Category Archives: Health policy

Voters back Burnham’s plan to cut back triple lock to fund social care reform by 48% to 28%, poll suggests – UK politics live

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The data suggest Burnham may be able to win the argument with the public amid lobbying efforts

Andy Burnham has suggested that it would not be legitimate for a party to form a majority government with less than 30% of the vote.

In his Today interview, asked why he wanted electoral reform and a move towards proportional representation, Burnham replied:

I found it better being elected under a different system as mayor of Greater Manchester, where people had one or two, they could put that on the ballot paper.

Because you had a reason to stop on every doorstep and chat to people who might not always support your party and try and get their second preference.

No, it could happen with any political party. It’s whether that would be a legitimate government.

I think you’ve got it completely wrong really, if you don’t mind me saying, to put it like that, because I have put out … a vision for a national care service.

There are pensioners out there who watch your programme who are paying for care costs from their basic state pension. Now, is that right or fair?

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Burnham’s emotional solo act had Labour in raptures – but his promises will take time to come good

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PM’s speech, written almost entirely alone, was full of radicalism but his biggest plans will have to wait until after the next election

Hope Again is the conference slogan. But what felt even more apt was Try Again.

Just forget about the last two years, after the party won a historic majority but where the mood never matched the achievement. Now, as conference delegates and MPs filed out of the hall after Andy Burnham’s first speech as prime minister, it was close to euphoria. Where the hell have you been all our lives? What have we been doing – when you were right there all along?

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Cut NHS red tape and boost productivity to prevent 20,000 early deaths a year in England, report urges

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Changes could save £33bn and result in average of four extra years of good health for people, report says

The NHS in England could prevent 20,000 deaths and save £33bn a year by cutting red tape and boosting productivity, a report says.

Research by the Health Foundation found the health service has been held back for decades by excessive regulation, short-term planning and insufficient capability to deliver major change.

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Young vapers ‘at risk of breathing problems and becoming smokers’

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Review by paediatricians links child vaping with poor respiratory health such as coughing, wheezing and asthma

Young people who start vaping risk developing breathing problems and going on to smoke cigarettes, children’s doctors have warned.

Child vaping is consistently linked with poor respiratory health, such as coughing, wheezing, bronchitis symptoms and asthma exacerbations, while vapes have been shown to act as a gateway to smoking cigarettes, according to one of the most comprehensive reviews of the available evidence so far undertaken by the Royal College of Child and Paediatrics Health.

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Millions in England face longer waits for mental health care as NHS providers plan cuts

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Exclusive: Seven in 10 survey respondents expect services to be reduced or shut, while more than half anticipate job losses

Millions of adults and children in England face being forced to wait longer for mental health care, with more than two-thirds of NHS providers planning to cut services and half expected to axe jobs, the Guardian can reveal.

With mental health services already under extraordinary pressure amid soaring demand for support, experts warned the proposed cuts – drawn up by trusts to plug holes in their finances – would also have “significant” consequences for the wider NHS, the economy and public services.

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Assisted dying debate should come after end-of-life care reform, says Burnham

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Introducing the legislation would be ‘very challenging’ until care system improved, PM says

Andy Burnham has said the assisted dying debate needs to wait until palliative care and social care are fixed, as he set out his path to resolving one of the most intractable problems in British politics.

The prime minister said he was not opposed to having the debate on assisted dying, but told reporters it would be “very challenging” to introduce the controversial legislation until the care system was in a better place.

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Restoring Britain’s health to 2014 levels could add 2% to GDP, thinktank says

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Health Foundation paper argues health is an economic asset and improving it could generate £72bn for public finances

Restoring the deteriorating health of the UK’s population to the level of 2014 would boost GDP by 2% and generate a £72bn dividend for the public finances, research suggests.

A paper by the Health Foundation thinktank, published on Sunday, argues the nation’s health should be valued by policymakers as an economic asset.

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GPs in England too ‘overloaded’ to help older people at risk of falling, say MPs

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NHS bosses giving evidence to public accounts committee admit current position is unacceptable

GPs in England are so “overloaded” that they cannot help older people who are at risk of falling in what NHS bosses accept is an unacceptable failure of care, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has said.

Pressure on GPs’ time has intensified as a result of the government’s decision to give patients online access to their services, according to a report by the influential cross-party group of MPs.

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JD Vance threatens health funding to states that don’t comply with White House anti-fraud effort

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Medicare has already paused hospice and home healthcare agency signups as potential fraud is investigated

JD Vance has threatened to “turn off” federal funding for government health insurance programs in states that refuse to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected fraud.

States which fail to “get serious” about fraud would lose Medicaid and Medicare funding, the US vice-president announced on Wednesday, sparking fresh accusations that Trump officials are using unfounded allegations to punish political rivals.

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GPs and hospitals in England to be required to share data to create single patient records

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Wes Streeting says legislation will save lives, but GPs are concerned about liability for errors introduced by other providers

GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.

Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.

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US to take steps to curb antidepressant prescribing, RFK Jr says

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Plan promotes ‘deprescribing’ as psychiatrists warn crisis stems from lack of access to care, not overuse

The federal health department will begin a series of steps intended to curb antidepressant use in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr announced this week.

Antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have long been a target for Kennedy, the Trump administration’s health secretary, who talked about the plans at an event Monday hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization focused on advancing the MAHA agenda. He has claimed without evidence that the drugs are linked to a rise in school shootings and has expressed concerns about weaning off the medications and withdrawal symptoms.

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Four-fifths of UK mental health nurses say their workload is unmanageable

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Half of respondents to RCN poll said patients ‘frequently come to harm’ because caseloads are too high

Mental health patients in the UK are routinely coming to harm because of high caseloads, understaffing and overwhelming administrative work, according to a poll that found only a fifth of specialist nurses felt their workload was manageable.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said mental health nurses were caught in a “perfect storm” and unable to keep up with rising demand, with patients paying the price by missing out on crucial care.

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Trump psychedelics order largely symbolic, analysts say

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Executive order to speed access to psychedelic treatments likely to have limited legal impact despite high-profile push

The Trump administration issued an executive order earlier this month to accelerate access to psychedelic medication for people with “serious mental illnesses”, but experts say the order is more likely to make a difference symbolically than legally.

“Policymakers and the medical field have long struggled to address the burden of suicide and serious mental illness rates in America,” the order reads, noting that some people do not respond to available treatments.

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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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