Health News Blog

Sunak holding up deal with junior docs - surely not!
The PM has been accused of being "a blocker" to a successful deal. Anybody would think the Tories need an excuse on the appalling length of waiting times to cover for 14 years of NHS under-funding.

Labour's NHS plans: Fit for the Future?
Labour seems more than happy to endorse the magic efficiency tree, rather than give the NHS a clearly needed injection of funds. It's disappointing to see in Labour’s 'Build an NHS fit for the future' that there's so little ambition. Here's an NHS campaigner's view.

NHS planning dictated by media headlines
First NHS England instructs Integrated Care Boards to raid dental budgets for funding, then it reverses its decision with the recent media stories of the dirth of NHS dentistry. So much for independent local control of our healthcare.

1.5 million patients wait for 12 hours in A&E
More than 1.5 million patients in England had to wait 12 hours or longer in A&E in the past year, and one in seven people in England are waiting for treatment. Why? Not strikes, nor the pandemic. It was austerity that brought the NHS to its knees.

Virtual wards: value for money?
A study published by BMJ assessed 318 virtual ward patients with a range of conditions. It found that while their initial hospital stay was shorter, they also experienced higher rates of readmission, which ultimately led to additional costs.

PAs increase a GP's workload
A BMA survey found that 55% of doctors have found that Physician Assistants increase their workloads, even though they were sold as a way of reducing them, and, 87% of doctors who took part said the way PAs and AAs (Anaesthetist Assisants) is always or sometimes a risk to patient safety.

The appalling state of dentistry
There are now ‘dental deserts’ all over the UK. As a result thousands of people now flock to A&E or GPs each year for treatment.

How the NHS is being privatised
Read about all the ways that the NHS has, and is being privatised from PFI, outsourcing services, Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs), NHS Foundation Trusts, the ATMS contract and the privatisation of general practice, the Choose and Book scheme, the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS Property Services Ltd (PropCo), Commissioning Support Units, Health Systems Support Framework and Integrated Care Systems. If we still had an entirely publicly-run fully integrated NHS, would it be in the state it's in now?

Are you listening Streeting?
What a disaster it is to have Streeting as a potential health secretary. He has accused the NHS - who exactly? - of using "every winter crisis... as an excuse to ask for more money" and for Labour to avoid “nostalgia about the NHS". The common sense view comes from senior medics who actually work in the NHS - [its] facing an “existential threat” because of years of underinvestment, serious staff shortages and the demands of the ageing population.

The rational guide to the NHS
Over time, the NHS has been the clear top-performer. "When it is again properly-funded, the NHS will again hold a pre-eminent position. The UK spent the least per capita on healthcare in 2017 compared with all other countries studied".

Crumbling hospitals cause medical delays
Hospitals in England are being hit with disruptions to patients’ care more than 100 times every week because of fires, leaks and problems created by outdated buildings

Government lies and the long legacy of Covid
Michelle Mone and her yacht, Boris Johnson and his parties and Dominic Cummings and the eye test at Barnard Castle – greed, fecklessness and dishonesty.

£9 billion wasted on PPE
£9.9 billion of the £13.6 billion worth of PPE that the government bought between 2020 and 2022 was unusable. Ministers have been accused of throwing away taxpayers’ money “as if it were confetti”.

Hospital pathology outsourcing costs £100 million
Whittington Health Trust is outsourcing its pathology services to a private firm at a cost of £100 million. It claims it will gain greater economies and efficiencies, but at what cost to the service it gives?

I'd rather see a doctor
Following a patient death caused by a misdiagnosis by a physician assistant, Nigel Edwards of the Nuffield Trust says "I'd rather see a doctor".