People not confident NHS can care for them
An increasing number of Britons, one in four, do not believe that the NHS can care for them properly. Is it that the government funds private companies to fund NHS services, rather than funding the publicly-run NHS properly?

What do bankers know about healthcare?
No more than anyone who isn’t medically trained of course, I hear you say. So why has a banker been chosen as chair of NHS England? Is it because anyone who is medically-trained is unlikely to concur with government plans for the NHS? 

Vallance counters accusations of Omicron fear-mongering
Have epidemiological modellers “spread gloom” about the Omicron variant? That’s what right-wing commentators have said – “Sage’s Omicron modelling had been an exercise in fear-mongering”. Vallance responded ‘his job was “not to sugarcoat” reality’.

ICS launch delayed
NHS England officials had indicated that ICSs would now go live on 1 July instead of 1 April. The reason cited is the Parliamentary timetable; equally the bill include giving new powers to the secretary of state over NHS reconfigurations; and removing rules and regulations that enforce the use of competitive procurement in the NHS.

Scientists warn of selling UK devopment centre
John Bell, who has worked in the government’s Covid-19 response, said that the centre might be best sold to a large pharmaceutical company. Senior medical experts say we could lose the ability to do that early phase stuff that told us that you could use the adenovirus to make really good vaccines.

Trust accuses BUPA of ‘immoral behaviour’
Royal Surrey Foundation Trust has started legal action against healthcare insurance giant Bupa. The dispute centres around the trust’s brachytherapy service, which treats private as well as NHS patients. the Royal Surrey says Bupa owes it money. Why do we have arrangements with private healthcare in our NHS? It’s more efficient to direct all funding to a publicly-run NHS?