Health News Blog

Guess how many NHS England employs ...
On a full-time equivalent basis the answer is 1.3 million. There is a clear power shift from NHSE to the Department of Health and Social Care as identified here in this HSJ article.

Shameful waste of NHS funding
Imagine there was no such activity as commissioning and trusts simply set up services according to need.

Physician assistants hired despite concerns
A recruitment plan has been launched despite the controversy about the quality of care that PAs provide.

PAs 'have no role in the NHS'
The chair of the Royal College GPs, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, said in a letter that expressed concern over patient safety. This position was reached after GPs reported ‘specific’ examples of patient safety being compromised.

An absurdist NHS fantasy
A wonderfully absurdist NHS fantasy has been doing the rounds on social media. It stemmed from a case vignette in a government document, Reforming Elective Care for Patients. This BMJ letter explains all.

Labour's imagined 'private health spare capacity'
Now read this follow-up letter in the BMJ. Private sector spare capacity sitting waiting to be used for the benefit of the NHS is a myth.

'No evidence to support privatisation'
"...our Review provides evidence that challenges the justifications for health-care privatisation and concludes that the scientific support for further privatisation of health-care services is weak."

3 ways Starmer could expand NHS capacity
Starmer's plan is bad for patients and good for private health firm's profits. Here's 3 ways to really increase NHS capacity.

How you stop the abuse of your GP data
If you don't want your health data to be handed over to US spyware firm Palantir then here' s the way to do it.

'Outright dangerous' rundown hospitals
Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said some hospitals were so rundown “patients are being treated in unsafe and sometimes outright dangerous facilities”.

If you oppose NHS privatisation ...
....then read Dr Julia Patterson here, and print an Every Doctor poster for your window here.

It's budget cuts that they seek
A PriceWaterhouseCooper team has been sent into the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System to make cuts, otherwise known as 'a review', because it will fall into a £350 million deficit. This is what Integrated Care, brought in by the Tories' Health and Care Act 2022, is really about - financial control. Regardless of geniune healthcare need, most ICSs are required to make cuts.

Stop Palantir getting your data - opt out here
Our NHS data is unique and very valuable. The government is planning a database of all our health data, called the Federated Data Platform. However it is  refusing to give guarantees that your health data will only be used for genuine research purposes and not commercial gain. This link provides two separate means to prevent your GP data and your hospital data being grabbed and copied into the FDP.

Palantir: How to opt-out
The site MedConfidential says "We cannot guarantee that you will have any more information in future than you do now" about whether you can opt out of your data being collected for the Federated Data Platform (FDP). So you might as well complete a form to give to your surgery, to refuse consent for your identifiable information to be collected for the FDP.

The Data (Use and Access) Bill
This is passed into law it will a) reduce data protections and increase access to our personal health data for the private sector and public authorities; b) redefine ‘scientific research’ to include commercial activities; c) change the meaning of ‘consent’ so that agreeing to the use of your data for one research project means also consenting to future but yet unknown projects. Write to your MP and ask them to vote against the Bill. Here's a briefing for MPs and a letter template.

"Ban PAs from seeing patients 1-to-1"
The Royal College of Physicians has called for a rethink of government plans to increase the number of PAs from 3,000 to 10,000 by the mid-2030s. They should not be allowed to run clinics on their own, without a senior doctor present, because left unsupervised they could pose a risk to patients’ safety.

Streeting's definition of anti-semitism
Israel is bombing Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Wes has said no one in the NHS is allowed now to say I oppose this, or say, 'I am an Arab, my people are being wiped out'. Is he right, do you think?