Dear Editor, Just as we had started to relax and get our lives ‘back to normal’, 31 July 2023 saw new Covid-19 variants classified in the UK: Covid ‘Eris EG.5.1’ is out there. Hospital admissions are spiking, as a consequence of the poor summer weather (meaning that we have spent more time indoors) and waning […]
The change to cancer targets is a big deal! The issue is the 28-day to diagnosis versus the 2-week wait target. That is, if your GP suspects cancer, from the point of referral, 75 per cent of patients should be diagnosed or given the all clear in 28 days. Currently, if your GP suspects cancer […]
The clean water sign from Shaldon Parish Council based on Environmental Agency data could lead to dangerous decisions. Investigation by Lee Morgan (The PRSD) and Stuart Reynolds, with findings no doubt repeated right around the UK as the sewage scandal deepens. This article first appeared in The PRSD and is reproduced by kind permission of […]
How many people have been nudged, goaded or battered into believing that the NHS is now beyond saving? How many have been nudged, goaded or battered into believing that privatisation for some or all services is the only way forward? What a very clever campaign the Conservatives have fought! How very happy their many private […]
Even on the 75th anniversary of its foundation, the NHS came under assault from the far-right. This article tackles the claims of its detractors and shows how a team of volunteers has taken the argument to Parliament to defend the NHS – and the UK economy. The assault on the NHS When the NHS was […]
Monday was another damning day for the government at the Covid Inquiry. It is becoming clearer what the recommendations from the Inquiry are likely to be… But there is also a bigger question raised about criminality… TUC union, the BMA, the Health Foundation, and The British Red Cross gave evidence. Many of the government defence […]
In the week when the NHS celebrated its 75th birthday, there was an article in The Telegraph headlined ‘NHS to slash bureaucracy by recruiting doctors and nurses over pen-pushers’. This, of course, led to all the usual clichés about the NHS being full of managers. I thought I’d take a look at what the evidence […]
No doubt we are at a tipping point for the future of healthcare in the UK You will hear a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and barefaced lies over the next 18 months – a £200bn/yr industry is on the table. So here are the facts… Has the NHS been value for money? Here is the […]
Editor’s comment: Apologies for the duplication of text in places where we have had to use the tweet to capture the video. It was too good and informative a thread to pass up because of technical challenges, so it is a bit of a hybrid. So, Hancock’s first appearance at the Covid Inquiry did not […]
At the end of May 2023, I came across multiple, well-known, anti-vaccine Twitter accounts claiming that new Israeli data showed that there had been “No Known Covid Deaths in Healthy People Under 50.” We know from ONS data that in England and Wales there were 4976 deaths involving Covid-19 in the under-50s since 2020, so […]
Dear Steve Barclay, There seems to be a lot of interest on UK social media (#MedTwitter (@RoshanaMN) regarding how enticing Australia is for UK doctors. Here are a few examples from the international market you are competing with, from a junior doctor who made the move. You should be worried. For context, I work in […]
While we are all distracted by this government’s latest antics and dog whistles, it is pushing through a policy that will likely see the end of the NHS as we know it – at least in England. The guise is “patient choice”. The truth: biggest change in our healthcare model so far. This UK government […]
Junior doctors across England have undertaken three days of strike action from 13 to 15 March, during one of the busiest periods of the year for hospitals. This has been a long time coming, with years of stagnant wages and deteriorating working conditions forcing many to consider leaving the country or profession altogether. Six years […]
A Somerset County Councillor is on a clean air mission. “I’m keen to learn the lessons of the pandemic” says Councillor Oliver Patrick, “and one of those lessons is that airborne diseases like Covid spread easily between people indoors where ventilation is poor.” Oliver’s clean air campaign began in September when he started raising money […]
The UK consumes 79 million ready meals every single day with a market value of nearly £4bn. In the UK, 86 per cent of adults eat ready meals, and 3 in 10 eat ready meals at least once a week. If you have surveyed the range of ready meals in the freezers or in the […]
