Category Archives: NHS

Migrant care workers came to help the UK. Now they’re trapped in debt bondage

Posted on by

Investigation: Britain called out to workers around the world to ease a staff crisis. But many have to pay thousands in illegal fees to recruitment agencies

Read exclusive story: Migrant care workers charged thousands in illegal fees

Meera Stephen came to Britain with a big suitcase and even bigger dreams. The 27-year-old had left Kerala in south India to work at a care home in Manchester, one of thousands of migrant workers to come after a government recruitment drive to fill more than 100,000 vacancies in social care.

The job would pay £10 an hour – just above minimum wage. But it came at a price. In exchange for securing her employment, she would pay a recruitment agent 1.3m rupees – about £13,700.

Continue reading...

Ambulance staff ‘unable to drive’ new vehicles because of height and body shape

Posted on by

Documents obtained by BBC show 160 staff encountered problems with East of England ambulance service vehicles

Staff at an ambulance service have claimed they are unable to drive a new fleet of vehicles because of their height and body shape.

The East of England ambulance service (EEAST) rolled out the £54m converted Fiats to replace its deteriorating Mercedes vans, as part of an effort to standardise NHS ambulances.

Continue reading...

Coeliac patient died after being fed Weetabix in hospital, inquiry hears

Posted on by

Hazel Pearson’s condition not signposted by her bed as coroner deems Wrexham Maelor’s plan of response ‘amateurish’

An 80-year-old woman with coeliac disease died within days of being fed Weetabix in hospital, an inquest has heard.

Hazel Pearson, from Connah’s Quay in Flintshire, was being treated at Wrexham Maelor hospital and died four days later on 30 November from aspiration pneumonia. Although her condition was recorded on her admission documents, there was no sign beside her bed to alert healthcare assistants to her dietary requirements, BBC News reported.

Continue reading...

NHS to offer women in England drug that cuts recurrence of breast cancer

Posted on by

Abemaciclib can improve chances of certain type of cancer not returning after surgery by more than 30%

Thousands of women in England with breast cancer are to benefit from a new pill on the NHS which reduces the risk of the disease coming back.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has given the green light to abemaciclib, which cuts the chance of breast cancer returning after a patient has had surgery to remove a tumour.

Continue reading...

Almost 100,000 facing excessive wait for serious cardiac care in England

Posted on by

Some patients will have heart attack and die as a result of ‘dangerous’ delays, charity warns

Almost 100,000 people with serious heart problems, including some “living on borrowed time”, are enduring long waits for potentially life-saving NHS care because hospitals are so busy.

Some of them are in such poor health they will have a heart attack and die as a consequence of facing such “dangerous” long delays, the British Heart Foundation has warned.

Continue reading...

NHS needs reform rather than more money to deliver, Sajid Javid says

Posted on by

Health secretary says service has enough resources but admits waiting lists will grow before they shrink

The NHS needs reform rather than more money, the health secretary has said, while admitting that record-high waiting lists will continue to rise before they fall.

Sajid Javid said the health service already had the resources it needed and did not require more to care for patients effectively. “The NHS now has locked in the resources it needs. It doesn’t need any more money. What it needs to deliver for more people is not money. It needs reform,” he said.

Continue reading...

NHS bosses fear DHSC will use bullying report to blame leadership

Posted on by

Department of Health and Social Care press release cited negative behaviours but not findings of political pressure

Bullying, discrimination and shifting the blame when things go wrong are rife in the NHS, a government-commissioned inquiry into health service leadership has found.

But NHS England bosses are fearful that Sajid Javid will use the report’s findings selectively to paint an unfair picture of the behaviour of senior managers.

Continue reading...

White NHS nurses twice as likely as black and Asian colleagues to be promoted – study

Posted on by

Research by Royal College of Nursing suggests racism is ‘endemic’ in health and care

White nurses are twice as likely as black and Asian colleagues to be promoted in the NHS, with minority ethnic staff overlooked due to structural racism, according to research.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said its study suggests racism is “endemic” in health and care. A survey of almost 10,000 nursing staff found that those who are white or of a mixed ethnic background are more likely than black and Asian colleagues to have received at least one promotion since the start of their career.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s no-confidence vote: PM tells cabinet to ‘draw a line’ under Partygate after narrowly surviving bruising ballot – live

Posted on by

Latest updates: Boris Johnson says ministers should focus on ‘cutting costs of government’ after William Hague says his position is ‘untenable’

In a speech to the Royal College of Nursing annual congress in Glasgow, Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, said it was “almost unbelievable” that nurses were having to use food banks. They deserved better pay, he said.

Two years ago the NHS was deservedly awarded the George Cross for its work during the pandemic, but the reward for individual nurses has been pay settlements well below inflation, leaving nurses much worse off.

Now, as part of the Platinum Jubilee, members of the armed forces and emergency services are rightly receiving Jubilee medals.

Douglas has been consistent in terms of the principle – he made it clear from the outset that he had huge doubts about the conduct of the prime minister ...

It was only when circumstances changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that he said there are some things right now we need to set aside.

Continue reading...

‘Demoralised’ nurses being ‘driven out’ of profession, RCN survey finds

Posted on by

Only a quarter of shifts have the planned number of registered nurses on duty, according to Royal College of Nursing report

Only a quarter of nursing shifts have the planned number of registered nurses on duty, a survey of more than 20,000 frontline staff has suggested.

According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), most nurses warn that staffing levels on their last shift were not sufficient to meet the needs of patients, and that some are now quitting their jobs.

The RCN said the findings shone a light on the impact of the UK’s nursing staff shortage, warning that nurses were being “driven out” of their profession.

Continue reading...

