Category Archives: Health policy

Wes Streeting expected to tell parliament why he backs puberty blockers ban

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Health secretary understood to be ‘minded’ to make ban permanent as Labour MPs criticise move to retain Tory policy

Wes Streeting is expected to tell MPs his reasons for supporting a ban on puberty blockers being prescribed to children for gender-based reasons, amid discontent in his own party.

After growing criticism among some Labour MPs, the health secretary used social media to defend his backing of an emergency ban on the drugs’ use, imposed by his Conservative predecessor Victoria Atkins, which is being challenged in the high court.

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‘Staggering shortfall’ of NHS staff as record number of patients wait for tests

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Lack of radiologists blamed for waiting list for diagnostic tests more than doubling in 10 years in England

The waiting lists for diagnostic tests, including cancer scans, is at a record high in NHS England, with doctors warning of a “staggering shortfall” of clinical radiologists.

Figures published on Thursday reveal the diagnostic waiting list stands at 1,658,221 – twice what it was 10 years ago. Nearly 500,000 patients are waiting for CT scans and MRIs.

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NHS patients raising safety concerns too often ‘fobbed off’, says commissioner

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Dr Henrietta Hughes said focus on budgets had led to substandard care and dismissal of legitimate fears

NHS patients raising safety concerns are too often “gaslighted”, “fobbed off” or dismissed as “difficult women”, according to England’s patient safety commissioner, who criticised health leaders for a “relentless focus” on finance and productivity.

Dr Henrietta Hughes said patients and loved ones sounding the alarm about substandard care should be an early indicator of danger or potential harm, but far too frequently they were completely ignored. NHS trusts focusing too much on budgets meant that “the culture becomes toxic, and we’re just on the road back to the Mid Staffs scandal”, she added.

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From contaminated blood to birth trauma, how female NHS patients’ concerns are ignored

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England’s patient safety commissioner says NHS patients raising concerns are dismissed as ‘difficult women’

England’s patient safety commissioner, Henrietta Hughes, has warned that NHS patients raising concerns are too often “gaslighted”, “fobbed off” or dismissed as “difficult women”.

“It shows a very dismissive and very old fashioned, patronising attitude to patients who have identified problems and need to have their voices heard,” she said.

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Wes Streeting says NHS is broken as he announces pay talks with junior doctors

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New health secretary aims to resolve dispute in England and warns health service is ‘not good enough’

The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced that talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week.

The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.

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NHS leader calls for partnership with private sector to build new hospitals

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Exclusive: NHS Providers head says joining with private health firms and developers would help care backlog

The NHS must be given the green light to partner with private health firms and property developers to build new hospitals to slash the care backlog, a health service boss has said.

The last Labour government was widely criticised over controversial private finance initiative (PFI) deals to erect scores of new NHS facilities that led to vast profits for major corporations.

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UK children shorter, fatter and sicker amid poor diet and poverty, report finds

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Food Foundation says height of five-year-olds falling, child obesity up by a third and type 2 diabetes by a fifth

Children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, according to a report warning that millions are facing a “timebomb” of avoidable health conditions.

The average height of five-year-olds is falling, obesity levels have increased by almost a third and the number of young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen by more than a fifth, the report by the Food Foundation said.

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Boss of US firm given £4bn in UK Covid contracts accused of squandering millions on jets and properties

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Rishi Sunak’s team helped fast-track deal with firm founded by Charles Huang, who says contracts generated $2bn profit

In California, state of sunshine and palm trees, a small group of men are locked in a big legal fight over the money made by a US company selling Covid tests to the British government. The founder of Innova Medical Group says his business collected $2bn (£1.6bn) in profits, one of the largest fortunes banked by any medical supplier during the scramble for lifesaving equipment in the early months of the pandemic.

In a storm of claims and counter-claims, Innova’s boss, Charles Huang, is accused by former associates of “squandering” or moving $1bn of those profits, spending lavishly on luxury aircraft, an $18m house in Los Angeles and “homes for his mistresses”.

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Labour and Tories would ‘both leave NHS worse off than under austerity’

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Analysis by leading experts the Nuffield Trust reveals that main parties’ manifestos would squeeze health spending

Labour and the Conservatives would both leave the NHS with lower spending increases than during the years of Tory austerity, according to an independent analysis of their manifestos by a leading health thinktank.

The assessment by the respected Nuffield Trust of the costed NHS policies of both parties, announced in their manifestos last week, says the level of funding increases would leave them struggling to pay existing staff costs, let alone the bill for massive planned increases in doctors, nurses and other staff in the long-term workforce plan agreed last year.

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Deadly cancer treatment delays now ‘routine’ in NHS, say damning reports

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Studies sound alarm at state of cancer care with hundreds of thousands waiting months to start essential treatment

Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to wait months to start essential cancer treatment, with deadly delays now “routine” and even children struck by the disease denied vital support, according to a series of damning reports.

