and outdated breast care at a private clinic at Spire Hospital in Washington has come under scrutiny.  Spire has denied the poor care is their responsibility, blaming the NHS trust.

Patient data put on Palantir's FDP
A pilot scheme to place GP patient data on the Federated Data Platform (FDP) was discussed at the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board AGM on 24 September. A member of the public asked "were the patients informed?" In response the CEO said "It used de-identified patient data and was not used to make decisions about individual care" which doesn't answer the question.

Overcrowded A&Es cause hundreds of deaths
A study took place across a two-week period in March 2025 at 134 A&Es in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The findings showed that overcrowding and corridor care mean many emergency patients will not survive.

Palantir 1st October 'Day of Action' 
On Thursday 1st October, patients, NHS workers and activists across England are taking action to say NO to Palantir in our NHS. Find your local action here.

Why 'Say No' to Palantir?
Make up your own mind, by reading this.

Private equity owns children's homes
Private equity uses debt to buy companies, cut costs aggressively for short-term profits, and shifts financial risks onto workers, customers and the public. They use local councils obligation to find care homes placements to maximise profits at our expense.

Bullying is rife across the NHS
Here's yet another report on an individual trust that cites “a divisive and toxic culture”. There are many separate reports on failures of care that say the same thing.... The Ockendon report into maternity care revealed a "culture of bullying, anxiety and fear of speaking out among staff at the trust". Here's another. How has this culture developed? Was working in the NHS always like this?  I don't think so....then why now?

Stop Palantir's NHS data grab
Despite widespread concerns raised by patients, health workers, human rights organisations and data rights campaigners, the Conservative government awarded a £330m contract to US spy tech company Palantir to run a giant database of our NHS health data. There’s still time to halt Palantir’s NHS data takeover. Sign up here.

Palantir gets UK tax break
Palantir is benefiting from millions of pounds of tax deductions that allow it to pay very little corporation tax in the United Kingdom despite soaring profits.

Maternity centre to close
The Barnstaple unit is closing owing to staff shortages. Mothers in labour will have to trek to Exeter or Taunton, at least an hour and a half away, but usually more, when the roads are thick with holiday traffic.

Free Dr Abu Safiya
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was a senior paediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. He has been arbitrarily detained by Israel since December 2024, and is now very ill. Use the link to email for his release.

Claims for the FDP unravelling
Tell your MP misleading claims about Palantir’s NHS Federated Data Platform must be corrected. The government’s own statistics watchdog has now stepped in, rebuking NHS England.

Palantir paid only £2 million in corporation tax
As of 2026, Palantir holds an estimated £670m in government contracts. In 2024 the company paid just £2.1m in UK corporation tax, despite declaring profits of over £25m, giving an effective tax rate of just over 8%, researchers found. The UK corporation tax rate is 25%.

I'm part of a minority...are you?
MPs who want to block Palantir from the NHS are a “noisy minority”, according to Louis Mosley, the UK head of Palantir.

Burnham must end NHS privatisation
At present, our health service, as anyone can see, is unable to meet the needs of the population it serves. We have faced a decade and a half of chronic underfunding and undermining by successive governments, including the latest Labour government. Andy Burnham has the opportunity to turn around many of the mistakes made by Keir Starmer’s government, and drastically improve the NHS.

NAO to report on pandemic preparedness
In Spring of 2027 the National Audit Office, the government's watchdog committee, will report on how well the government has prepared for the next pandemic, which is near guaranteed to occur. The failure in preparedness for Covid is well documented.

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