The Aubrey Report looked at significant failings in breast surgery services highlighting why use of private services should be opposed. We have pointed out to the Health Minister why the use of private services by the NHS is a growing concern in a letter sent recently. (more…)
News / Blog
Neoliberalism: the NHS’s greatest foe
An interview with George Monbiot. ‘Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of our times. It tells us we should strip away anything that interferes with the discovery of a natural order. It believes that wealthy people deserve to be wealthy and poor people deserve to be poor and that there is a ‘natural hierarchy’ of human….
The strange death of medical England – Book Review
What is happening to the NHS and to UK medicine generally? Why are so many doctors — and patients — unhappy? (more…)
Changing a name does help … but it’s all about people
The Leng Review has made itself clear enough: Physician Associates and Anaesthetist Associates should be renamed (to Physician Assistant and Physician Assistant in Anaesthesia respectively), their roles more clearly defined, career progression more apparent and training and supervision made more robust. And yet … (more…)
In sickness and in health?
This country is wedded to the idea of a National Health Service. How well that works is, of course, the important part of the marriage. The government’s long-awaited ’10 year plan’, Fit for the Future, outlines how it hopes matters can be made better. Necessarily broad in scope, its overall aims are to be lauded…..
The Peter Fisher Essay Prize 2025
We’re delighted to announce the Peter Fisher Essay Prize for this year. Open to all doctors in training or Resident doctors. First Prize: £500. Second Prize: £200. (more…)
No place like home
If ever there was undeniable evidence of the appalling failure to grasp the essential nature of training highly skilled people, the growing number of prospective doctors given placeholder jobs must surely rank as amongst the strongest. (more…)
Jettisoned Communities: The Broken Heart of NHS Healthcare
The discourse about our current NHS problems often reduces these to notions and language better suited to manufacturing, commodities and utilities than to complex human bonds and interactions. What has happened? Why? And what can we do about it? (more…)
Public consultation on the NHS – our view
Last year, the government launched a very wide consultation exercise that will supposedly shape a forthcoming 10 Year Plan for the NHS, which should be published in the early summer. Submissions to this consultation were invited from organisations, with a closing date in December 2024, but contributions from the general public have continued into 2025…..
Health inequalities exactly
Health inequalities matter, and they are getting worse. One of the most common measures, life expectancy, is now falling in certain groups and locations, as it continues to rise in areas defined as more wealthy. (more…)