Former NHSE chair lobbied for private firm
Former Tory minister David Prior sent an email to the CEO of NHSX (technology arm of the NHS) urging him to 'have a conversation' with the head of American digital health giant Teladoc. It looks as if the leaders of our NHS are keen to privatise it.

Should legal action be part of a health service?
When a hospital trust was legaly challenged by a firm whose bid was unsuccessful, the trust withdrew the offer to the successful bidder. King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ invited bids for a  non-emergency patient transport contract. Once the decision was made an unsuccessful bidder sued the trusts and in response the trusts withdrew the offer to the winner. How much does this sort of commercial activity cost our NHS? Is privatisation value for money?

Does the NHS need "rebranding"?
Should the NHS spend its funding to "rebrand" itself? Is the public's image of the NHS defined by a commercial impression governed by PR branding, or is it down to its provision over the years of comprehensive high quality care for all?

PPE Medro argue it supplied what was asked for
"Ministers were to blame for ordering £122 million of unusable hospital gowns from a firm". So said its lawyers. The firm is linked to the Tory peer Baroness Mone; it had no experience in procuring such produce.

NHS docs to strike: pay cut by 26% since 2008
Members of the British Medical Association are expected to take part in a 72-hour walkout, possibly in mid-March. "Junior doctor roles had seen pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation was taken into account".

18th February 2023

New strikes will include A&Es and cancer care
A two-day continuous strike, the largest such action in NHS history will include cancer wards, A&E departments and intensive care units in England. It will run for 48 hours from 6am on 1st March.

NHS consultants run private firms to cut waiting lists
Senior NHS clinicians are earning a lucrative sideline running private firms that offer to cut waiting lists at their own hospitals. Top consultants in Manchester, Sheffield and London are among directors of so-called “insourcing” agencies.

Should we have McKinsey involved in our NHS?
The US giant consultancy firm McKinsey has been appointed to create a new data model for NHSE. It will advise bringing together the internal systems across the NHS. What's wrong with that? McKinsey has unsavory work with fossil fuel companies, cigarette-makers, opioid distributors, regulatory agencies and autocratic regimes and its cost-cutting recommendations downplayed safety concerns at U.S. Steel, Disneyland and American immigration centers.

Streeting: "We'd use private hospitals"
Wes Streeting said a Labour government would use private hospitals to help out the NHS. But since 2010 the NHS has been starved of funding, so that now it's on its knees. While a sizeable chunk of its budget has been siphoned off to private healthcare.

RCN: "Match Wales and we'll call it off"
...but Sunak won't! He's boxed himself into a corner and he can't back down, otherwise the right of his parliamentary party will slaughter him. Meanwhile just visit a hospital picket line, the passing traffic honking is deafening, public support is still strong.

Deadlock over strikes "putting patients at risk"
Deadlock over NHS pay is putting patients in danger say chief nurses. Unions have warned that the government is making no moves towards resolving the strikes; One general secretary accuses the government of lying about negotiating.

Sunak's NHS solution, "Ramp up private medicine"
Sunak's ideas are to leave the NHS struggling with underfunding and to pump more of the NHS budget into private provision.

US health system on it's way to UK?
With so-called Integrated Care arriving, just re-badged US Accoutable Care, this writer examines the world's most inefficient and unfair heath service, the US's.

Is Ireland's system so great?
Sajid Javid sang the praises of fees for GP and hospital visits. “Take Ireland where some people are entitled to free healthcare based on household income." But is Ireland's health system as good as he claims?

Coroner issues 'risk of future deaths'
Lyn Brind, 61, was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn with chest pains but could not be admitted because the hospital had “no space”. She died after a 4 hour wait in an ambulance. The coroner took the unusual step of writing to Steve Barclay to raise concerns about the NHS and social care. Will he do anything to genuinely improve things?

Ambulance waits: 57000 patients at risk of harm'
Thousands of people suffered harm as a result of delays in ambulances handing over patients to A&E teams in December. Here's an example, who's responsible for this state of affairs?

Another headline grabbing plan
The government have come up with a crackpot 'hospitals at home' plan, patients cared for by video link. I suppose it makes it look as if they're doing something.

Labour taken to task over their "plans"
Keir Starmer’s prescription for the NHS is both vacuous and dangerous. The major “reform” needed is significant long-term investment to reverse the managed decline initiated by Tory austerity measures.