Health News Blog

Surely PFI isn't set to return?
Wes Streeting wants to fund 200 new NHS health centres through PFI. But the Public Finance Initiative was a disaster in the past – locking hospitals and schools into decades of expensive contracts.

Alternatives to PFI
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) questions whether public borrowing is even the correct constraint to focus on. Some economists argue that sovereign, currency-issuing governments like the UK can never “run out of money”.

Want have your say on PFI?
Here's a way for you to express your doubts about PFI. Send a letter to the government questioning the wisdom of PFI.

Airedale hospital workers subco strike
GMB union says more than 150 porters, domestics and catering and security staff are to strike. They were outsourced to AGH Solutions Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, on worse terms and conditions than hospital colleagues.  

AI - will it really benefit patients?
Studies have shown that AI in healthcare has benefits, but researchers caution that it should complement rather than replace clinical judgement.

10 Year Plan: No plan for emergency care
Campaigner Greg Dropkin takes the plan to task "yes there's a deep crisis in emergency care, but [it] fails to address its causes." For example "Inpatient beds are unavailable because patients who are medically fit for discharge cannot be discharged safely due to lack of social care." And he reveals other unaddressed causes.

10 Year Plan: a repeat of Darzi centres?
The Health Foundation says Neighbourhood Health Centres are very similar to Labour’s ‘Darzi centre’ or ‘polyclinic’ projects from the 2000s. The ambition of Darzi centres was well received, but in practice they faced a number of challenges: specifically unnecessary duplication with other local services and questions about cost-effectiveness.

Student nurse fears for an NHS job
A student midwife fears she will be unable to get a job after completing 2,300 hours of unpaid placement work. Why oh why? Also, vacancies would disappear if we cancelled student debt after years of service. Why ever not instigate this?

Are these people fit to run our NHS?
Here is a list of recent appointments to the boards of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. Are they fit and proper people to support the founding principles of the NHS, that it is publicly-run and free of the taint of private profit? In whose interests will they work?

'Physician associates should not triage patients'
A review recommends physician associates should -
1. be renamed "physician assistants" to reflect their supportive role,
2. not see new patients in primary or secondary care or make diagnosis,
3. have at least 2 years' hospital experience before working in a surgery or mental health trust,
4. be part of a team led by a senior doctor,
5. wear badges, lanyards and clothing to set them apart from doctors.

Buy now, pay triple later
Under Labour's 10 Year Plan PFI (private finance intiative) is set to return - what utter madness! See what parliament's Public Accounts Committee says about PFI. Yet now Streeting is proposing to use PFI to fund his Neighbourhood Health Centres. Further, where is the staffing for NHCs coming from?

But the BMA has criticisms of the review
"The review fails to fully protect patients." It should "end the postcode lottery of what PAs can and can’t do. By failing to recommend .... nationally agreed scopes of practice [it] has ignored the most urgent demand of the medical profession, and left patients at the mercy of local decisions by employers."

Palantir rejected by most trusts
For instance -
1. Manchester health authority "There are currently no products designed or produced by Palantir Technologies Inc. as part of the FDP programme that exceed the NHS Greater Manchester local capability.”
2. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust  ".. adopting some of the tools on Palantir’s platform would lead it to 'lose functionality rather than gain it'".
3. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust simply said it had “no plans to join the FDP programme".

10 Year Plan 1: "managed decline"
Keep Our NHS Public has given its verdict on Streeting's plan. It assumes that "community care, prevention, and digital technology can solve the crisis without any significant new investment... The plan highlights a growing reliance on the private sector to deliver elective care – a model that reduces NHS capacity while leaving complex, costly cases to already overstretched NHS teams".

10 Year Plan 2
Page 22 of the Plan will "create a new workforce model which aims to harness the ingenuity of staff working at the frontline of healthcare and which gives them the freedom to innovate...this profound change in culture will mean embracing reforms to skill mix." A cynic might say this means more physician assistants!

10 Year Plan 3
More privatisation, these both on page 22 again -
1. "Instead of going it alone, the Plan sets out how the NHS will create new collaborations with commercial partners", 
2. "Officials [ICBs] must prepare a business case ahead of the autumn Budget to get permission to start agreeing private funding deals for new 'neighbourhood health centres'."

10 Year Plan 4 - Palantir & goodbye Healthwatch
Palantir will bid for the contract for the new single patient record at the centre of Wes Streeting’s 10-year health plan. Also in Streeting's plan, Healthwatch England and about 150 local patient voice branches to be abolished.