NHS Threats

A growing number of GP surgeries across the country are being run by profit-led companies according to research published by the NHS Support Federation. This trend has been underestimated according to the study, which looked at contracts put out to tender to run surgeries and health centres across England. The report – NHS Unlimited? Who….

Published in “The Observer” Sunday March 26th 2009 Sir, Andrew Rawnsley is surely correct in suggesting (Comment 22nd March) that public services will have to bear their share of belt tightening. When this happens it is essential that the cuts fall where they do not damage essential services but are directed at areas where real….

A DISCUSSION DOCUMENT Prepared by Sally Ruane 1. INTRODUCTION This discussion document is based on an analysis of the ideas and observations of participants in the national Keep Our NHS Public Workshop, held in Leicester in November 2008, entitled ‘What kind of health service do we want?’. The workshop was underpinned by the belief that,….

Many industries and banks may be sliding into recession world-wide, but private health care providers have a smile on their face as they look forward to rich pickings from our National Health Service. They love the government’s determination to divert a growing share of the NHS budget from public services to the private and “independent”….

Primary Care Trusts in Cumbria and Lancashire have issued a consultation seeking the public’s views on the establishment of a Clinical Assessment, Treatment and Support (CATS) service in Cumbria and Lancashire. Plans to roll out a similar scheme in Greater Manchester are also underway. This is called Integrated Care Assessment and Treatment services (ICATS) and….

Dear Sir, So the government is taking a beating and “the most talked about solution is changing the leader”. Have politicians become so out of touch and cynical that they have forgotten it might be their policies that voters are rejecting? Earlier this month I was at a packed meeting in Edinburgh where Nicola Sturgeon,….

Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko” is every bit as much of a horror movie as its Hitchcockian name suggests. To British citizens, brought up with the concept of free access to healthcare as the norm, the realities of medicine delivery in the US are truly appalling. The early images show what happens at the very….

Book by by Stewart Player and Colin Leys. 113 pages Merlin Press 2008  A Review “Our fundamental purpose is simple but hugely important: to restore the NHS as a public service working co-operatively for patients, not a commercial business driven by competition” An NHS for the future (Labour Party Election Manifesto 1997) Confuse and Conceal:….

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (III) has produced a draft Directory of Ambulatory Emergency Care. In this they recommend that most emergency patients admitted to hospital with certain conditions should be treated in the community. They claim that 90% of current hospital admissions pulmonary embolism, transient ischaemic attacks and deep vein thrombosis, and….

Prof Janet Wilson, Consultant ENT surgeon in Newcastle upon Tyne, contemplates the reconfiguration from NHS to NHI – national Health Insurers Enjoy the freedom to read this missive, comrades – such commentary from NHS employees could soon be a thing of the past. Not, of course, that free speech is under threat, merely the NHS…..