More than 7,000 workers to hold strike vote this week amid accusations of staff shortages and expensive healthcare
More than 7,000 workers at CVS stores across California are holding a strike vote this week after accusing the US’s largest pharmacy chain of shortchanging staff and failing to provide affordable healthcare.
CVS and its union remain far apart in negotiations on a new contract. Their current union contract expired on 30 June 2024.
Continue reading...Detentions involve Chinese citizens who marketed cancer drugs for firm’s oncology division
Chinese police have reportedly detained five current and former AstraZeneca employees as part of an investigation into possible breaches related to data privacy and importing unlicensed medications.
The detentions took place earlier this summer, and targeted Chinese citizens who marketed cancer drugs for the oncology division of the British pharmaceutical company, according to Bloomberg.
Continue reading...Investors spent about $1tn buying healthcare facilities over last decade, leading to reports of worsening patient care
Private equity investors are increasingly buying up hospice centers – healthcare facilities meant to focus on pain relief and emotional support for people near the end of their lives.
The new study was published in the journal Health Affairs and provides more evidence of how private equity have acquired firms using often sophisticated and opaque ownership structures.
Continue reading...Danish company, which also makes Ozempic, faces increasing competition from US rival Eli Lilly
Novo Nordisk has cut its annual profit expectations after posting weaker-than-expected sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, fuelling investor concerns over growing competition and sending its shares lower.
The Danish drugmaker’s market value has soared over the past year, making it the most valuable company in Europe, on the back of the success of its obesity and diabetes injections Wegovy and Ozempic, used by celebrities including Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey. However, the company is facing increasing competition from its US rival Eli Lilly’s drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.
Continue reading...CQC ‘got things wrong’ implementing inspection regime and new computer system, interim chief admits
England’s healthcare regulator has issued a public apology over reforms to its monitoring of tens of thousands of hospitals, care homes, dentists and GPs.
The apology from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) came in the wake of care organisations complaining of a “hostile” inspection regime and a major new computer system failing to work properly.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Louisiana police papers say Sharon Stewart went into Dr Katie Tran’s office and attacked her and others with a three-inch blade
A young Louisiana dentist is facing the likely loss of one of her eyes after a former patient went into her office and stabbed her.
The attack which targeted Dr Katherine ‘Katie’ Tran and two of her colleagues – while leading to the arrest of Sharon Stewart – is the latest chilling reminder that US healthcare professionals are suffering more workplace violence injuries than those in any other industry, including law enforcement, as the Associated Press reported last year.
Continue reading...State will be first to import drugs under federal program that Florida governor says could save consumers $150m in first year
A public health policy that won rare backing from both the Biden and Trump administrations looks ready to open a flow of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada to Florida, ending a decades-long block on the importation of certain pharmaceuticals to the US.
The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the state approval under a drugs importation program that seeks to lower the cost of medicines for US consumers without imposing additional risks to their health or safety.
Continue reading...FCA censures former FTSE 100 company but stops short of a fine as no funds are expected to be left
The financial watchdog has found that collapsed hospital operator NMC Health committed market abuse by understating its debts by as much as $4bn (£3.2bn).
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) censured the former FTSE 100 company on Friday for misleading the market but stopped short of fining it as no funds are expected to be left at the business once outstanding debts to creditors are paid out.
Continue reading...Kaiser Permanente workers start three-day strike, demanding wage increases and better staffing, after union contracts expire
More than 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have started a three-day strike on Wednesday in the largest demonstration of its kind by healthcare workers in US history.
The workers, represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, are currently bargaining for new union contracts after their current contracts expired on 1 October. Workers are demanding significant wage increases and substantive improvements to what they say have been severe understaffing in healthcare facilities that worsened throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading...At least 177 officials reportedly under investigation amid revival of Xi Jinping’s decade-old anti-corruption drive
China’s graft-busters have set their sights on the country’s healthcare sector, in what has been described as the biggest crackdown on corruption in the history of the industry.
At least 177 hospital bosses and Chinese Communist party (CCP) secretaries have been placed under investigation this year according to local media reports – more than double the number last year. In a press conference on Tuesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said the campaign would focus on people who had used their position to procure kickbacks and corruption in the pharmaceutical sector, the state tabloid the Global Times reported.
Continue reading...Over 85,000 workers hold pickets at 50 facilities across US as union contracts set to expire on 30 September
Unions representing more than 85,000 healthcare workers have held pickets at 50 facilities across California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado amid new contract negotiations as their current union contracts are set to expire on 30 September.
