Health News Blog

NHS budget compared to EU countries
Over the past decade the UK has spent less on both day-to-day care and investment spending on health care compared with the average EU14 countries. This is mirrored by lower capacity and fewer physical resources. If the UK had matched EU levels of spending day-to-day running costs would have been £39 billion higher each year.

4 hour A&E target retained
The goverment has ditched any change in A&E targets. Trusts will continue to be regulated against the existing four-hour standard as well as 12-hour trolley waits.

Nurse: "Here's why I'm going on strike"
"Everyone now appears angry and focused..... Staff are witnessing first hand a catastrophic breakdown of services with vacancies hitting 135,000 and patients in danger." "Enough is enough".

UK has second highest maternity death rate in EU
Mothers in the UK are three times more likely to die in pregnancy compared with those in Norway.

NHS set up to fail by under resourcing
Between 2010 and 2015 the NHS budget grew by an average of just 0.9% a year creating an unprecedented squeeze when rises of around 4% were needed to keep pace with population needs and advances in treatment and technology.

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.