Health News Blog

Next NHSE chair is former Centene boss
This HSJ article has a paywall but it tells us that among the job requirements is  “maintain strong business relationships with key private sector stakeholders". Just what an NHS privatising government needs, a chair who ran the US insurance company that took over 49 surgeries, .

Governemnt ignores NHS staffing crisis
There's likely to be a “mass exodus” of GPs from the NHS, 1 in 5 nurse posts are unfilled, NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said staff shortages were “the health service’s biggest problem”.  Yet Javid delays his staff plan until the Spring of 2022.

Covid contract win-win for private hospitals
Government spin said the multi-billion-pound plan for private hospitals gives "vital buffer capacity". It turns out that the private sector cared for just 0.08% of the national total of COVID patients. On average, the private hospital sector cared for eight COVID patients a day while the NHS averaged 10,000.

NHS test-trace contractor cuts pay
Mitie, who employ 1,000 people at mobile testing sites, has told workers that from 8 November they will be guaranteed pay for an 8 hour shift rather than the current 12 hours, slashing secure pay to £80 a day from £120.

Test and Trace: Eye-watering waste of money
This Telegraph piece is behind its pay wall, but you'll see enough. The government ignored our public-funded public health service and chose to spend £37,000 million on a privatised system. It failed appallingly to prevent Covid lockdowns and enable return to normality.

Sunak's NHS bonus is for capital expenditure
Chief of the Kings Fund says the money is welcome but "will we have any staff to put in them, to actually work them [new equipment]?" The primary focus to cut the backlog should be the staff shortage; for example, there are 39000 nursing staff vacancies.

Covid tests: private firms shouldn't be doing them
It was due to members of the public raising concerns that the problem at the private lab run by Immensa came to light. Health officials should have known about major failings at the lab within days of the problem arising, rather than taking weeks to shut down operations at the site.

F-to-F appointments: government versus GPs
The government has offered GPs more money, but GPs insist it not the issue. A GP says she has never faced a tougher year, a trainee doctor says he can see why others are leaving the profession. Now GPs threaten industrial action.

How will government's health database be used?
OpenDemocracy has written to Sajid Javid demanding that he offer a clearer explanation of what the BAE system is for, and to what extent other private companies will be involved in its set-up, operation and processing of sensitive personal data.

NHS charging patients: £54 million written off
Is the overhead cost of charging patients worth it? Does the government persist with hostile environment policies without knowing their cost-benefit? A London hospital has just written off £54 million. Here are some testimonies of patients, some asylum seekers, who couldn't afford care and who died.

BMA on no lockdown: 'Wilful neglect'
The doctors' union accused the government of wilful neglect in not introducing Covid restrictions now. Dr Nagpaul said "as doctors working on the frontline, we can categorically say that time is now".

Private lab in 40,000 test false negatives
One of the so-called Lighthouse labs, run by private firm Immensa Health Clinics Ltd, is under investigation for issuing more than 40,000 false negative Covid tests. Neither Immensa nor its sister company, Dante Labs, had ever been accredited by the UK’s independent accreditation service, Ukas.

Good value? Covid contract with private hospitals
The total cost to the taxpayer of NHS England's contract with private hospitals is undisclosed but estimated to be between £2 billion and £5 billion, and 26 private hospital companies benefited significantly from the deal. 8000 private hospital beds were made available but the highest number of beds occupied on any day was just 78.

Nursing staff shortage crisis worsens
There is a mounting workforce crisis in England’s hospitals as they struggle to recruit staff. Some wards have a fifth of posts unfilled; there are about 39,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England.

NHS buildings failures stop health services
Such is the backlog of building repairs left undone over the past decade, that patient care is being disrupted by an increasing number of infrastructure failures. The NHS repair bill is now £9.2 billion.

Update on 'Stop surgeries sell off' to Centene
Legal permission has been granted to ask for a judicial review into the sale of GP surgeries to Centene, a US insurance company. The first request was denied.