My thoughts on the government’s new plan to the NHS crisis published today. Sum: They seemed to listen to the experts but are clearly not interested in recovering the NHS… There are some positives. But stating the obvious first: this is way too little, way way too late! We have been calling for action all […]
Oliver Patrick, Somerset County Councillor (Coker Division) explains why clean air, indoors and out, should be a priority for legislators. This week I built my 20th Corsi-Rosenthal Box (below) using the funds donated through my GoFundMe. Fifteen of these DIY air filters have gone into schools and Early Year Foundation Stage settings in the Yeovil […]
Andrew Bridgen may have apologised for breaching lobbying rules and breaking the MPs’ code of conduct, but he’s not letting up on his anti-vax campaign. Emma Monk analyses just one day of misinformation. In the process of writing an article about former Conservative MP, Andrew Bridgen, having the whip removed for comparing the vaccine roll-out […]
Although government seems to be in denial, it is clear that the NHS is in crisis – a consequence, in large part, of a decade of underfunding. The impact on the service nationally has been logged in detail, with the Financial Times offering a series of particularly thorough analyses. We wanted to find out […]
Those of us who fought hard against the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 (and I did, most especially on Twitter) always knew the danger within that Act. Clause 1 said: But then this was added: That section changed the whole focus of the NHS. The Secretary of State might still be responsible to […]
I watched agog as Nadim Zahawi went on the media rounds to brief – predictably- against our brave nurses and their strike action. With zero sense of self-awareness, he tried to paint their reasonable request to be paid what they are worth as “unfair” and “unpatriotic”, even at one point claiming it was “playing into […]
As a photographer, I have frequently had to temp to top up my income. Working in customer service for social housing providers was the worst job I had. In the wake of the horrifying, avoidable death of Awaab Ishak, this is a record of my experiences. In training I was told how to “overcome objections” […]
Dear West Country Voices, Nurses are the first health professionals to vote for strike action. I fully support them and I hope that those of you reading this will too. The NHS has been ground into the soil by 12 years of ideological attacks designed to make it as cheap to sell to vulture capitalists […]
It’s #WorldVentil8Day, raising awareness of the critical role clean air plays in preventing the spread of disease and damage to health from pollution. We’ve known for a long time now that Covid is an airborne virus, yet it appears the government don’t want to encourage mask-wearing or insist on air filtration in indoor spaces because […]
It is always good to talk to people who really make a difference in society. People who put something back. People who make things happen. Fiona is one of those people. Living with multiple sclerosis (MS) herself, first diagnosed back in 2006 but impacted by the disease since 1995, she took early retirement from her […]
The power of disinformation is mind-blowing and it’s dangerous. Let me give you a very recent example that almost certainly cost lives… This month there were two massive publications about the pandemic. One in The Lancet – top five medical journal. The other series in the BMJ – again, a top six journal. The Lancet […]
Update: the mainstream media is finally waking up to the impact of Brexit on dental care provision. We were writing about this more than a year ago. Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw (Labour) posted a tweet drawing attention to the astonishing statistic that 78,000 people in Devon and Cornwall are waiting to get onto an NHS […]
Hey, guys. I have been working on something for a while now, partly to feel more useful and partly to take back some control from an indifferent leadership. Covid Fit is a campaign trying to reduce some of the risk factors associated with Severe Covid. We are in a much better place now if we […]
‘Are we in a new Covid-19 wave?’ asks molecular biologist, Emma Monk This week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced we had hit a horrifying milestone: recording 200,000 Covid deaths in the UK since the start of the pandemic. But look around the shops and on the trains and you’d be forgiven for thinking […]
Some seem to think doctors, nurses and paramedics working in urgent care spend their day saving lives. And we do, sometimes. But actually, we spend most of our day saving organs – brain, heart, kidneys, etc – to prevent disability so people can make the most out of life. There are occasions when we have […]