Health News Blog

Legal review of IHRA for NHS
A judicial review has been launched against the NHS for adopting the antisemitism definition International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Critics say the IHRA definition blurs the line between legitimate criticism of Israel as a state and antisemitism.

Spire to private equity?
The UK’s biggest private hospital provider, Spire Healthcare, is in talks about a sale to private equity. Its leading investor Harwood Capital Management is pressing for a sale. NHS work makes up about 30% of Spire’s revenue and has provided a steady income stream. Private equity milks local authorities funding with immoral disregard.

How many long stay patients?
According to NHS England figures, during November hospitals began each day with an average of more than one in five (over 20,000) front line General and Acute (G&A) beds filled with patients who had had ‘no criteria to remain’ in an acute bed, and should have been discharged. Meanwhile there are patients collapsing in A&E corridors.

The love that is the NHS
Read Anne Perkins's paean to our NHS, it will do your heart good. Equally from a speech by NHS campaigner Sally Ruane "The NHS has always been a profoundly moral institution because it has always embodied a view of how human affairs should be ordered. It was founded on the principle of equity or fairness: that we should all contribute to its funding on the basis of our ability to pay; that we should all have access to its services on the basis of need alone."

Are waiting lists growing or declining?
It's a mixed picture. Read health campaigner John Lister's balanced account. "At this rate it could take 86 years to clear the waiting list."

Will 10 year plan rebuild the NHS?
Former Labour MP Margaret Greenwood thinks not. The plan is fraught with risks not least a new private finance initiative. Here's an example of the disaster that is PFI.

Staff forced out by NHSE abolition
Nearly 200 staff not eligible to work for Department of Health because they are not UK or Commonwealth nationals.

Making Palantir irreplaceable
Palantir is being built into the NHS replacing the old cancer pathway with Palantir Cancer 360, operated by a single staffer rather than significant clinical input and possibly a lot of meetings.

Streeting's irresponsible public tirates
"...the health secretary has far more power to prevent NHS strikes .... not through confrontation, but by rebuilding trust and putting an offer on the table that creates sufficient brand-new training places for doctors - this is the main issue for junior doctors.

Trusts are forced to make cuts
News of plans to save money by cutting staff in NHS trusts and foundation trusts began to emerge in the spring, but has continued through November.

UK agrees to Trump’s demand to pay more for drugs
The NHS buys US drugs in such bulk that we get them at a reduced price, standard market logic. But Starmer has sold us down the river to avoid Trump tariffs, we now will pay £3 billion more. He's mugged us!

Outsourcing NHS eye care
There are concerns that private companies are milking NHS funding and taking both revenue and staff from NHS eye care leaving hospitals with fewer resources to treat more complex patients, including those with diseases which lead to irreversible sight loss.

PFI hospital "a fire risk"
£50million was loaned to the PFI company to build the Whittington in 2004. The  hospital had to make massive repayments to a PFI company for 35 years. The trust stopped making the payments after the PFI company failed to  properly maintain the building. Now the PFI company’s administrators are currently suing the Whittington as the initial loan has not been repaid. Should our healthcare be mired in such a mess?

NHS safety watchdog finds EPR is a risk
Common issues highlighted in a review of Electronic Patient Record (EPR) keeping included clinicians being unable to access information needed to provide patient care, or a lack of controls in the system to mitigate against known risks.

Nurses to strike over rotating work locations
Nurses from the intensive care unit (ICU) at Bassetlaw Hospital are set to take further strike action over proposals for staff to rotate between hospitals. They fear the loss of ICU at the Bassetlaw site.

Please give to Keep Our NHS Public
Our NHS is in crisis and KONP needs to expand and intensify its fight to save it. However, without urgent financial help KONP's ability to campaign is under threat too. Please give what you can.

Say "No" to Palantir in your hospital
NHS England is insisting your health information is recorded and accessed by software built by Palantir; a US spy-tech firm that has supported mass deportation in the US and enabled genocide in Gaza. Do you trust Palantir with your health information? Find out here if your local hosptial is using it.

Ex MP "Labour is privatising the NHS"
Former Labour MP Margaret Greenwood says "Labour is privatising the NHS in plain sight."

Private borrowing to build clinics for NHS
Huge debts will be thrust on your local health authority ... it's PFI all over again, except now euphemistically called Public Private Partnerships. The Treasury said it would explore PPPs for “certain types of primary and community health infrastructure” to help bring “private sector discipline” to projects, otherwise known as screwing the NHS budget for years to come. 

Does your MP receive funds from private health firms?
These are the MPs we have been able to associate with the private healthcare sector through donations declared on the Register of Members' Financial Interests.