Health News Blog

Shrewsbury and Telford maternity scandal
Maternity crises are not limited to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust. The Royal College of Midwives has been warning of a crisis in NHS midwifery, but the Tories have consistently ignored appeals from many professional bodies.

Ockenden: need a maternity-wide workforce plan
Here's an extract from the report, page xi, into the maternity scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust. "...there is an urgent need for a robust and funded maternity-wide workforce plan, starting right now, without delay and continuing over multiple years." Will the government act?

ICSs told: 'Break even in 2022-23'
Campaigners have feared that Integrated Care Systems will bring rationing of care. Now Javid is making it clear that's exactly what we'll get.

Campaigners force hospital to remain open
Campaigners in the South Lakes have won their battle to keep the Westmoreland General hospital open. Congratulations to them; it proves campaigning works.

Overseas nurses forced to pay 000s to quit
Nurses recruited from overseas working in hospitals and private care homes are trapped in their jobs by clauses in their contracts that require them to pay thousands of pounds if they try to leave.

Stop the Vaccine Manufacturing Centre sell off
The Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre was launched in 2018 using public money. The centre develops vaccines to help the UK deal with pandemics like COVID 19. Now the Tories want to sell it off. Sign the petition against it here.

NHS Bill: a threat to universal care
Read an NHS campaigner's analysis of the government's Bill. "The fact that the government are trying to push this legislation through under the radar speaks volumes about their prediction of criticism, and should ring alarm bells with all who care about the future of the NHS as a fully comprehensive and public service."

The Lords showed no opposition
The NHS Bill has now completed its Lords stage, where significant amendments could have been made. But of the 477 amendments put down only 14 minor changes were made. The "Corproate Takeover Bill" sends our NHS on to the sunny uplands of the free-market promised land.

NHS to cut 'core funding' by £500 million
The government has asked NHS England to reduce core NHS funding by hundreds of millions of pounds in 2022-23.

More government scandal over PPE contracts
Firstly Hancock failed to notify his officials about private messages he exchanged with disgraced Conservative MP Owen Paterson, who operated as a healthcare firm’s paid lobbyist. Now it's revealed that Michael Gove secretly emailed a PPE company linked to the Tory peer Michelle Mone to secure huge government contracts.

NHS CEOs appointed with no healthcare experience
There's a paywall here but it says that NHS England and the Care Quality Commission have appointed chairs who had careers in the City, while the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has appointed a CEO with a background in, you guessed it, insurance. We are also thrown a CEO to NHS Business Services Authority who had a career in banking.

The real state of the NHS
"The government must first be honest about the crisis conditions inside the NHS, and then commit to resourcing an urgent and long-term expansion of frontline staff, future-proofing the NHS against new waves of Covid."

And then the Tories response to this crisis
Former investment banker Javid called for more so-called "efficiency savings", cuts in everyday language. One hospital trust said savings of this order have never been delivered by the NHS.

Coperforma scandal: some money repaid
The privatised patient transport service in Sussex collapsed in 2016;. It was a disaster; the CCGs stepped in to pay wages at one point when some of the subcontractors ceased operating. Legal proceedings have weedled an inadequate sum from the Hong Kong parent company.

Most new testing centres may not exist
The health secretary last month claimed 69 new centres are ‘up and running'. Of only 17 sites confirmed to be set up, most appeared to have extensive private involvement. At least one is the joint project of a private equity firm whose parent company has a Conservative Party donor on its board of directors.

Cleaners win parity with NHS T&Cs
Congratulations to the cleaners of Great Ormond Street hospital who were set to strike mid March over continuing inequality, have finally obtained full NHS contracts from 1 April 2022.

Private hospital again rated 'inadequate'
A mental health hospital run by Priory and that was put in special measures last year has been rated “inadequate” again following a fresh Care Quality Commission inspection.

Staff shortage causes poor patient discharging
You may well guess that this trust, East Kent, isn't the only one to too hastily discharge patients, owing to lack of trained staff; when you consider there is such a massive lack of well-trained nursing staff, that the government chooses to ignore.

Delays for hospital care will last for years
The government ...."has overseen a long-term decline in elective and critical cancer care that is dragging our National Health Service and the heroic staff down,” said the chair of the parliamentary accounts committee.

And while the NHS is buckling under the strain ...
A new private hospital in London to prey on our NHS. The director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest said: “The worry is the two-tier health system.  An estimated £1 billion investment in a single hospital is a sign of how strongly foreign investors are betting against the NHS being able to meet the future health needs of the population."

Hundreds of surgeries closed in the last 8 years
Responses to freedom of information requests show that  between 2013 and 2020 a total of 778 practices shut their doors owing to a shortage of GPs and high workloads.