Category Archives: Health policy

At-home ECGs will detect early heart issues and save thousands, say doctors

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Colour-coded output from smartwatch device would be easy for public to read

They remain some of the most complex diagnostic procedures carried out by doctors. To take an electrocardiogram, or ECG, they first have to attach 10 or more electrodes to a patient’s chest, arms and legs to measure the heart’s electrical activity. Then, once these signals have been recorded, a cardiologist has to interpret them to determine if a person has a particular heart ailment.

It is a life-saving technology – but a complicated, expensive one. However, UK scientists now believe they could soon overcome these limitations by developing devices which will allow patients to take their own detailed ECGs at home and be provided with easily interpreted diagnoses about the state of their hearts.

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Hiring freeze at dozens of NHS cancer and diagnostic units despite rising referrals

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Royal College of Radiologists calls move ‘shortsighted’ and says it puts Labour’s waiting times plan at risk

Dozens of NHS hospitals have banned their cancer or diagnostic units from hiring new staff, despite GPs referring growing numbers of people who they fear may have the disease.

Doctors warned that widespread recruitment freezes imposed on both types of units over the last year risked undermining Keir Starmer’s drive, outlined this week, to cut waiting times for NHS care.

13 of 54 cancer centres (24.1%) had a recruitment freeze imposed on them last year, along with 29 out of 150 (19.3%) radiology departments.

The 42 hiring bans were imposed by 40 different NHS trusts or boards.

At least one freeze was implemented in each of the four home nations and each region of England.

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UK cut health aid to vulnerable nations while hiring their nurses, research finds

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Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing

The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.

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How soaring fees for private care are deepening England’s dentistry crisis

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Ever growing numbers of people find themselves unable to get NHS treatment or pay for the alternative

Exclusive: patients unable to get dental care after ‘eye-watering’ rise in private fees

The inability of millions of patients to access an NHS dentist is one of the longest-running injustices in the history of the health service. The misery and the harm it causes is profound and well documented. The scandal is not new.

Going private is often the only alternative. If it means getting a checkup, a scale and polish, a filling, an extraction or if necessary a root canal, many will pay. Anything to keep your teeth in good nick.

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Up to 30 MPs who backed assisted dying bill could withdraw support at next vote

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Several MPs preparing to suggest amendments on key concerns including coercion and role of medics

Up to 30 MPs who backed assisted dying could withdraw support at the next parliamentary vote, MPs have said, as several prepare to suggest amendments on coercion and the role of medics.

The committee that will examine the next stage of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill will begin hearings in the new year, with MPs coalescing around several demands for changes to the legislation.

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NHS bosses reportedly worried about Starmer’s pledge to cut waiting lists

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PM expected to set target to carry out 92% of routine operations and appointments within 18 weeks

NHS bosses are said to be privately concerned about Keir Starmer’s ambitious targets to cut waiting lists for routine operations, set to be announced later this week, which will also include specific targets on living standards and housebuilding.

The prime minister is expected on Thursday to set a target for 92% of routine operations and appointments to be carried out within 18 weeks, one that has not been achieved in almost a decade, the Times has reported.

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‘Historic step’: what the UK papers say after landmark vote on assisted dying

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Newspapers across the board cover the historic vote prominently, but with some more enthused about the outcome than others

Front pages in the UK on Saturday were dominated by the step taken by MPs toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales by backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their own lives.

The Guardian splashed with the news, describing it as a “historic vote” that paves the way for assisted dying, along with a photo of emotional supporters of the bill embracing.

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MPs back landmark bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales

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Terminally ill adults with less than six months to live will be given right to die under proposed legislation

MPs have taken a historic step toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales by backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their own lives.

Campaigners in favour of the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill said it was a significant move towards giving people more choice over the way they die, after the Commons backed the bill by 330 votes for to 275 against.

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Trump picks Brooke Rollins to lead Department of Agriculture

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Choice of president of America First Policy Institute completes top cabinet picks for president-elect

Donald Trump has chosen Brooke Rollins, president of the America First Policy Institute, to be agriculture secretary.

“As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country,” the US president-elect said in a statement.

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‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying

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Traditional allies such as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell are split over Friday’s vote as politicians grapple with the issue

During a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.

“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking.

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Gordon Brown says daughter’s death showed value of ‘good’ dying over assisted dying

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Former PM, whose daughter died when she was 11 days old, says debate is moving too fast and calls for commission on palliative care

• Gordon Brown: We need better end-of-life care, not assisted dying

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has declared his opposition to the legalisation of assisted dying, saying the death of his newborn daughter in January 2002 convinced him of the “value and imperative of good end-of-life care”.

