Health News Blog

Ophthalmology risks becoming largely privatised
Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ has said a review needed to look at the entire commissioning process and argued generous tariff rates for cataracts were resulting in some patients with very mild cataracts getting surgery at the expense of other patients going blind, which he said was just wrong.

Palantir offices shut down
Hundreds of health workers have shut down the London HQ of Palantir in protest at the awarding of NHS contracts to a company complicit in Israel's 'ongoing genocide in Gaza'.

"Going to be  a terrible winter"
The warning signs were clear: the NHS was starting to slide into another winter crisis. So observed a Unison branch chair and paramedic for nearly four decades. Sunak has reneged on promises to slash long waiting times with a promise of thousands more beds, 800 new ambulances and an expansion of community care backed by a dedicated fund of £1 billion.

Private equity profiteering on care homes
Close to one in four places in a children’s care home in England now ultimately have the involvement of an investment company. One private equity group had pre-tax profits last year of £27.7 million.

Mone and the morals of the super rich
Here's a number of readers' letters on the PPE Michelle Mone scandal. "If Michelle Mone thinks it’s not a crime to lie to the press, then in that spirit, I’d like to say what a warm and wonderful human being she is." Gove has said he's cooperating with the inquiry.

NHS facing catastrophic winter crisis
Roayl College of Emergency Medicine: "it is clear that firm pledges made by the government less than a year ago to deliver the 'largest and fastest' improvement in emergency response times ever, before this winter, would not be honoured."

It's going to be a terrible winter,,,
Tim Gardner of the Health Foundation said "Trolley waits of 12 hours or more rarely happened a decade ago, but in November there were about 1,400 a day in England, similar to November a year earlier."

Maternity investment "nowhere near good enough"
Donna Ockendon, midwife and expert tasked by government and NHS England to investigate maternity scandals has criticised ministers for failing to provide the funding necessary to address the problems.

Mone admits she lied about links to PPE Medpro
The former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic.

Privatisation leads to worse care
A new study by Oxford Social Policy researchers finds that higher mortality rates are linked to an increase in outsourcing of health services to the private for-profit sector. "Health campaigners were fearful that the 2012 Health and Social Care Act would increase the level of for-profit outsourcing, reducing the quality of care received by NHS patients. This study finds that their concerns may well have been justified."

Streeting: "the NHS uses the winter crisis as..."
...an excuse to ask for more money". Really? So Wes, there's an NHS staffing crisis and a 7.7 million patient waiting list; then ask yourself why? Here's a quote from research by the Health Foundation "Matching spending per head to France or Germany would have led to an additional £40bn and £73bn per year."

PPE via VIP lane 80% more expensive
PPE was on average 80% more expensive when the government bought it from firms referred through a special “VIP lane”.

Misuse of FDP data: patients concern
The contract to build a Federated Data Platform, a massive store of all of our health information, has been given to Palantir. A survey reveals a growing fear, confusion, mistrust about how their data is handled.

FDP and Palantir: a summary
If you need information on what the Federated Data Platform is and the US military intelligence firm that has been given the contract to build it, it's here.

The case for a unified database of health data
Using volunteer health data, UK Biobank shows how healthcare can be improved by data. Doctors will be able to identify patients according to their individual risks. Those at greatest risk of cancer, heart disease and dementia, for example, could be put forward for earlier screening, leading to better treatment and prevention. But should we trust Palantir with our data?

Doctor who fought for Covid transparency
Moosa Qureshi has been working to force ministers to publish results on pandemic preparedness. The withheld papers show that political leaders had not shared plans or guidance for healthcare rationing with NHS staff when hospitals became overwhelmed.