Category Archives: Health policy

Older people urged to get Covid jab as UK study shows avoidable deaths

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More than 7,000 hospital admissions and deaths could have been avoided if people had been fully vaccinated

Older people are being urged to become fully vaccinated against Covid as a world-first study shows thousands of hospital admissions and deaths in the UK could have been avoided if everyone had had all of their doses.

The rollout began strongly in the UK, with 90% of the population over the age of 12 vaccinated with at least one dose by January 2022. However, rates of subsequent doses fell sharply, a study shows, with less than half the population fully jabbed by June 2022.

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Starmer to embrace ‘nanny state’ with plan for toothbrushing in schools

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Labour leader hits out at perceived criticism as he attacks Tory record on child health

Keir Starmer has said he is “up for the fight” of defending the “nanny state” as he announced plans to improve child health under a Labour government, including supervised toothbrushing in schools.

The Labour leader said that children were “probably the biggest casualty” of the Tories’ sticking-plaster approach to politics over the past 14 years, adding that, if the government were a parent, they could be charged with neglect.

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Health inequalities ‘caused 1m early deaths in England in last decade’

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Exclusive: Review by Michael Marmot decries 'shocking political failure’ behind differing life expectancies across country

More than 1 million people in England died prematurely in the decade after 2011 owing to a combination of poverty, austerity and Covid, according to “shocking” new research by one of the UK’s leading public health experts.

The figures are revealed in a study by the Institute of Health Equity at University College London led by Sir Michael Marmot. They demonstrate the extent to which stark economic and social inequalities are leading to poorer people dying early from cancer, heart problems and other diseases.

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Cancer and maternity patients at risk if junior doctors strike in January, NHS bosses warn

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NHS Employers writes to British Medical Association warning of dangers of proposed six-day stoppage

Patients have been harmed as a result of doctors striking this year, and others needing time-critical treatment will be at risk during next month’s walkout in England, hospital bosses have said.

Cancer patients and women having induced or caesarean section births will be in danger of damage to their health unless junior doctors in those areas of care abandon their plans to strike for six days in January, they said.

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‘They all knew’: Michelle Mone hits out at Rishi Sunak over PPE deals

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Former Tory peer says government was aware of her involvement in PPE Medpro ‘from the very beginning’

Michelle Mone has condemned Rishi Sunak after he expressed concern at her admission she lied about involvement in a company that won lucrative deals during Covid, saying the government “knew about my involvement from the very beginning”.

After the former Conservative peer admitted in a BBC interview on Sunday that she had been untruthful in denying a connection to PPE Medpro, which made millions of pounds in profits over a contract to provide personal protective equipment, Sunak said No 10 was taking the case “incredibly seriously”.

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Wes Streeting says NHS uses winter crisis as excuse to ask for more money

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Shadow minister tells health service ‘money is tight’ and that it must provide better value for taxpayers

The shadow health secretary has accused the NHS of using every winter crisis and challenge it faces as an excuse to ask for more money.

Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Wes Streeting said the health service needs to accept “money is tight”, and that it must rethink how the care it provides could provide better value for money for the taxpayer.

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‘The optics are terrible’: how Rishi Sunak’s 2020 ‘eat out to help out’ scheme backfired

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The then chancellor’s plan proved to be of no economic benefit and was decried by scientists – but it clearly set out the political aims of ‘Dishy Rishi’

There is no blue heritage plaque above the stainless-steel open kitchen at the branch of Wagamama at London’s Festival Hall – but the restaurant might have claims to one. It was here, in delivering a couple of plates of katsu curry – one chicken, one vegan – on 8 July 2020, that our current prime minister in effect launched his campaign for the country’s leadership.

