NHS

When it comes to the NHS, it's time to start thinking about the future

An anonymous GP writes about their experience of the parlous state of the NHS – it is heartbreaking, exhausting and frustrating – and there is no solution in sight

The NHS could now do with the financial boost as promised on side of the Brexit bus seven years ago

This week's gossip and scandals in Westminster and the media brought to you by MANDRAKE

Successive UK governments have long realised that it is cheaper to import doctors than to train our own, but it raises serious moral and ethical questions

Earlier this year, MANDRAKE advised the shadow health secretary to pose some questions in the Commons about what a drain on resources Genomics England was. Yet, he never asked a single question

Can Britain have a grown-up conversation about its national health service?

If we want the NHS to be functional in 10 years time, we need to start having more honest conversations about the state of affairs

Nurses are the heart of the NHS. They are dedicated, skilled, knowledgeable and wise. This is why it’s time to value them and pay them properly

In lamenting NHS failures, the former Tory leadership hopeful seems to have forgotten who was in charge for six years

£340m of taxpayers’ cash will be made available to it - news that was overlooked during the Tory revolt against Boris Johnson

Illumina and Complete Genomics offered similar deals for a generic sequencing project, but the former was awarded the contract. In 2017, Cameron joined as a consultant with an undisclosed salary

An intensive care consultant retraces the NHS’s painful journey through Covid – and explains why he is more worried than the Johnson government about what may lie ahead

Bonnie Greer explains why the data held by the NHS makes it so attractive to US big pharma – and why Boris Johnson could use it for leverage in a trade deal Before I saw the video of Daniel Hannan, now Baron Hannan of Kingsclere and an advisor to the Board of Trade, disparaging the […]

Mitch Benn looks at Dido Harding's attempt to become chief executive of the NHS in another look back at the week in politics

Baroness Dido Harding has applied to become the next head of the NHS. The Tory peer has stood aside from her position as chair of NHS Improvement, which she took up in October 2017, while recruitment is underway, according to a biography on the NHS England website. She served as executive chair of the government’s […]

When Brexit redefined the UK’s place in the world, migrants were left out in the cold. But, disabled migrants fell through the cracks entirely.  “Can you spell your last name?” they ask. I’m used to it by now. In France, it’s an easy question: I just answer “Castres, like the city.” But there’s no Castres […]

An NHS worker who has spent the pandemic helping save lives on a Covid-19 ward says Priti Patel’s immigration plans will see refugees like her turned away from the UK. Mariam, from Eritrea, is determined to help people and has been working exhausting 12-hour shifts in a Leeds hospital assisting coronavirus patients, sometimes four days […]

The challenge of funding and providing social care is not unique to the UK. So what can we learn from other countries?

The government can keep the amount of public money spent on unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) from two companies confidential, the High Court has ruled. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor are bringing legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) claiming that contracts awarded to PestFix, Clandeboye and Ayanda Capital were […]

A nurse who looked after Boris Johnson when he was seriously ill with Covid-19 has resigned, citing the government’s 1% pay offer and its lack of respect for the profession. Jenny McGee, who cared for the prime minister in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in central London, told how she found the prime minister […]

Long-promised proposals to reform social care will be set out later this year to ensure that every person “receives the dignity and security they deserve”, Boris Johnson has said. Measures to address the long-standing issue of social care funding and reform were not included in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. The Queen confirmed proposals will […]

The scandal surrounding David Cameron’s lobbying lays bare exactly what is meant by ‘selling off the NHS’ Seen from afar, the running saga of David Cameron’s efforts to meet with every minister in the UK (and beyond) on behalf of his clients can be a strange one. To even a casual observer, it seems like […]

Labour has accused Matt Hancock of committing “cronyism at the heart of government” after it was revealed he and his family own shares in a firm that was contracted by the NHS. Hancock declared in the Commons register of MPs’ interests that he now owns shares in Topwood Ltd, a waste disposal company owned by his sister […]

A former government chief scientist has accused Boris Johnson of privatising the NHS “by stealth” and operating a “chumocracy” which he claims led to the mishandling of the Covid pandemic. Sir David King said he was “extremely worried about the handling of the coronavirus pandemic” and the way in which public money was distributed to private […]

The best way to get the most out of our NHS is to compare it with health systems across Europe – and how they pay their workers. Everyone knows the truism. The NHS is a national religion. Every other institution is known by its name, if it’s known at all. But the health service is “our” NHS. The people […]

There is “no clear evidence” the £22 billion Test and Trace scheme contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels, a cross-party group of MPs have said. Meg Hillier, the chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) behind a critical report, urged the government to justify the “staggering investment of taxpayers’ money”. The MPs […]

NHS staff in England were expecting to receive a higher pay rise than the 1% proposed by the government, the head of the health service has confirmed. Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS in England, confirmed that plans set out previously had budgeted for NHS pay to increase by 2.1% this year. It […]

A senior government minister has said he hopes NHS staff will be given an “appropriate” pay rise this year. The government is facing a furious outcry after calling for a headline increase of just 1% in its submission last week to the NHS pay review body. Ministers have argued that it was all that could […]

A junior health minister has been sent to defend the government’s recommendation to give NHS workers in England a 1% pay rise. Health secretary Matt Hancock dodged questions from MPs after Labour called for a response at the despatch box. Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth had demanded Hancock appear in the House of Commons to make […]

The government has tried to give NHS staff “as much as we possibly can” after recommending a 1% pay rise, the prime minister has said. The proposal has sparked talk of industrial action and demonstrations were planned across England on Sunday, with senior Conservatives also speaking out. An Opinium poll has suggested as much as […]