Health News Blog

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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A culture of fear .....
....not just restricted to maternity services. We have to ask how NHS management has changed to create dreadful work relationships.

Midwives are leaving the service
The loss of midwifery staff and students underlines what the Royal College of Midwives calls the “staffing emergency” in maternity care across the UK.

Maternity poorly understood by directors
Maternity services, despite numerous scathing reviews, are still sidelined by trust boards and often poorly understood by medical directors.

Health is a national asset
A Health Foundation report says we should view good health nationally as an economic asset. Improving health would strengthen growth, expand the tax base, reduce fiscal pressures and raise living standards. 

Manchester does without Palantir
If one English region can build sovereign health data infrastructure that outperforms the imported version [Palantir], why can’t the country?

Burnham and Cooper will plough on?
The PM and his new Health Secretary Yvette Cooper look set to continue the plans set out by Keir Starmer in the Labour Manifesto and in the 10 Year Plan, says health campaigner Greg Dropkin.

Starmer failed, Burnham must do better
The joint chairmen of Keep Our NHS Public say, "We need commitment to a publicly funded, provided and accountable NHS, not an ever-closer relationship with the parasitic private sector". Burnham could rebuild trust "A new leadership can do better by offering a confident public service renewal agenda: rebuild trust, back staff, restore capacity and ethical standards".

US/UK drug deal will cost 000s in excess deaths
Research in the British Medical Journal reveals that the diversion of billions of NHS funding to pay more for new drugs under the UK-US trade deal will harm public health and result in thousands of excess deaths. An opinion piece makes the same point "So here’s a test for Andy Burnham: is he really going to let this fatal deal, cooked up in private and shrouded in unforgivable secrecy, stand?"

Sheffield opposes Palantir contract
Sheffield City Council becomes the first local authority in England to approve a motion opposing Palantir's NHS Federated Data Platform contract. The Telegraph says that Burnham will follow suit, but yet nobody else agrees, so don't believe anything in the Telegraph.

Open letter to Burnham
"....Commit to rethinking the dangerous US-UK deal on pharmaceuticals, the new PFI arrangements for neighbourhood health centres, job cuts underway in hospitals across England, increases in the use of private providers in community diagnostics and other areas, and the Palantir FDP contract."

NHS anaesthetist shortage
There are 16% fewer anaesthetists than needed, with a shortfall of 2,256 posts across the UK. Anaesthetists are quitting over stress and workload.