Health News Blog

Edited by Ken Kirk

Copy of FUND OUR NHS (8)

27th November 2023

NHS underfunding caused 112 deaths
The Patients Association says "These data are alarming and show quite clearly the human impact the crisis in the NHS is having on individual patients". Almost 8,000 people were harmed and 112 died last year as a direct result of enduring long waits for an ambulance or surgery.

The Federated Data Platform (FDP) disaster
NHS England has announced it's giving the £480m contract, to develop a massive heath data store, to US spy tech firm Palantir. NHS England says patients do not need to be given an opt-out because their data will be anonymised before it is shared, but a) date of birth, gender, postcode are too important to be changed, and b) do you trust Palantir with your data?

FDP: Demand a public debate
We are being denied the right to opt out of the FDP, a right made even more acute by the awarding of the contract to Palantir. Email the government to demand a public debate about our right to opt out.

Integrated Care's priority - withholding funding
Integrated Care Systems have been instructed to make yet further cuts in plans for their regions NHS care while government ministers pretend the NHS should be able to provide comprehensive healthcare.

NHS Long Term Plan dilemma
What the Long Term Plan demands as opposed to the real NHS budget allocation presents a dilemma for next year's election winning party.

 

 

20th November 2023

'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.

 

14th November 2023

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.

6th November 2023

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.