Health News Blog

NHS staff 'petrified' of the coming winter
Staff fear services will not be able to cope with a combination of flu and a resurgent Covid. This against the backdrop of a record 7.1 million people waiting to start treatment.

Nurses vote to strike as pay is 'laughable'
Mental health nurse - 'The only option is to withdraw labour'; staff nurse 'We've been undewrpaid for years'; senior nurse 'We're striking for patients'.

Nurses amongst foodbank users
Nurses, shop assistants and youth workers are among large numbers of people in low-paid jobs forced for the first time to accept charity food parcels.

Hunt 'knows' but will still make NHS cuts
The man most responsible for the dire state of the NHS now as Chancellor says there must be more 'efficiencies', aka cuts.

NHSE demands ICS board signoff of over £50K
NHS England has set out a raft of new conditions that over-spending trusts must follow, including sign-off from their integrated care board for all revenue investments over £50,000. Doesn't that mean all expenditures?

NHS steals nurses from places of desparate shortage
A quarter of all new nurses in the UK were trained in poorer countries with more severe staffing shortages. Shouldn't we train our own? And shouldn't we reinstate a proper nurse bursary - please sign this petition?

Nurses vote to strike
"It's time to pay nursing staff fairly" is their slogan, and it certainly is! A historic "yes" vote was recorded by the Royal College of Nursing in their fight for fair pay and safe staffing. Strikes will take place before the end of the year at hospitals where legal requirements have been met.

Why the need for agency staff?
NHS data suggests every integrated care system is set to bust the cap placed on their agency spending, many by over 50 per cent. Who is responsible for the shortfall trained NHS staff, leading to the need  to employ agency staff?

Government loses fight to keep Covid lessons secret
The government has backed down in its fight to keep secret a “lessons learnt” review of the Covid pandemic.

Private cleaning firm given the sack
An acute trust has publicly accused its cleaning contractor of failing to meet nationally set cleaning standards, and said this has contributed to a “large spike” in hospital-acquired infections.

Historic change of ideology for running the NHS?
It seems they've seen the light. NHS supplies will be handled by .....the NHS Supply Chain. Whereas the procurement of many products was managed by outside organisations, the revised plans will bring the purchasing of all clinical products in-house. All we now need is the common sense realisation that, for high quality comprehensive health services, public provision minimses administration costs and health outcomes more effective.

Palantir: and you can't opt out
NHS Digital is to use Palantir software to gather data about patients’ admission, inpatient, discharge and outpatient activity at acute hospitals. It includes patients’ NHS numbers, date of birth, and postcode.

Trusts outsource back office services
Five East Anglian trusts have agreed a contract hand over their back office work to NHS Shared Business Services, a firm jointly owned by the DHSC and french firm Sopra Steria.

Budget: Stop the Cuts
Add your name to a petition to demonstrate your support against any cuts to NHS funding in Sunak's coming Autumn statement. Demand that Rishi Sunak stops putting the wealth of the super-rich ahead of the lives of NHS patients.

Hear the 4 reasons for the NHS crisis
A&E doctor Dr Andrew Meyerson clearly states the 4 reasons why the NHS is in crisis, and it comes down to the lack of government funding. "It doesn't need organisational reform, it needs 1. more funding 2. more staff 3. more beds 4. more social care."

£500 million: Where is it?
Ministers announced they were granting £500 million to get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital into either their own home or a care home. Hospitals and care homes have not yet received a single penny.

A "flawed model of heroic lendership"
NHS England has become preoccupied with leadership, that's what the Kirkup inquiry concluded in its investigation into the East Kent maternity scandal. NHSE scrapes around for new leaders, even though we spend less on healthcare than all similar European economies (GDP % France 11.06, Germany 11.70, UK 10.15), and when things go wrong it fires the CEO.

£1600 a day for consultants
NHS England has approved requests for trusts to bring in temporary ’very senior managers’ and consultants on daily rates of up to £1,600. You can't make it up.

"We believe that general practice is in crisis"
So says the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, under the chairmanship of Jeremy Hunt, who plainly bears responsibility not only for the state of primary care but for the workforce crisis across the entire NHS. "The Government should provide the funding necessary to create 1,000 additional GP training places per year"....will they? (see page 39 of the report)

Eh? A&E patients to wards even though no beds?
Yes, this is the latest mad scheme, to move A&E patients to wards irrespective of whether there are beds available. So you spread the overcrowding around the hospital, to thin it out, so it doesn't notice so much. Anything but analyse the NHS crisis, after a decade of Tory underfunding and extending privatisation.

Call handlers on strike, consultants next?
Even the Telegraph is saying that senior consultants may follow 999 call handlers who walked out for 24 hours