Health News Blog

'Labour will hold door open to private sector'
For those who know that an entirely publicly-run NHS provides the most efficient way to run the NHS, the shadow health secretary's words are alarming. Are we really going to continue Tory government's mistakes? Evidence shows that privatisation of NHS services results in worse outcomes. Here's a collation of NHS privatised disasters in recent years.

Who's really to blame?
An analysis of  Care Quality Commission reports shows that of the 254 general hospitals seven were rated as “inadequate” and 122 as “requires improvement” – 51% of the total. If over half of all general hospitals are rated less than satisfactory what concusion should we draw? There are 40000 nurse vacancies, staff disatisfaction is at a record low, waiting lists at a record high, so is the primary problem the management of hospitals?

Private healthcare firms and home care
More than 500,000 patients rely on private companies paid by the NHS to deliver healthcare to their homes. A report by the Lords public services committee says patients are being harmed due to “real and serious problems” with the services provided by for-profit companies.

40 hospitals programme "mired in delay"
Boris Johnson’s flagship 40 hospital building programme, now down to 32, is mired in delays and unlikely to deliver on time. A cross-party committee of MPs said “very little has happened from the perspective of patients” since the programme was announced.

UK Biobank shares data with insurance firm
UK Biobank is a limited company and charity set up in 2006. Volunteers aged from 40 to 69 are monitored to capture all disease events, drug prescriptions and deaths in a database. It's now revealed that UK Biobank opened up its database to insurance sector firms several times between 2020 and 2023.

Child bronchitis due to damp homes
Dr Andy Know, senior medical director of the NHS said "Thousands of babies and toddlers are being admitted to hospital in England each year with lung conditions probably linked to damp and mould-ridden homes".

Private rental conditions 'shameful'
The chair of the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers in England said a legal loophole is allowing landlords to rent out squalid homes is contributing to “shameful” conditions of the type seen nearly a century ago.

Sunak's NHS waiting list pledge downgraded
The government has written to ICBs to say "..We are asking ICBs and providers, by 22 November, to agree the steps required to live within their re-baselined system allocation." This signals the downgrading of No 10’s battle against waiting lists. The government were asked to provide a £1 billion to cover the cost of strikes, but have pledged just a tenth of that.

Failings in maternity care - Why?
For years there have been calls for the government to deal with the shortage of midwives. There's been a sequence of scandals across the country; in all regions the Royal College of Midwives have called for action, with no effective response from government. Now parents of babies who have died are demanding that ministers order a public inquiry into repeated failings in NHS maternity units.

How to improve nurses staff shortage
Prior to 2017 student nurses were given given a non-means tested grant of £1,000 per year in addition to a means tested annual bursary of up to £8,750 and also had their tuition paid directly to their higher education institution by Health Education England. George Osborne changed this, nurses now must take out a student loan leading to a debt of £47,000 to £50,000. Labour are considering plams for newly qualified doctors and nurses in England to have their student loans written off.

Peer Mone finally admits involvement in PPE firm
Despite denying all this time, Conservative peer Michelle Mone has owned up, "...she acted as an intermediary/liaison between PPE Medpro and the Cabinet Office/Department of Health and Social Care". Mone and her husband secretly received tens of millions of pounds from PPE Medpro’s profits.

Stop Palantir, sign up
Please add your name to a new emergency petition calling for the NHS Palantir data takeover to be dropped. Palantir, a dodgy US spy tech corporation, is the worst kind of company to let anywhere near our NHS. But not only that - it would lock in a costly plan for NHS data that lacks safeguards to protect our data from private companies.

Why we have huge NHS waiting lists
A Health Foundation report says "The roots of the growth in the waiting list lie in avoidable failures including a decade of underinvestment in the NHS, a failure to address chronic staff shortages and the longstanding neglect of social care."

Sign petition to stop Palantir
The government wants to hand US spy tech firm Palantir a £480 million contract to run a "Federated Data Platform" - a database of all our health information. Sign this petition to stop Palantir getting its hands on our data.

There are 250 fewer GPs than a year ago
GP numbers continue to fall year-on-year as new NHS workforce data shows that there are 254 fewer fully-qualified GPs than last year.

Cost of workforce plan underestimated
A group of influential MPs have warned that the ‘unfunded and uncosted’ NHS long term workforce plan risks building on ‘unsustainable’ financial pressures.

Private children's homes £300 million profit
Council spending on privately-run children’s homes in England has more than doubled in six years. Yet the biggest private providers of children’s homes in England made profits of more than £300m last year.