Health News Blog

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

Two thirds of ICSs in the red
The impact of inflation, Covid costs that were not funded in this year’s funding, operational challenges that are driving higher spend on agency staff are the reasons why two in three ICSs report deficits against their yearly financial plans. This comes just months after systems submitted breakeven plans. The financial situation facing the NHS is a “f**king nightmare”, says chief executive Amanda Pritchard.

Good Law Project wins again
The government has confirmed in a letter to the court and the parties involved, Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth, that it will not pursue an appeal against the High Court ruling that its Net Zero strategy is unlawful. Perhaps now it will abandon plans for fracking, new gas and oil developments and more roads.

A two tier health system
A Centre for Health and Public Interest briefing concludes that the growth in healthcare funded by private pay and the increase in healthcare in the private sector suggests a potential shift towards a two-tier healthcare system.

Hospitals cancelling 22,000 appointments every day
Despite the Government’s pledge to clear the NHS backlog the average number of daily cancellations this year, so far, was up 20 per cent on pre-pandemic figures. Hunt, who as health secretary for 6 austerity years surely bears considerable blame for the current state of the NHS, said the numbers were "staggering".

NHS repair backlog now £10 billion
The estimated bill for NHS repairs has doubled in the last decade. The cost of eradicating the huge backlog of repairs to hospitals and equipment has hit £10 billion for the first time.

Coffey claims NHS created by a Tory
Our health secretary said in her speech to the Tory conference that the NHS was created by Henry Willink. In fact Willink opposed the nationalisation of the existing private and voluntary infrastructure that was later to become the backbone of the NHS.

Bonfire of employment rights
NHS workers are likely to be affected by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill that passed through the Commons on 22nd September. It requires civil servants to review EU laws before they are retained. It's inconceivable that civil servants will be able to review that volume of legislation in time for ministers to decide they want to keep by the deadline of 31 December 2023.

Nurses not eating to feed their children
A survey has found that some staff are missing lunch, are stopping contributing to their NHS pension in order to free up cash, cannot fill up their cars because of petrol price rises and have mental health issues due to the stress of paying their bills.

The NHS is in crisis
Letters describing the senselessness of offering NHS patients private healthcare to why GP trainees will opt for part-time work.

US hospitals bought up by private equity
How in the US private equity is buying up hospitals and nursing homes, loading them with debt and pocketing the proceeds. Should we expect the NHS end up like this?

Dangerous roofs not fixed until 2023
Hospital roofs found to be in a dangerous condition won't be repaired until 2023. One is in Liz Truss's constitruency.