Investigation begins into Homerton Fertility Centre after errors discovered in freezing processes
A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said.
The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue.
Continue reading...As it emerges that one in 10 planned NHS operations in England are done in private hospitals, patients tell their stories
One in 10 planned NHS operations in England are now done by private hospitals, according to figures from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, the trade body that represents private health providers. Here, three patients explain why they recently had to turn to the private sector for an operation.
Continue reading...Campaigners say health service cannot provide care quickly because of underinvestment, which is allowing firms to ‘make a killing’
Private hospitals are doing one in 10 of all planned NHS operations amid patients’ frustration at long delays in NHS care and political pressure to cut waiting times.
New figures seen by the Guardian prompted campaigners to warn that the NHS is “allowing the private sector to make a killing” and is seeing more and more of its services “cannibalised” because years of underinvestment mean it can no longer provide care quickly.
Continue reading...Sector’s boom times look here to stay as desperate patients seek care and more people take medical insurance
It is boom time in private healthcare. It has never been, or needed to be, a big provider of diagnostics and treatment in the UK before. The NHS’s provision of care to everyone, free at the point of delivery, has seen to that. That also explains why take-up of private medical insurance has remained stuck at about 10% of the population. The health service’s mere existence left little room for the private sector to expand.
However, the NHS’s fragile state – it still gives people mostly high-quality care, it just cannot do that quickly any more – is a historic opportunity for the private sector to go from small to significant. It could become what one expert calls “a new normal” – a not unusual place where people get treated.
Continue reading...PM says ‘people trust me on these things’ and refuses to be drawn on whether government would forgo entire £46bn raised from measure
Keir Starmer has accused Jeremy Hunt of repeating the budget mistakes made by Liz Truss during her disastrous premiership.
In comments on the budget during a visit to a building site this morning, Starmer focused on Hunt’s proposal to abolish employees’ national insurance over time, saying that this was a bigger unfunded tax promise than those in Truss’s mini-budget. (See 9.28am.)
How humiliating was that for the government yesterday?
We’ve argued for years that they should get rid of the non-dom tax status, they’ve resisted that. And now, completely out of ideas, the only decent policy they’ve got is the one that they’ve lifted from us.
Nothing that Jeremy Hunt did yesterday, nor anything the OBR said, changes anything very significantly. Which is a shame. Because that means we are still:
-heading for a parliament in which people will on average be worse off at the end than at the start,
Continue reading...Dostarlimab or Jemperli, an immunotherapy used alongside chemotherapy, could extend life expectancy
A drug that could improve the quality of life of hundreds of women with womb cancer will be rolled out on the NHS across England from Tuesday.
Dostarlimab, also known as Jemperli, is an immunotherapy that works by attracting specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells to help the immune system attack them.
Continue reading...Length of time patients must wait for A&E care, diagnostic tests, cancer care and surgery will remain high, report predicts
The NHS hospital waiting list will be falling “consistently” by the time of the general election but will remain even larger than it was before Covid until 2030, a new report predicts.
In potentially good news for Rishi Sunak, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the waiting list for operations in England is expected to “start to fall consistently but slowly from the middle of 2024”, during the months leading up to the election, which is widely expected in November.
Continue reading...Fears for impact on NHS workforce as leaked letter reveals ministers stall on aim to increase trainee doctors to 15,000 by 2031
Ministers have dramatically stalled plans to double the number of doctors being trained in England by 2031 in a move that has caused dismay across the NHS, as well in medical schools and universities, the Observer can reveal.
In June last year, ministers backed a long-term plan to expand the NHS workforce and pledged, amid great fanfare, to “double medical school places by 2031 from 7,500 today to 15,000, with more medical school places in areas with the greatest shortages to level up training and help address geographic inequity”. Labour is also committed to raising the number of doctors to 15,000 by 2031.
Continue reading...Study analysing data from 10m consultations in England also says practice can free up millions of appointments
Seeing the same GP improves patients’ health, reduces doctors’ workloads and could free up millions of appointments, according to the largest study of its kind.
Primary care is under enormous strain, with patients struggling to book consultations, GPs quitting or retiring early, and financial pressures causing some practices to close. Four-week waits hit a record high in 2023, with 17.6m appointments taking place at least 28 days after being booked in England last year.
Continue reading...Peter Moffat will write show about what is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history
ITV has announced a drama on the contaminated blood scandal, widely considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history, after the success of its series on the Post Office.
The drama, which is being written by the Bafta award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, will show how people with haemophilia and other blood disorders were contaminated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, the American media site Deadline reported.
Continue reading...Initiative before national rollout will allow review of care for patients whose condition is deteriorating
Patients whose health is failing will be granted the right to obtain an urgent second opinion about their care, as “Martha’s rule” is initially adopted in 100 English hospitals from April at the start of a national rollout.
The initiative will allow patients and their loved ones to get a review of their condition and treatment directly from doctors and nurses not involved in the medical team treating them.