In a rare and poignant glimpse into the tragedy, he says the time he and his wife, Sarah, spent at their baby Jennifer’s bedside “as her life ebbed away” were “among the most precious days of [our] lives”.

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Health minister Stephen Kinnock says he will back assisted dying bill

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Minister says law change is ‘right thing to do’ while Keir Starmer gives strongest hint yet that he will vote for bill

The health minister Stephen Kinnock has said he will vote in favour of the assisted dying bill next week, arguing that it is the “compassionate” thing to do and will not automatically place NHS palliative care services under extreme pressure.

Kinnock, the minister responsible for palliative care, said he did not believe there was a conflict between backing a change in the law and supporting hospices, as had been suggested by his boss Wes Streeting, the health secretary.

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Bridget Phillipson says she is likely to vote against assisted dying bill

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Education secretary urges ministers to limit discussion on policy to behind the scenes after vocal opposition to bill by Wes Streeting

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has said she is likely to vote against the bill to legalise assisted dying, as she urged ministerial colleagues to restrict their discussions about the policy to behind the scenes.

Under a policy of government neutrality towards the private member’s bill by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which will get its first Commons vote this month, ministers are permitted to set a previously-known stance if asked but otherwise to keep out of the debate.

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Cabinet minister Liz Kendall says she will vote for assisted dying

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Work and pensions secretary confirms stance, as Wes Streeting faces criticism for saying law could bring NHS cuts

Liz Kendall has become the first cabinet minister to confirm she will vote for the assisted dying bill since it was published, as the row intensified over the proposed law change.

Some supporters of assisted dying have expressed anger after Wes Streeting, the health secretary and an opponent of the plan, warned it could be a potential drain on NHS resources.

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Streeting’s hospital league table plan riles NHS medics and bosses

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Health secretary says controversial scheme for trusts in England is necessary to raise standards

Wes Streeting plans to publish a football-style league table of the best- and worst-performing hospitals in England, prompting fury from NHS bosses and staff at the prospect of struggling trusts being “named and shamed”.

The health secretary will announce the controversial move on Wednesday to an audience of health service leaders and defend it as a “tough” but necessary way of raising care standards.

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Nurses quitting profession early puts health reforms in England at risk, says union

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Numbers leaving within 10 years of registering rose by 43% between 2021 to 2024, finds Royal College of Nursing

Increasing numbers of UK-trained nurses are set to leave the profession in England within a decade of registering, in a trend that could jeopardise the government’s overhaul of healthcare, according to a union.

More than 11,000 will have quit the register within their first 10 years on it, according to analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) of the latest official figures.

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NHS in ‘last-chance saloon’, says former health secretary Alan Milburn

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Milburn set to take senior health department role and says crisis is ‘million times worse’ than when he was in office

The NHS is “drinking in the last-chance saloon” and needs to change, the former health secretary Alan Milburn has said as he prepares to take up a senior role in the Department of Health.

Milburn, who brought about radical changes, such as the introduction of NHS foundation trusts, when he was a minister for Tony Blair, called for “cultural change” in the health service and said “big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future”.

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Chancellor announces £22.6bn cash injection for NHS in England

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Rachel Reeves hails biggest increase ‘outside of Covid’ since 2010 but health experts say patients may not feel impact

The NHS in England is to receive a £22.6bn cash injection over two years, the chancellor has announced, in what she called the biggest spending increase outside Covid since 2010. But health experts said patients may not feel the impact as much of the increase would be absorbed by pay rises and higher care costs.

Announcing the “down payment” on the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, due in spring 2025, Rachel Reeves said the NHS was the nation’s “most cherished public service” and that the extra funding would help the government cut waiting lists.

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Parents trapped in special needs tribunal backlog as disputes surge by 50%

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Waits of more than a year for hearings into councils’ failure to meet growing needs of Send children

Parents are having to wait more than a year for tribunal hearings into ­inadequate provision for children with special educational needs after new cases surged by more than 50% in a year.

The National Audit Office last week highlighted the worsening ­crisis in the special educational needs and ­disabilities (Send) system, with ­cash-strapped councils unable to meet rising need amid a lack of ­suitable school and college places.

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Wes Streeting denies ‘dystopian future’ over weight-loss jabs for unemployed

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UK health secretary says people will not be ‘involuntarily jabbed’ but that medications could be ‘gamechanging’

Wes Streeting has denied his plans to give new weight-loss jabs to unemployed people to help them back into work would result in a “dystopian future” where overweight people would be “involuntarily jabbed”.

The UK health secretary acknowledged that weight-loss drugs were not, on their own, the answer to the nation’s obesity crisis after he suggested this week that they could have a “monumental” impact on getting more people working.

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