Category Archives: NHS

Review dismisses claims youth suicides rose after NHS curbed puberty blockers

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UK government adviser’s report says claims not supported by data and could prompt under-18s to take own life

A government-ordered review has dismissed claims that suicide rates in young people with gender dysphoria have risen sharply since the NHS restricted access to puberty-blocking drugs.

A report by the government’s adviser on suicide prevention also found that the claims – made by the campaign group the Good Law Project – were not supported by data and could prompt children under the age of 18 to take their own life.

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UK Covid-19 inquiry live: report calls for UK-wide civil emergency strategy

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Former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic

Among the recommendations in the report are:

The leader or deputy leader of each of the four nations should chair a Cabinet level committee responsible for civil emergency preparedness.

A UK-wide pandemic response exercise should run at least every three years and a new UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy put in place.

External “red teams” should regularly challenge the principles, evidence and advice on emergency plans

An independent statutory body to advise the UK government and devolved administrations should be set up and consult with voluntary groups and council-based directors of public health on civil emergency preparedness and response.

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Women in England could be offered DIY cervical screening tests on NHS

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Research suggests at-home tests could encourage 400,000 more women a year to have a screening

Women could be offered DIY cervical screening tests on the NHS, after research found self-testing at home significantly improved screening rates.

Researchers calculated that being able to take their sample at home could encourage about 400,000 more women a year to have a cervical screening.

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Call for action on UK men’s health as 133,000 die early every year

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Movember says British men have worse health than comparable countries and suffer stark regional inequalities

More than 133,000 men die early every year in the UK, equating to 15 every hour, according to a report calling for urgent action to improve men’s health.

Two in five men are dying prematurely, before the age of 75 and often from entirely avoidable health conditions, research by the charity Movember found.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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England’s healthcare watchdog apologises over ‘new regulatory approach’

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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.

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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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Starmer praises Abbott and hails diverse Commons in first speech to parliament as PM – as it happened

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Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world

Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.

Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.

Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.

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NHS urged to prioritise cancer care basics over tech and AI ‘magic bullets’

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Health service is at tipping point, say experts, and ‘novel solutions’ have been wrongly hyped

The NHS must concentrate on the basics of cancer treatment rather than the “magic bullets” of novel technologies and artificial intelligence, or risk the health of thousands of patients, experts have warned.

In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, nine leading cancer doctors and academics say the NHS is at a tipping point in cancer care with survival rates lagging behind many other developed countries.

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Wes Streeting pledges billions to GPs in order to ‘fix front door’ of NHS

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Health secretary wants to bring back family doctors, cut pressure on hospitals and solve pay disputes

Ministers will divert billions of pounds from hospitals to GPs to “fix the front door to the NHS”, Wes Streeting has promised as he said millions of patients will be able to see the same family doctor at every appointment.

The health secretary made his first major policy announcement as he prepared to begin vital talks with junior doctors on Tuesday, aimed at finally ending the strikes that have crippled the health service since 2022.

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Starmer tells his cabinet: now it’s time to deliver on our promises

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PM pledges swift action on NHS and prisons, setting out agenda to reform public services and rebuild international relations

Keir Starmer on Saturday rallied his new cabinet behind an ambitious agenda to reform the country’s creaking public services and reset damaged relations abroad during his first full day as prime minister.

After an extraordinary 48 hours that saw Labour storm to a landslide general election victory with a massive Commons majority of 174 while the Tories were routed, Starmer said he was “restless for change” and determined to deliver on his campaign pledges.

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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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Patients left in pain and to die alone amid NHS nurse shortages, survey finds

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Only a third of shifts have enough nurses on duty, the Royal College of Nursing says its analysis shows

NHS patients are being left unseen in pain and in some cases to die alone because shifts do not have enough registered nurses, a survey shows.

The Royal College of Nursing said analysis of a survey it carried out showed that only a third of shifts had enough registered nurses on duty.

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Speaker at Labour manifesto launch is cancer-free after terminal diagnosis

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Music teacher Nathaniel Dye, 38, who had spoken about delays for treatment, gave update on Tuesday

A man who had a terminal cancer diagnosis, and who described Labour as “the party of hope for a brighter future I won’t live to see” at the party’s manifesto launch, is now cancer-free.

Nathaniel Dye, a 38-year-old music teacher, was diagnosed with stage four incurable bowel cancer in October 2022, and tumours were understood to have spread to his lungs, liver and lymph nodes.

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PPE worth £1.4bn from single Covid deal destroyed or written off

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UK government deal struck at height of pandemic described as ‘colossal misuse of public funds’

An estimated £1.4bn-worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) bought by the government in single a deal has been destroyed or written off, according to new figures described as the worst example of waste in the Covid pandemic.

The figures obtained by the BBC under freedom of information laws showed that 1.57bn items from the NHS supplier Full Support Healthcare will never been used.

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NHS confirms stolen data published online is from blood test provider

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Health service in England issues update saying there is ‘no evidence’ hackers published entire database

Stolen data published online has been confirmed as having come from the NHS provider Synnovis, NHS England has said.

Synnovis, which manages blood tests for NHS trusts and GP services, primarily in south-east London, was the victim of a cyber-attack – understood to have been carried out by the Russian group Qilin – on 3 June.

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Sunak defends decision not to take immediate action against Tories in betting scandal – as it happened

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Prime minister faces claim Tories are ‘stealing the candlesticks’ on the way out of government

After a passage in his speech attack Labour on familiar grounds, Rishi Sunak also hit out at Reform UK.

[Reform UK] are not on the side of who you think they are.

Reform are standing candidates here in Scotland that are pro independence and anti monarchy.

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NHS patients affected by cyber-attack may face six-month wait for blood test

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Only ‘urgent’ tests to go ahead in short term after hospitals in south-east London hit by Russian gang’s seizure of data

Patients denied a blood test because of a Russian cyber-attack on the NHS may have to wait up to six months to have their sample taken, the Guardian has learned.

The delays are so long that some patients have decided to pay to have their blood taken and analysed by a private clinic rather than remain on the NHS waiting list.

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