Category Archives: Health policy

Government sets aside extra £1bn for victims of UK’s infected blood scandal

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Additional funds include extra £35,000 each for former pupils experimented on at school without their knowledge

Compensation payments will rise for people affected by the infected blood scandal, including an extra £35,000 each for former pupils who were experimented on at school without their knowledge, the paymaster general has announced. The government has allocated £1bn for the payments.

The final report of the inquiry into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history was published in May 2024. The compensation scheme that followed has also been blighted by controversy.

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Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds

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Exclusive: MPs say profit-making levels in England are ‘scandalous’ and call for cap on amount private companies can make from NHS

Private firms providing services to the NHS including healthcare and consultancy have made £1.6bn in profits over the last two years, research reveals.

The findings – on the basis of contracts worth £12bn – have prompted claims of “scandalous” profiteering, concern that the health service is being “taken for a ride” and calls for ministers to impose a cap on maximum profit levels.

£2bn of the £12bn of contracts went to firms with owners based outside the UK.

£533m of that £2bn went to companies owned by people living in tax havens such as Jersey and the Cayman Islands.

Firms, especially those owned by private equity outfits, used £353m of their £12bn NHS income to pay interest on debts.

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NHS restructure is greatest danger to Streeting’s effort to revive service

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Health secretary still confident of success but critics say scrapping of NHS England has been ‘a total car crash’

In the Great Hall at the University of East London last Wednesday, the perennially upbeat Wes Streeting was exuding even greater positivity than usual. After years of neglect under the Conservatives, he said, the NHS was starting to revive thanks to Labour’s medicine.

In a bravura performance in front of an audience of health service bosses, policy experts and student nurses in their blue and green uniforms, Streeting reeled off a long list of improvements in his 20-month tenure as health secretary.

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Resident doctors in England to begin six-day strike after rejecting offer in pay dispute

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British Medical Association blame government for longest proposed walkout so far, with NHS leaders warning it could cost £300m

Resident doctors in England will strike for six days after Easter after rejecting what they said was the final offer by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to end the long-running pay and jobs dispute.

The British Medical Association blamed the government for its decision to undertake its longest stoppage so far, from 7am on Tuesday 7 April to 6.59 on Monday 13 April.

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Plans to cut NHS international workforce appear overambitious, say MPs

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Health service in England has saved more than £14bn hiring from overseas, report says, as doubt is cast on aim to reduce international recruitment to 10%

Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas.

Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security found.

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Patients face long journeys for medicines as pharmacies cut weekend hours

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More than 20% of weekend availability lost in England since 2022, forcing some to turn to A&E, says national association

People who need to obtain medication at the weekend are having to undertake long trips because more pharmacies are cutting their opening hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

One in six pharmacies in England have reduced their hours at weekends since 2022, with some shutting altogether, as a result of “unsustainable” pressures on their budgets.

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UK government axes flagship global health project

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Programme which supports schemes in six African countries was previously hailed as vital protection for Britain against future pandemics

A flagship health project in Africa, which UK ministers said would play a vital role in protecting Britain from future pandemic threats, is being axed due to aid cuts, the Guardian can reveal.

The Global Health Workforce Programme (GHWP) which supported development and training for healthcare staff in six African countries, will close at the end of the month, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

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UK’s private dentistry market faces review after price jumps of more than 23%

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CMA says it wants to ensure market ‘working well for consumers’ as more Britons forced to seek private care

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a review into the £8bn private dentistry market after the price of a consultation increased by nearly 25% over a two-year period.

One in five people in Great Britain sought private dental care in 2024 in part because they could not access NHS treatment. Announcing its investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it wanted to make sure the market was “working well for UK consumers”.

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Over 1,200 health leaders call for swift passage of UK tobacco and vapes bill

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Experts publish letter as peers prepare to scrutinise draft legislation six months after its second Commons reading

More than 1,200 public health leaders have called for the tobacco and vapes bill to be passed swiftly through parliament to “protect future generations”.

They said in a cross-party letter that the “gamechanging” measures outlined were “far too important to let it slip off the agenda”.

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NHS leaders warn of longer waiting times if demand for extra £3bn not met

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Key Labour pledge under threat as health service faces costs from redundancies, strikes and rising drug prices

NHS bosses are seeking an emergency injection of £3bn to cover unexpected costs and have warned ministers that without it patients will wait longer for treatment and hospitals will start rationing care.

Their move presents a fresh problem for Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, as she tries to find ways to fill an estimated £30bn hole in the nation’s finances in her budget next month.