Continue reading...Guy’s hospital and Sheffield clinic may have used faulty freezing solution that could damage eggs and embryos
Scores of women have been affected by the use of a faulty freezing solution at fertility clinics in London and Sheffield, with frozen eggs and embryos potentially destroyed as a result, the fertility regulator has said.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed the issue was limited to Guy’s and St Thomas’ assisted conception unit in London, and Jessop Fertility in Sheffield.
Continue reading...Scam involves more than 700 healthcare workers who used proxies to pass test in Nigeria enabling them to work in the UK
Hundreds of frontline NHS staff are treating patients despite being under investigation for their part in an alleged “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.
More than 700 nurses are caught up in a potential scandal, which a former head of the Royal College of Nursing said could put NHS patients at risk.
Continue reading...Figure of 20.4% is highest since records began in 2009, prompting warnings over growing reliance
One in five NHS staff in England are non-UK nationals, according to figures that show the pivotal role foreign workers play in keeping the health service afloat.
Healthcare workers from 214 countries – from India, Portugal and Ghana to tiny nations such as Tonga, Liechtenstein and Solomon Islands – are employed in the NHS. And the proportion of roles filled by non-UK nationals has risen to a record high, according to analysis of NHS Digital figures.
Continue reading...Lib Dems say last month an average of 5,735 people a day faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen
More than 1.5 million patients in England had to wait 12 hours or longer in A&E in the past year, according to figures that MPs say lay bare the impact of the government’s neglect of the NHS.
Last month 177,805 patients faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen in emergency departments, an average of 5,735 a day. It means one in 10 patients (12.4%) arriving at A&E waited 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged.
Continue reading...Britain’s cancer survival rates are improving but the UK still lags behind comparable countries. The Guardian’s health editor, Andrew Gregory, reports
The announcement last week that King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer has been met with sympathy and support for the 75-year-old. But alongside the focus on what it means for his future role as monarch, it has also led to a closer examination of what cancer care looks like in the UK in 2024.
For many, such as 37-year-old Nathaniel Dye, it has meant a diagnosis that has come too late. He has stage 4 bowel cancer, which has spread to other parts of his body. Dye has been told that in similar cases only 10% of people survive five years.
Continue reading...BMA votes for further five days of action after meeting with health secretary fails to resolve grievances
Junior doctors are to stage fresh strike action in England for a 10th time after talks between their union and the government broke down again.
Ministers, health officials and representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA) had been locked in negotiations for weeks since last month’s record six-day stoppage, trying to find a resolution to the pay dispute.
Continue reading...The announcement ends weeks of speculation about the policy
Rishi Sunak has refused to apologise for the anti-trans jibe he made about Keir Starmer at PMQs yesterday, after being told Brianna Ghey’s mother would be listening in the public gallery.
Speaking to journalists in Cornwall, Sunak insisted that he was just making a point about Starmer. And he said that to link what he said to the death of Brianna, whose murder was partly motivated by transphobia, was “the worst of politics”.
If you look at what I said, I was very clear, talking about Keir Starmer’s proven track record of U-turns on major policies because he doesn’t have a plan.
A point only proven by today’s reports that the Labour party and Keir Starmer are apparently planning to reverse on their signature economic green spending policy.
But to use that tragedy to detract from the very separate and clear point I was making about Keir Starmer’s proven track record of multiple U-turns on major policies, because he doesn’t have a plan, I think is both sad and wrong, and it demonstrates the worst of politics.
Today’s announcement will give confidence to the oil and gas industry and those who stand to benefit from a fossil fuel energy system. For the rest of us, faced with unaffordable energy bills, fossil fuel-funded wars, and the floods, storms and droughts that the climate crisis brings, this is a deeply disappointing signal on the low level of ambition a future government has when it comes to the biggest challenge the world is facing.
Green investment doesn’t just deliver for the planet; it also benefits our health and economy. Cutting it would be shortsighted and cost the country dearly.
The UK is already lagging behind in the race to manufacture green steel, build electric vehicles, and develop giga-battery factories. Thousands of jobs are at risk if we don’t match the investment the US and the rest of Europe are making in these industries …
Continue reading...Overall NHS figures show 6.37 million patients waiting for health treatment at end of December
More than a third of cancer patients in England are facing potentially deadly delays, leading doctors have said, with thousands of people forced to wait months to begin treatment.
There has also been a significant surge in people experiencing long waits in A&E, though the overall NHS waiting list continues to fall, according to the latest performance data for England.
Continue reading...British Dental Association says government’s plan does not offer hope to millions struggling to access care
Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a U-turn on his pledge to restore NHS dentistry as experts say his “recovery plan” does not offer enough money to incentivise dentists to take on extra NHS patients.
The prime minister’s long-awaited proposals have been criticised for failing to ringfence funding for the dental sector and reform the NHS dentistry contract, which means millions across the country will continue to struggle to access care.
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