During that lockdown spring as pandemic chancellor, Rishi Sunak had one of the few enviable public roles: he was cast as the man who saved the economy by giving money away. By the time he pitched up at Wagamama that lunchtime, his various Covid-help schemes had dished out £176bn in furlough payments and loans and deferred taxes. In those efforts Sunak, little known before the crisis, had sometimes looked like the only sober and responsible member of her majesty’s government. The headline act of his summer budget statement, “eat out to help out”, changed that narrative.

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Johnson at the Covid inquiry: behind a veil of responsibility, the finger of blame

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Rare moments of candour from the former prime minister did little to assuage the anger of bereaved families

Since being forced out of office last year, Boris Johnson will have had many moments to reflect on his time in Downing Street and to ponder what he might have done differently.

At the UK Covid-19 inquiry on Thursday, he shared one of those reflections, and – perhaps unsurprisingly, as it ultimately led to his downfall as prime minister – it concerned his handling of the Downing Street lockdown parties.

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Covid inquiry: Johnson surprised ‘eat out to help out’ not cleared by scientists

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Former PM also angrily denies comments he made about letting Covid ‘rip’ meant he had been uncaring

Boris Johnson assumed that Rishi Sunak’s flagship “eat out to help out” hospitality scheme had been cleared by government scientists and was surprised to learn later it was not, the former prime minister has told the inquiry into Covid.

In evidence that could pose notable difficulties for the prime minister when he appears before the inquiry on Monday, Johnson said it would have been “normal” for advisers such as Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance to have been briefed, and that he assumed this had been the case.

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Boris Johnson: I wasn’t properly warned about seriousness of Covid

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Ex-PM tells inquiry abusive messages between staff were inevitable passion of people ‘doing their best’ under great stress

Boris Johnson has insisted he was not properly warned about the potential seriousness of Covid during early 2020, as he dismissed abusive messages sent between his staff as the inevitable passion of people who were “doing their best”.

In a sometimes combative start to his evidence before the Covid inquiry in London, which began with protesters being removed from the hearing room, Johnson apologised for mistakes made, but then argued that these were not necessarily errors that could have been avoided.

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Five-point plan to cut UK immigration raises fears of more NHS staff shortages

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Care workers banned from bringing over relatives, and minimum salary threshold increased in other sectors

The home secretary, James Cleverly, has announced a five-point plan aimed at delivering the biggest ever cut in net migration to the UK, prompting fears of heightened staff shortages in the NHS and social care.

Cleverly announced that the minimum salary requirement for a skilled worker visa would rise to £38,700, while a rule that allows for people in professions with the greatest need to be hired at 20% below the going rate will be scrapped.

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Boris Johnson’s legacy will be shaped by Covid inquiry appearance

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Discredited ex-PM faces a demolition job in one of the few policy areas to which he and his allies still cling

Even at the height of his popularity, Boris Johnson routinely avoided close questioning – to the extent of once hiding in a fridge to dodge a TV inquisitor. The former UK prime minister is likely to be dreading next week’s appearance at the Covid inquiry. And he probably should.

It is no exaggeration to say that events on Wednesday and Thursday at the inquiry’s repurposed office building in Paddington, west London, could help define the post-power image and legacy of Johnson, and very possibly not for the good.

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Earlier lockdown could have saved lives of 30,000, Hancock tells Covid inquiry

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Ex-health secretary has described Boris Johnson’s Downing Street as undermined by ‘culture of fear’

Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if the UK had locked down three weeks earlier, Matt Hancock has told the Covid inquiry, as he described the operation of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street as undermined by a “culture of fear”.

The former health secretary said his staff were abused by Dominic Cummings and that Johnson’s then chief adviser attempted to exclude ministers and even Johnson himself from key decisions at the start of the pandemic, hampering the government’s response.

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Senior doctors in England reach pay deal with government

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NHS leaders welcome breakthrough as ‘vital step’ towards halting walkouts by various staff groups

Doctors’ leaders have struck a deal with ministers that could end the strikes by hospital consultants that have badly disrupted NHS care for months.

