Health News Blog

"Fund the NHS properly!"
“If Wes Streeting is seeking solutions to the problems in the NHS, he should commit to a significant pay rise for NHS staff, he should commit investment to fix crumbling buildings, and he should commit to ending private outsourcing” says Dr Julia Grace Patterson, chief executive of the Every Doctor campaign.

End private hospital deaths, invest in the NHS
The government has sent NHS patients to get operations in private hospitals, funded by taxpayers. Labour backs this policy. The vast majority of private hospitals do not have intensive care units, meaning that if patients develop complications there, their lives are in danger. View the Panorama investigation here.

Maternity delays cause thousands of safety alert
Maternity departments are raising thousands of safety reports every year about delayed inductions of labour. Nearly half of all hospital maternity services covered so far by a national inspection programme have been rated as substandard.

Patients not on waiting lists due to A&G
Advice and Guidance (A&G) is a device GPs are urged to use to sideline patients who otherwise would be referred to hospitals.

Long A&E waits cause 250 extra deaths
A study reveals that long waits in A&E have caused at least 250 needless deaths. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine analysed the 1.5 million who waited 12 hours or more to be admitted in 2023. 

Physician assistants obscure 1st degrees
Courses in becoming a physician assistant ask for degrees that contain little or no scientific content. The BMA call for an inquiry into the issue of PAs replacing qualified doctors. Doctors have been reporting instances where gaps in medical rotas are being filled by PAs.  

Thousands of foreign nurses leaving UK
New research by the Health Foundation shows that about 9000 nurses are leaving the UK to find better paid jobs abroad. UK nurses earn substantially less than many of their counterparts in Australia, New Zealand and US.

Repairing Tory damage to NHS
'Is Wes Streeting up to the task ...?' asks a Telegraph coloumist. Sir Michael Marmot says Streeting is half right, it might need reform but it must have comparable funding to equivalent European countries. 

The quality of care of privatisation
Based on the evidence, a scientific review challenges the justifications for health-care privatisation and concludes that the scientific support for further privatisation of health-care services is weak.

Physician assistants: the hidden agenda
We know that physician assisants are replacing doctors, but read about 'algorythmic medicine' - you cannot replace the skill of a real doctor.

British Social Attitudes: NHS Survey
Just 24% of people across England, Scotland and Wales, the fewest on record, are satisfied with the health service. However, 82% said that it should be funded primarily from taxation, 84% think the NHS has a major or severe funding problem, and forty-eight per cent want the government to increase taxes and spend more on the NHS.

Cuts in NHS staffing are unavoidable
Trusts face pressure to get down to pre-covid staff numbers as NHS England's financial plans for 2024-25 report a total £6 billion deficit. A primary function of Integrated Care systems is to enable the government to control the NHS budget, so our healthcare suffers for their parsimony.

Poor housing and health emergency
A children's doctor reports the rising numbers of children brought to her with chest infections caused by damp housing. 58% of renters live with damp, mould or excessive cold. 

"Nye": play about NHS founder
A National Theatre play starring Michael Sheen explores much of Aneurin Bevan’s life and the setting up of the NHS, including battles with the medical profession and Conservative party. Book tickets to see it live streamed here.

Private equity and £16 million
G4S and Mountain Healthcare Ltd owned by private equity run 26 of the 50 NHS and police-funded centres in England that support thousands of child and adult victims of sexual assault. In the last financial year the two companies collected £16 million.