Health News Blog

Emergency delays: 500 patients dying each week
Long waits in A&E were linked to increased mortality and somewhere between 300 to 500 people a week are dying as a consequence. It's a political choice, says the BMA, not to tackle the intolerable pressure on the NHS.

Nurses and paramedics pay: a fact sheet
The Health Foundation calculates that real terms basic pay for nurses has fallen by almost 10% since 2012. Nurses’ real pay is down £4,300 and paramedics’ real pay is down £5,600. Of course, pay is not the only issue; stress due to unfilled staff vacancies weighs heavily on staff morale.

NHS in crisis: how it got to this
There were no 40 hour waits for ambulances prior to May 2010, and no 24 hour waits in A&E. Very few patients exceeded the 4 Hour A&E wait target, until George Osborne’s austerity regime halted the decade of investment in the NHS and ushered in a decade of decline. The crisis was "year's in the making" says John Lister.

Streeting's self referral idea demolished
Wes Streeting has proposed that NHS patients should be allowed to refer themsleves directly to hospital consultants. This idea has not been well received by the GP community. His comments demonstrate a failure to understand the workings of the service over which he’d one day like to preside.

Private healthcare nets £40 million profit
..and pays directors £621,000. Virgin Care, now rebranded as HCRG Care Group, earnt huge sums of money from the NHS and local councils in 2021/22 thanks to more than 35 contracts.

The NHS we need
Read the leaflet written by Keep Our NHS Public that states the founding principles of the NHS - a comprehensive service entirely publicly-run and publicly-funded from general taxation - and to which it should be returned.

Public support for striking nurses
Half of voters think the government should negotiate on pay, even if that means having to award more than the pay body recommends. Only 23% think they should not negotiate with unions.

NHS in crisis: Barclay gets a telling off
A mother of a three year old with systic fibrosis rebukes the health secretary about the state of our NHS.

"I regularly see colleagues in tears..."
A consultant says "How does NHSE suggest we respond to these strikes? Suggests that hospitals move patients out of emergency departments in preparation or open extra beds. Oh, and try not to cancel any planned care while you’re at it. To say I find this insulting is an understatement."

No money for nurses as billionaires wealth rises
Nurse with 30 years service: "“I will arrive just before 7am, leave at 7.30pm, and take my full 30-minute unpaid meal break." Her annual leave has been taken in two or three-day snatches, whenever staffing allowed.

Record high as nurse vacancies hit 50,000
The number of unfilled nurse vacancies have risen to a record high of almost 50,000; this as it's revealed that NHS paid £500,000 a year to nurses recruitment agencies. In 2017 the Conservative government abolished the nurse training bursary.

4 in 10 junior doctors plan to quit NHS
A third of junior doctors are planning to work in another country. Four in 10 say that as soon as they can find another job, they will leave the NHS.

Nurse for 15 years: "Why I'm striking"
"Staff are witnessing first hand a catastrophic breakdown of services that has left us with vacancies hitting 135,000 and patients in danger. ...one in three ambulance staff said they had been involved in a delay that had resulted in a person dying".

"We cannot go on like this"
Nurses are using food banks; others are sharing homes so that only one is heated; nurses are bobbing around Liverpool looking for good charity shops to buy toys for their kids.

Government refuses to negotiate nurses pay
Ministers have rebuffed an offer by nursing unions to suspend their strikes in return for negotiations on pay. Clerverly said "...pay is decided by an independent pay body." What nonsense! The government could, if it had an ounce of compassion, offer more.

Support for nurses strike at its highest
A Yougov poll reveals that 64% of those polled say they support the nurses strike; 28% oppose it.

Decade of neglect of the NHS
A “decade of neglect” by successive Conservative administrations has weakened the health service to the point that it will not be able to tackle the 7 million backlog of care, a government-commissioned report has concluded.

Ambulance workers to strike
Ambulance crews working for five services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will strike over pay and staffing on 21st December. They join nurses, porters, healthcare assistants, cleaners and other NHS workers at two Liverpool hospitals who will also take action that day.

200 deaths in a week down to hand over delays
A consultant in emergency medicine said ambulances had become “wards on wheels” while patients waited to get hospital treatment.

Lack of hospital beds for children
More than 1,000 referrals to admit very sick or premature babies to neonatal units were rejected in the last year due to a lack of beds. Overall, we already know there has been a loss of 25,000 hospital beds in the past decade in the UK.

Trust sued over failed PFI provider
The trust won a court case to terminate the contract with Three Valleys Healthcare in 2018 after serious defects were found at its PFI built hospital in Middlesbrough. Now liquidators for the firm, now in administration, are suing the trust; it had been due to receive £321 million by 2040 from the deal.

RCN strikes hub
Find out where strike action is taking place across the UK, if you;re a nurse learn about the strike benefit you may be eligible for, get involved in volunteering and support the campaign. Get your support posters here.