Health News Blog

Wes Streeting solution for the NHS
The Labour health secretary said only primary care would receive any available extra funding in a new Labour government. Keep Our NHS Public response is that the NHS as a whole, is now dealing with the dire consequences of over a decade of severe underfunding - all services in the NHS need extra funding, especially hospitals.

NHS bosses dismiss Streeting's waiting list claim
Health leaders and unions reply to Streeting that Labour could clear 7.7 million from the NHS waiting lists without a significant increase in funding. A future government "...will not get record patient waiting lists down while the NHS is short of tens of thousands of nursing staff" said the Royal College of Nursing.

It was clear the NHS would be overwhelmed
Prof Medley, professor of infectious disease modelling and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) told the Covid inquiry that it was clear by February 2020 an epidemic was about to hit us. The government permitted mass gatherings in the first part of March 2020, including a Six Nations  match and the Cheltenham horseracing festival.

Carillion 6 years on ...nothing has changed
The collapse of Carillion left hospital construction unfinished. Carillion had exposed the big four auditors as a “cosy club incapable of providing the degree of independent challenge needed”. Where is the promised new financial reporting regulator?

Mental health service is a national emergency
A post Covid surge has created a national emergency in mental health. Funding in real terms has been cut since 2010. The service is so stretched that patients in dire need end up in acute hospital beds.

NHS charging would raise only a small sum
Tories have repeatedly called for charging for NHS services. But an Institute For Government report has concluded that charges would be difficult to administer, would raise only small sums for the NHS and would stop some patients seeking medical help.

Why are GPs so stressed?
It's due to the number of contacts in the day - high in England. Also, UK GPs do more to a greater degree of complexity than in any other country. Most GPs across the world don’t, for example, do paediatrics or maternity.

How much does your ICS give private companies?
Keep Our NHS Public has produced databases for campaigners to explore NHS private sector contracts awarded through the ICBs, Trusts and Foundation Trusts. Find out how much your Integrated Care Board pays out your money to private companies.

Private contract terminated after service failures
An Integrated Care Board has dismissed a private healthcare company and handed the contract back to the publicly-run NHS following concerns about performance and staffing problems.

Immigrant cancer patient given a £76K bill
Omisha was 10 months old when she was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. She needed a liver transplant. The NHS saved her life. Sign her petition against the £76000 bill her parents have been asked for by Barking, Redbridge and Havering Hospital Trust.

Tory donor handed £135 million in NHS contracts
Frank Hester owns a healthcare tech company that supplies computer systems to the NHS. He gave the Tories £5 million this year. His company received £137 million NHS contracts since April 2020. He is the only sharehoilder.

Dilapidated hospitals regularly shut
NHS England’s deputy chief executive told the House of Commons public accounts committee that some hospitals are so dilapidated that they regularly have to shut wards and operating theatres to safeguard patients’ safety; such are the problems caused by hospitals being left structurally unsound.

Rational approach to NHS funding
"What works? Comparison with other healthcare systems shows that the (pre-underfunded) fundamental NHS business model is the gold standard, the pre-eminent healthcare system in the world. What went wrong? The evidence shows that the principal reason for the current fall-off in service levels is chronic and severe underfunding." A report by a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"Improve mental health funding or children die"
A coroner says unless mental health services are funded better more children will die. Mental health has sufferd cuts in funding since 2010.

NHS funding the private sector is senseless
"...taking NHS staff away, diverting NHS funding, cherry picking non-complex care and using the NHS to send back complications from private treatment. It is NHS capacity that must urgently be rebuilt."