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Experts alarmed as Trump pushes unproven link between Tylenol and autism

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Doctors call president’s warning that pregnant women should limit use of acetaminophen – also known as paracetamol - ‘highly concerning’ and ‘irresponsible’

Medical experts are raising alarms after Donald Trump warned pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, baselessly linking the painkiller – also known as paracetamol - with a rise in autism among children.

From the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), doctors have endorsed the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy after Trump said pregnant women who can’t “tough it out” without the painkiller should limit their intake.

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Systemic racism affects maternity care for black women in England, say MPs

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Commons committee finds women’s concerns not taken seriously due to bias, stereotyping and racist assumptions

Black women in England are still facing poorer outcomes in their maternity care due to systemic racism, alongside failures in leadership and data collection, according to a group of MPs.

Across the UK, black women are more than twice as likely to die in childbirth compared with their white counterparts, while babies born to black mothers are at an increased risk of stillbirth.

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Hospices ‘on the brink’ financially if assisted dying is legalised

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As House of Lords prepares to debate bill, Hospice UK says sector needs adequate funding for end-of-life care

Hospices are “on the brink” and two in five are making cuts this year despite the importance of end-of-life care if assisted dying becomes legal, the sector has warned before the first House of Lords debate on the legislation.

Hospice UK, which represents the sector, said many were financially struggling and still “in the dark” about how funding for end-of-life care will be improved when assisted dying legislation is passed.

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NHS corridor care now year-round crisis in England, experts say

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About 74,150 patients waited at least 12 hours on trolleys in June and July, a situation almost nonexistent 10 years ago

Corridor care in the NHS is now a year-round crisis, experts have warned, as analysis showed nearly 3 million patients attended A&E over the first two months of the summer.

The latest NHS figures in England, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show that since 2015 the number of people going to A&E in June and July has increased 15% to 2.9 million – the highest level recorded over the past decade.

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Vinay Prasad returns to FDA days after leaving under pressure from Laura Loomer

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Prasad left the agency after far-right influencer released edited audio misleadingly suggesting he was anti-Trump

Vinay Prasad is returning to his role overseeing vaccine, gene therapy and blood product regulation at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a little more than a week after he left the agency.

“At the FDA’s request, Dr Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,” Department Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Reuters.

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VIP contract introduced by Tory peer left government owed £24m

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DHSC rejected as ‘unusable’ PPE supplied by company linked to Lord Chadlington, which later went bust

They were the lucrative deals that epitomised the “VIP lane” set up by Boris Johnson’s government during the Covid pandemic, which gave priority for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to people with political connections.

Peter Gummer, a former PR boss who has been Tory peer Lord Chadlington since 1996, had smooth access at his fingertips. The erstwhile adviser to John Major has “close personal friendships with many senior Conservative party politicians”, he has said, and as president of the Witney constituency association in the Cotswolds is “close friends” with its most notable MP: David Cameron.

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Three million on NHS England waiting lists have had no care since GP referral

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Exclusive: Data reveals ‘invisible crisis’ with millions yet to have first specialist appointment or diagnostic test

Almost half of the 6 million people needing treatment from the NHS in England have had no further care at all since joining a hospital waiting list, new data reveals.

Previously unseen NHS England figures show that 2.99 million of the 6.23 million patients (48%) awaiting care have not had either their first appointment with a specialist or a diagnostic test since being referred by a GP.

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Ministers urged to guarantee NHS jobs for new midwives amid understaffing

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Student midwives working thousands of hours unpaid in NHS fear lack of vacancies despite staff shortages

A student midwife who fears she will be unable to get a job after completing 2,300 hours of unpaid placement work in the NHS is calling for guaranteed posts for newly qualified midwives who otherwise will be forced to abandon the profession before their careers begin.

Aimee Peach, 43, is due to complete her training next summer, but says the promise of a job at the end of her three-year degree course has “collapsed”, despite severe shortages of midwives across the country.

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Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, BMA chair says

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Exclusive: Tom Dolphin says rise needed to redress real-terms earnings loss since 2008 and strikes could last years

Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.

Strikes to ensure resident – formerly junior – doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association’s new council chair.

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Minority ethnic and deprived children more likely to die after UK intensive care admission

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Study shows such young people have higher risk of arriving at paediatric ICU severely ill and have worse outcomes

Minority ethnic children and children from deprived backgrounds across the UK are more likely to die following admission to intensive care than their white and more affluent counterparts, a study has found.

These children consistently had worse outcomes following their stay in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the research by academics at Imperial College London discovered.

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