Dismissal of women’s health problems as ‘benign’ leading to soaring NHS lists

Posted on by

Exclusive: Gender bias means debilitating gynaecological conditions are played down, says RCOG president

Doctors’ routine dismissal of women’s debilitating health problems as “benign” has contributed to gynaecology waiting lists soaring by 60% to more than half a million patients, a senior health leader has said.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) president, Dr Edward Morris, told the Guardian that waiting lists for conditions such as endometriosis, prolapse and heavy bleeding had increased by a bigger proportion than any other area of medicine in the past two years.

Continue reading...

Criminal acts of violence at UK GP surgeries almost double in five years

Posted on by

Doctors say violence now commonplace as surgeries struggle to cope with ‘unmanageable levels of demand’

Criminal acts of violence at GP surgeries across the UK have almost doubled in five years, new figures reveal, as doctors’ leaders warn of a perfect storm of soaring demand and staff shortages.

Police are now recording an average of three violent incidents at general practices every day. Staff are facing unprecedented assaults, abuse and aggression by patients, with surgeries struggling to cope with “unmanageable levels of demand” after years of failure to recruit or retain sufficient numbers of family doctors.

Continue reading...

GPs tell of ‘appalling’ abuse as violence at UK surgeries worsens

Posted on by

Doctors say staff ‘afraid and at risk’ of patient violence and aggression as services come under pressure

The number of violent incidents at general practices in the UK recorded by the police has almost doubled in the last five years, according to an investigation by the BMJ.

GP leaders say “appalling” assaults, harassment and other forms of abuse aimed at doctors and their staff have worsened during the pandemic, as surgeries came under growing pressure and sections of the media perpetuated the false notion that services were “closed”.

Continue reading...

Nurse fined £10k over NHS pay protest in lockdown wins compensation

Posted on by

Greater Manchester police agree to withdraw penalty notices issued to two nurses for socially distanced protest in March 2021

Two NHS nurses have won compensation from Greater Manchester police (GMP) after being fined over a socially distant protest about NHS pay during lockdown.

Karen Reissmann, a 61-year-old mental health nurse who worked throughout the pandemic, received a £10,000 fixed penalty notice for organising the protest on 7 March 2021 over the government’s proposed 1% pay rise for NHS workers.

Continue reading...

Death of woman with epilepsy may be re-examined after Diane Stewart case

Posted on by

Exclusive: mother of Emily Whelan hopes tests that helped prove Stewart was murdered may shed light on daughter’s death

The mother of a woman with epilepsy who died in 2016 hopes the high-profile murder of Diane Stewart could hold the key to establishing her daughter’s cause of death.

Emily Whelan, 25, was found unresponsive in her bedroom in Leeds on 7 November 2016 and pronounced dead the next day at Leeds general infirmary.

Continue reading...

Women in England with breast cancer may qualify for drug that buys ‘precious’ time

Posted on by

Nice approves Keytruda, which with chemotherapy can lengthen survival of women with triple negative breast cancer

Women with advanced breast cancer in England will be able to benefit from a new type of immunotherapy on the NHS after a U-turn by the medicines watchdog.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has overturned its draft rejection of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and said women in England can take the drug in combination with chemotherapy.

Continue reading...

Thousands of NHS workers may quit for better-paid jobs, ministers warned

Posted on by

Exclusive: health leaders call for uplift for lowest-paid staff, to prevent ‘mass exodus’ to pubs and supermarkets

The NHS faces a “mass exodus” of thousands of staff to better-paid jobs in pubs, shops and supermarkets as a result of the cost of living crisis, ministers have been warned.

Health leaders fear significant numbers of lower-paid workers will leave for higher wages in the private sector amid rising food and heating bills and soaring inflation. The NHS already has 110,000 vacancies, and there are fears that a further deepening of the workforce crisis will “jeopardise” the ability of hospitals to tackle record-high waiting lists.

Continue reading...

Racism in UK maternity care risks safety of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women – study

Posted on by

Participants in charity’s year-long inquiry describe being ignored and feeling patronised and dehumanised

Systemic racism within UK maternity care is risking the safety of people from Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds, often with devastating consequences, according to a report by the childbirth charity Birthrights.

More than 300 people with lived and professional experience of racial injustice in a maternity setting gave evidence to an expert panel chaired by Shaheen Rahman QC, a barrister who specialises in clinical negligence, as part of the charity’s year-long inquiry into the issue.

Continue reading...

Revealed: one in five patients leave some A&E departments in England without treatment

Posted on by

Long waiting times and difficulty in accessing other NHS facilities drive a trebling in those leaving without completing care

More than one in five patients at some hospitals are leaving accident and emergency departments before completing treatment, and in some cases before being seen for assessment at all, with the rate across England trebling since before the pandemic.

Experts told the Observer that the increase was probably driven by a combination of long A&E waiting times and by difficulties accessing NHS facilities such as GPs, community health services and NHS 111.

Continue reading...

The nurses getting huge bills for quitting the NHS – podcast

Posted on by

International nurses working for NHS trusts are being trapped in their jobs by clauses in their contracts that require them to pay thousands of pounds if they try to leave. Shanti Das reports

Nurses are the backbone of the NHS. For the past two years as Covid-19 gripped the country, people lauded NHS staff as heroes. Many nurses join the NHS from abroad, attracted by the stability of the work, the ethos and a chance for a new life in the UK. But joining the NHS from abroad comes with strings attached.

The Observer’s Shanti Das tells Nosheen Iqbal that some nurses working for NHS trusts and private care homes are being trapped in their jobs by clauses in their contracts that require them to pay thousands of pounds if they try to leave. In extreme cases, nurses are tied to their roles for up to five years and face fees as steep as £14,000 if they want to change jobs or need to return home early.

Continue reading...