Grassroots members of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) in England still have to approve the government’s offer. But if medics accept it in referendums then both unions will call off the industrial action that has led to hundreds of thousands of operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled.

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Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock’s early Covid warnings were ignored by No 10, say allies

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Ex-cabinet minister set to hit back at inquiry after being made a scapegoat for government failings

Matt Hancock and his officials bombarded Downing Street with early warnings about Covid-19 but were treated with ridicule and contempt, according to senior Whitehall figures, who believe that the former health secretary is unfairly being made a scapegoat by civil servants and scientists during the official inquiry into the pandemic.

Attempts by the Department of Health, in mid to late January 2020, to raise the alarm were dismissed out of hand by senior staff working for the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, because they believed Hancock was mainly seeking publicity and exaggerating the dangers, the insiders say.

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Firms earn £53bn a year from UK smoking, excess drinking and junk food – study

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Harmful habits are worsening public health, says report, as groups urge crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ industries

Firms are earning £52.7bn a year from UK sales of tobacco, junk food and excessive alcohol, and their consumption is contributing to Britain’s rising tide of illness, a report says.

The figures prompted a coalition of health, medical and children’s organisations to demand an urgent crackdown on “the irresponsible behaviour of health-harming industries”.

NHS hospitals admit 2.5 million patients a year for treatment of diseases directly linked to being overweight (1.02 million), drinking (980,000) or smoking (506,000).

About 459,000 people cannot work because they are too ill to do so as a result of their smoking (289,000), alcohol consumption (99,000) or being morbidly obese, with a body mass index over 40 (70,000).

People who smoke or drink at harmful levels are more likely to be jobless and earn less than those who do not – a “wage penalty” for their unhealthy lifestyles.

That wage penalty, together with unemployment and lost productivity due to smoking, drinking and obesity, costs the UK £31bn a year.

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Private firms harming NHS patients by failing to deliver medicines, Lords report warns

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‘Real and serious problems’ in UK medical homecare sector going unaddressed due to failures in regulation, damning review says

Private healthcare companies are harming NHS patients in their own homes by failing to deliver vital medicines, and then escaping censure amid an alarming lack of oversight by ministers and regulators, members of the House of Lords have warned.

More than 500,000 patients and their families rely on private companies paid by the NHS to deliver essential medical supplies, drugs and healthcare to their homes. The homecare medicines services sector is estimated to be worth billions of pounds.

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Patients may shun new NHS data store over privacy fears, doctors warn

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BMA raises concerns with minister about planned data platform, which could be run by US firm Palantir

Patients fear that their personal information may be misused by the NHS’s new data store, especially if the US spy technology company Palantir runs it, doctors’ leaders have warned ministers.

The planned creation of the “federated data platform” (FDP) has prompted concerns about privacy and trust in the NHS and suggestions that suspicion around it will lead patients to refuse to share their data.

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Australia rejected millions of face masks provided by PPE Medpro suppliers

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Exclusive: Suppliers for firm linked to UK peer Michelle Mone helped source Covid masks for Australian government that were found unusable

Suppliers of PPE for a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone were also involved during the Covid pandemic in supplying millions of face masks to the Australian government that were rejected over safety concerns.

Australia’s Department of Health and Aged Care told the Guardian that of 50m face masks supplied to fulfil a government contract awarded to a small online retailer, Australian Business Mobiles (ABM), the overwhelming majority – 45.7m – were deemed unusable for its health service. A department spokesperson said five of seven manufacturers that supplied the masks were “deemed non-compliant with quality regulations”.

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Martha’s rule must be available 24/7, England’s patient safety commissioner says

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Patients and relatives must be able to request second opinion from critical care team at any time of day or night, government told

Patients and their relatives will be able to request a second opinion from senior medics around the clock when the “Martha’s rule” system starts in hospitals in England.

The government’s patient safety commissioner, asked by the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to advise on how to implement the change, has said access to a medic’s opinion must operate 24/7.

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