Category Archives: Health policy

‘Indefensible’: Michael Gove apologises for Tory HQ Partygate video

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But levelling up secretary insists Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallet should keep their honours

Michael Gove has apologised for a new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing and laughing as they broke Covid lockdown rules, deeming their actions “terrible” and “indefensible”.

The video, obtained by the Mirror, shows members of staff drinking alcohol at the gathering in London on 14 December 2020, and mocking lockdown rules the public were following at the time. At least 24 people were in attendance, including Shaun Bailey – made a peer in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list – whose campaign team organised the event. He left before the video was taken.

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Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate, MPs find

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Cross-party committee says ex-PM would have faced 90-day suspension had he not quit in rage at findings last week

Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him, a long-awaited report by the privileges committee has found.

In an unprecedented move, the cross-party group said he would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not quit in rage at its findings last week.

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Covid testing was a weakness in early pandemic response, DHSC tells inquiry

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Health department and Cabinet Office make opening statements on second day of first module

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has admitted Covid testing was “a significant weakness” in the UK’s early pandemic response and stressed the need for proper funding to prepare the nation for the next emergency.

While the DHSC said it would not claim “it did everything right”, its opening statement to the UK Covid public inquiry highlighted wider government choices on funding in what will be seen as turning the focus on Downing Street and the Treasury.

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Calls for abortion to be decriminalised amid row over jailing of UK woman

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Leading expert warns of ‘sustained attacks’ on reproductive rights after sentence imposed on Monday

Leading women’s health experts have warned of an attack on women’s reproductive rights and the potential for more prosecutions, following the jailing of a woman for terminating her pregnancy after the legal time limit.

The president of the UK’s leading body for sexual health professionals said that women should be “more worried than they are” following the sentencing, adding that it could lead to sustained attacks on established rights, and efforts to curtail reforms.

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Boris Johnson hands over WhatsApp messages directly to Covid inquiry

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Former PM bypasses government’s attempts to keep unredacted communications secret

Boris Johnson has bypassed the government’s attempt to keep his unredacted WhatsApp messages secret by handing them over directly to the Covid inquiry.

In a move that will further frustrate Downing Street, the former prime minister circumvented the Cabinet Office, which is seeking to hold up the process by launching legal action.

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Government to take legal action against Covid inquiry over Johnson WhatsApps

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Cabinet Office serves notice on inquiry chair at 4pm, the deadline she had set for it to hand over files

Ministers have launched an unprecedented high court attempt to avoid handing over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries to the government-commissioned public inquiry into the handling of Covid.

In a move immediately condemned by bereaved families and opposition MPs, the Cabinet Office told the inquiry, headed by the retired judge Heather Hallett, that there were “important issues of principle” over passing on information that might not be relevant.

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Record rise in people using private healthcare amid NHS frustration

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Data prompts speculation NHS inability to cut waiting lists could make private healthcare ‘new normal’

Record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare, spending up to £3,200 on having a cataract removed and £15,075 on a new hip, amid growing frustration at NHS waiting lists.

Across the UK last year 272,000 people used their own funds to cover the cost of having an operation or diagnostic procedure at a private hospital. That was up from 262,000 the year before and a sharp rise on the 199,000 who did so in 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic struck.

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Patients paying £550 an hour to see private GPs amid NHS frustrations

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Signs that NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating surge in people resorting to private care

Patients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor.

Growing numbers of paid-for GP services are opening up across Britain, in the latest sign of how the NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating a surge in people resorting to private healthcare.

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Plans for UK ‘genomics transformation’ aim to act on lessons of Covid

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Ten-year science strategy of UK Health Security Agency will use data to combat infectious diseases faster and more effectively

Health officials in the UK have drawn up plans for a “genomics transformation” that aims to detect and deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases faster and more effectively in the light of the Covid pandemic.

Information gleaned from the genetics of Covid proved crucial as the virus swept around the globe, revealing how the pathogen spread, evolved, and responded to a succession of vaccines and medicines developed to protect people.

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Ministers told to set out plan for hiring mental health nurses in England

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Exclusive: Sector’s staffing crisis will have knock-on effect on whole NHS system, warns healthcare leader

UK ministers must set out how to recruit and retain thousands more mental health nurses to plug the profession’s biggest staff shortage, healthcare leaders are warning.

Mental health nurses account for nearly a third of all nursing vacancies across England, resulting in overstretched services that are struggling to deliver timely care, according to research carried out by the NHS Confederation’s mental health network.