The negotiations at Kaiser Permanente are the third largest set of contract negotiations in the US in 2023, behind the 340,000 workers at UPS who will be voting on a tentative agreement this month that was reached days before planned strike action, and 150,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis whose contracts are set to expire on 14 September.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Staff are leaving in droves, wait times have tripled and critics say it’s locked in a ‘death spiral’. But the situation might not be terminal, with some big changes
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Good morning, and a heartfelt happy birthday to the NHS, which was launched by Labour health minister Nye Bevan on this day in 1948. Don’t hold your breath for champagne and cake on your local hospital trust’s budget, though – you will be waiting almost as long as a typical queue at the nearest A&E.
The NHS may be profoundly cherished for its millions of dedicated staff and the still astonishing cradle-to-grave principle that underpins it, but there is no question that the UK’s healthcare system is very sick. More people are dying waiting for ambulances. Waiting times for treatment have almost tripled since 2020. GP surgeries and mental health services are at breaking point. Staff are leaving in droves, and nurses, junior doctors and even consultants are striking – once an unimaginable prospect – over pay and patient safety.
Climate | The government is drawing up plans to drop the UK’s flagship £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge. A leaked briefing note to ministers seen by the Guardian, lays out reasons for dropping the UK’s contribution to the fund for developing countries. The Foreign Office initially refused to comment on the leak, before describing it as “false”.
Partygate | Scotland Yard is reopening its investigation into potential Covid breaches at a lockdown party at Conservative headquarters. The force will also scrutinise an event in parliament that the Tory MP Bernard Jenkin – a member of the privileges committee that produced a highly critical report into Boris Johnson – is said to have attended.
Jenin | Israeli forces have withdrawn from the Palestinian city of Jenin, military officials have said, after carrying out one of the biggest operations in the occupied West Bank in years. Twelve Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the operation.
UK news | Private bank Coutts has reportedly shut Nigel Farage’s bank account after he fell below the prestigious lender’s wealth requirements, raising questions over the Brexiter’s claims that the bank was targeting him over his political views.
Scotland | Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, will step down at the next general election, blaming the “toxic” environment in Westminster. Black became the youngest MP in 350 years when she was elected in the SNP landslide of 2015 at the age of 20, described the Commons as “one of the most unhealthy workplaces that you could ever be in”.
Continue reading...Development charity says patients denied treatment or held hostage until fees paid in private facilities in India and Kenya
Private hospitals in India and Kenya accused of refusing people on low incomes vital healthcare, or holding them hostage until bills have been paid, benefit from UK government investment funds, according to a report by Oxfam.
Investments worth hundreds of millions of pounds by government-backed agencies are used to facilitate the “impoverishment and even the imprisonment of the very people [the private hospitals] are supposed to be helping”, said the development charity.
Continue reading...Observer investigation reveals Meta Pixel tool passed on private details of web browsing on medical sites
NHS trusts are sharing intimate details about patients’ medical conditions, appointments and treatments with Facebook without consent and despite promising never to do so.
An Observer investigation has uncovered a covert tracking tool in the websites of 20 NHS trusts which has for years collected browsing information and shared it with the tech giant in a major breach of privacy.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Nurses walked off the job at the Mount Sinai and Montefiore medical centers in Harlem and the Bronx over staffing issues
More than 7,000 nurses at two New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, saying their concerns around staffing issues had not been addressed by management.
Talks failed on Sunday night. At 6am on Monday, nurses went on strike at Mount Sinai medical center on the Upper East Side and Montefiore medical center in the Bronx.
Continue reading...House of Representatives’ report details ‘corporate greed’ and ‘atypical review process’ preceding agency’s approval of Biogen’s drug
US drug regulators failed to follow their own guidance and practices when they approved the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, a congressional report said on Thursday.
The US food and drug administration’s (FDA) process of approval, it said, had been “rife with irregularities”, and the FDA’s interactions with maker Biogen had been “atypical”.
Continue reading...Many new products now need multiple safety test facilities for home and abroad, say entrepreneurs
British inventions are being brought to market overseas because new Brexit safety certification rules mean they can’t be sold in the UK.
Trade bodies and entrepreneurs have blamed the government’s decision to stop accepting the European Union’s CE mark and instead create a new UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark showing that a product is safe.
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