Health News Blog

Most would support strike over NHS pay
55% the public believe that an above-inflation pay rise for NHS staff of more than 9% would be a fair increase. 58% UK believe health workers would be justified in taking industrial action if the government pay award in England is below inflation.

Staffing crisis putting patients at risk
Commons health and social care select committee asserts that the absence of a credible government strategy on NHS-wide understaffing. It says the NHS is facing the greatest workforce crisis in its history which is putting patients at serious risk of harm.

Presiding over a failing NHS
This HSJ article is behind a paywall but NHS bosses said the problem is the lack of an operating model for how NHS England should oversee the service, confusion over what integrated care systems should be responsible for, the lack of clarity on which standards providers should be seeking to meet.

BMJ: "underfunding in the past decade"
The British Medical Journal and the Health Service Journal have written a joint editorial speaking of 2022 that was meant to be the year of full speed recovery. But the NHS is in crisis; "this brutal situation is the culmination of prolonged periods of underfunding in the past decade, lack of a workforce plan, and failure to undertake social care reform."

Test and Trace spent £450 million on consultants
You will remember that Johnson said the Test and Trace system is world-beating. Now it's announced by Jennie Harries on the Health Protection Agency that it spent more than £450 million on management consultants during the pandemic.

Government: fund pay rise from existing budgets
The pay rise described by workers as "disgusting" will give a 5% increase but the health service will be forced foot some of the bill, the Treasury will fund only 3%. This means cuts, possibly allowing posts to remain unfilled when workers leave and fewer hospital beds.

Ambulance hand-overs: NHSE says "take risks"
Behind a paywall but the essence is that NHS England is encouraging hospital trusts to take risks that will "involve the creation of observation areas" - in other words care in hospital corridors. I can imagine A&E nurses saying that they already do! Anything but fund the service adequately.

Covid inquiry: gov't spent £2m on legal advice
Does the government fear what the Covid inquiry will reveal? The Health and Social Care department has signed a £2.2 million contract with international law firm Pinsent Masons to provide additional resources and expertise to support "its contribution to the inquiry".

BMA chair: "doctors strike inevitable"
Professor Philip Banfield, the new chair of the BMA, said that a doctor’s strike is “inevitable” and will expose how dangerously threadbare the Conservatives have left the health service. "The public is already witnessing an NHS that’s disintegrating in places."

Doctors dispute claim Covid caused NHS crisis
Senior doctors have drawn up a dossier refuting Sajid Javid’s claim that the pressures on the NHS were created by the Covid pandemic. It is disingenuous of this government to claim the waiting lists ... with NHS care at the moment are due to Covid. They have been building for a decade."

ICS's and fantasy economics
ICSs are expected to make "efficiency savings" of 5% - this means cuts to services, nurse vacancies left unfilled, at a time when there are already 110,000 NHS vacancies.

The state of a mental health service
Read this harrowing personal account of working with a disturbed youngster in our threadbare mental health service. It doesn't have to be like this, mental health services have been cut repeatedly.

NHS staffing crisis: doctors forced to work extra shifts
Junior doctors are are being sent home from daytime shifts and told to come back and work overnight in the latest stark illustration of the NHS’s crippling staff shortage.

Steve Barclay: 'vindictive bully, hostile to the NHS'
Never has a politician arrived in the post of health secretary trailing a worse reputation among NHS leaders than Steve Barclay.

40 "new" hospitals: where's the cash?
Neither 40 nor new, the flagship Johnson policy represents another deceit. Trusts are saying they don't have funding for the plan. Now it's facing a National Audit Office investigation. Here's the truth.

Ridiculous NHS 'savings' targets
NHS England has warned of cuts to services if it is not given extra funding for staff pay-rises above 3 per cent. The government demand 'efficiency savings' that really mean cuts to services.

UK workers with long Covid 'abandoned'
The rate of Covid-19 caused by workplace exposure is around four times higher in health and social care workers compared to other workers. Two doctors express their disgust at the way healthcare workers with Long Covid have been treated; some are now vulnerable to disciplinary absence procedures, and loss of employment, career and income.

Female doctors launch campaign against mysogyny
Female doctors have launched an online campaign to expose gender-based discrimination, harassment and sexual assault in healthcare. More than 40 stories have been shared on the campaign’s website, ranging from sexual harassment by patients to inappropriate remarks and sexual advances from supervisors.