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Senior doctors in England to vote on industrial action

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BMA says consultant pay has declined by 35% since 2008-9

Senior doctors in England are to vote on whether to strike amid the continued row over pay in healthcare, as teachers’ unions also plan to hold a ballot for industrial action.

The ballot will open on Monday until 27 June as the British Medical Association urges members to approve.

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Pharmacist at former Sunak family chemist wary of PM’s health plans

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Jithender Ballepu says more staff and funding would be needed and has concerns about passing antibiotics over the counter

There is no plaque outside Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton to indicate this was once run by the prime minister’s mother but there is a sign round the back that gives the game away: “Parking for Sunak Pharmacy customers.”

Inside, the pharmacist Jithender Ballepu was expressing reservations about Rishi Sunak’s plans for chemist shops to provide prescriptions for millions of patients in England.

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NHS disruption warning as ambulance staff strike in south-east England

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Hospitals chief says action ‘will pile even more pressure’ on already overstretched services and calls for talks

Ambulance staff in the south-east of England are to strike over pay for the second time on Tuesday, prompting warnings from hospital bosses of further pressure on overstretched emergency services.

Members of the Unite trade union employed by two ambulance trusts are striking after rejecting the government’s pay offer of a lump sum cash payment for 2022-23 and a below inflation increase of 5% for 2023-24.

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NHS leader asks union to let striking nurses go back to work for emergencies

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Health service bosses say patient safety could be at risk when nurses in England stage 28-hour stoppage from Sunday evening

An NHS leader has urged the Royal College of Nursing to let striking nurses leave picket lines and go back to work in their hospital if emergencies occur during their strike this weekend.

Matthew Taylor made the appeal as the NHS braced itself for renewed disruption to services as a result of the first strike by nurses since they rejected the government’s improved pay offer.

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Barclay ‘wasting public money’ with legal action against nursing strike

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Exclusive: Health secretary trying to ‘wear down’ NHS nurses rather than negotiating, RCN general secretary to tell high court

Steve Barclay will be accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by pursuing striking nurses through the courts when the government seeks on Thursday to shorten their industrial action due to start on Sunday evening.

In a witness statement to be heard in the high court, Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, will say the health and social care secretary is trying to “wear down” nurses through legal action.

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Infected blood victims and families urge UK government to drop defence

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Exclusive: Claimants say government can no longer defend treatment disaster in light of inquiry’s damning interim report

More than 500 people taking the government to court over the contaminated blood scandal are urging it to concede the case in light of evidence heard by a public inquiry and an interim report produced by its chair.

The claim, which began in 2017 but was stayed pending the inquiry into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, alleges the Department of Health – now the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – breached a duty to take reasonable care to prevent personal injury or loss, amounting to misfeasance in public office.

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Rishi Sunak appears ready to try to tough out further wave of NHS strikes

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High-risk tactic increases likelihood of combined stoppages by nurses and junior doctors in England

Rishi Sunak appears set on trying to face down unions in a high-risk strategy to tough out a renewed wave of NHS strikes in England that health service leaders warned were unsustainable and could put patient safety at risk.

With the prime minister and his health secretary, Steve Barclay, seemingly offering no fresh concessions for nurses or junior doctors, they risk the possibility of combined strike action, a scenario one NHS leader said would put the health service “into uncharted territory”.

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Some ‘nicotine-free’ vapes high in addictive substances, tests reveal

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Concerns raised after some brands sold in shops in England and Wales found to exceed legal limits

Some high street vapes claiming to be nicotine-free actually contain the same level of addictive substances as full-strength e-cigarettes, tests shows.

Data shared with the Guardian by Inter Scientific – which offers analytical testing of products to check whether they are following regulations – examined dozens of vape brands sold in shops across England and Wales.

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Is vaping safe or not? All you need to know about e-cigarettes

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Why is the government promoting vapes for smokers in England while discouraging them for youth?

E-cigarettes are being promoted in England as part of the government’s efforts to help people quit smoking tobacco at the same time as it cracks down on youth vaping. We take a look at why there are two very different campaigns on the devices.

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Further England nurses’ strikes present ‘severe challenge’ to NHS

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NHS leader says threat of joint strike with junior doctors could pose hardest challenge yet

A 48-hour nurses’ strike in England in May will present “severe challenges”, and the threat of coordinated industrial action with junior doctors could pose the “most difficult challenge” to date, an NHS boss has said.

Speaking after a four-day junior doctors’ strike ended at 7am on Saturday, Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said fresh strike action announced by the Royal College of Nursing from 30 April until 2 May, and the possibility of stoppages continuing into next winter, was “extremely worrying and concerning”.

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