Health chiefs, charities and doctors have sounded the alarm over the state of cancer care in the UK as three separate studies painted a shocking picture of long waits and NHS staff being severely hampered by a worsening workforce crisis and a chronic lack of equipment.

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Campaigners mount legal challenge against puberty blockers ban in Britain

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Emergency ban on prescribing the drugs was put in place before dissolution of parliament last week

The UK government has until Friday to respond to a letter from campaigners who are mounting a legal challenge against the ban on puberty blockers for young people that came into force this week.

The non-profit legal organisation The Good Law Project and the transgender advocacy group TransActual have instructed senior lawyers to challenge a ban on the drugs, which campaigners say could lead to the criminalisation of healthcare providers.

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Junior doctors’ strike could delay care for 100,000 NHS patients in England

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Rishi Sunak says timing of action days before general election appears to be ‘politically motivated’ to help Labour

Up to 100,000 patients in England face having their NHS care cancelled days before the general election after junior doctors announced a fresh wave of strike action, with Rishi Sunak saying it appeared to be politically motivated.

Health leaders expressed alarm, warning the five-day strike would jeopardise efforts to tackle the record waiting list and “hit patients hard”.

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Labour pledges to clear NHS waiting list backlog in England in five years

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Wes Streeting says another Conservative term could result in waiting list swelling to 10m cases

Labour has promised to clear the NHS waiting list backlog in England within five years, with Wes Streeting warning that the health service risks becoming “a poor service for poor people” while the wealthy shift to using private care.

In an interview with the Guardian, the shadow health secretary said that in another Conservative term the total waiting list in England could grow to 10m cases, with healthcare becoming as degraded as NHS dental services.

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Huge number of deaths linked to superbugs can be avoided, say experts

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Models suggest deaths in poorer countries could be cut by 18% – or about 750,000 a year – with preventive measures

Every year 750,000 deaths linked to drug-resistant superbugs could be prevented through better access to clean water and sanitation, infection control and childhood vaccinations, research suggests.

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is a huge global challenge, with the evolution of drug-resistant superbugs, driven by factors including inappropriate and excessive antibiotic use, raising the prospect of a future where modern medicine fails.

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NHS spending rise lags behind Tory funding pledges, IFS finds

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Thinktank says extra funding eaten up by higher inflation despite greater demand with service in poor state of repair

Spending on the NHS in England has risen less quickly than the Conservatives promised at the last election despite the extra demand created by the pandemic and record waiting lists, a leading thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said increases in funding from the government had been eaten up by higher than expected inflation and, as a result, NHS day-to-day spending had grown by 2.7% a year during the current parliament – below the 3.3% pledged by Boris Johnson in 2019.

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NHS mental health trust failings blamed for more than 30 deaths in Norfolk and Suffolk

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Campaigners are calling for public inquiry into high number of patient fatalities over a decade at crisis-hit service

More than 30 patients died after risks were not acted on in the decade following a controversial service redesign at a crisis-hit NHS mental health trust, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The report by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk also logged nearly 20 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) who have died since 2013 after communication failures, while family concerns were ignored in 15 cases.

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Nurses in England took an average of one week off sick for stress last year, data shows

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Chronic workforce shortages have put nursing staff under unbearable pressure, says union chief

Nurses in England took an average of a week off sick last year because of stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures reveal.

The disclosure has prompted concern that the intense strains nurses face in their jobs, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and causing many to quit.

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Ban smacking children in England and Northern Ireland, say doctors

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Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health urges ministers to follow lead of Scotland and Wales

Parents in England and Northern Ireland should be banned from smacking their children because doing so is unjust, dangerous and harmful, leading doctors have urged ministers.

It was “a scandal” that Scotland and Wales had outlawed smacking but not the other two home nations, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said on Wednesday.

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Tobacco firms lobbying MPs to derail smoking phase-out, charity warns

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Exclusive: Tactics include proposals to raise smoking age to avoid outright ban, and exemptions for cigars, says Cancer Research UK chief

Tobacco firms are lobbying MPs and peers in an effort to derail Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy to phase out smoking, the head of Britain’s biggest cancer charity has said.

The prime minister’s landmark legislation – which would bar anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes and make England the first country in the world to ban smoking – is due to be debated in parliament for the first time on Tuesday.

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More than 2,000 NHS buildings in England older than NHS, figures show

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Lib Dems and health trusts say patient and staff safety being put at risk by poor state of ageing infrastructure

Millions of patients are being put at risk in crumbling hospitals that are unfit for purpose, MPs have said, as figures reveal more than 2,000 NHS buildings are older than the health service itself.

Health bosses have repeatedly warned ministers of the urgent need to plough cash into replacing rundown buildings in order to protect the safety of patients and staff. The maintenance backlog has risen to £11.6bn in England.

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