We read all too frequently of policies which threaten to reduce social provision in Trump’s USA, and there are certain politicians who would do the same in the UK. We probably remember Thatcher’s 1987 assertion that ‘there’s no such thing as society’; her policies ensured a drift away from social provision in the general sense, […]
How a misleading headline turned NHS guidance into a culture war myth This Telegraph headline is not true. The subheading is not true. The first paragraph is not true. And I don’t believe any of this was a mistake… The story The Telegraph broke this story about diversity and inclusion training delivered by the Lancashire NHS Trust with materials originally published in […]
Who shoulders the burden in the end? Not those profiting from the needs of ordinary people. Last week I was given an update on my long-awaited shoulder replacement (originally planned for last August, then December, then possibly January, and then March): at my ‘consent’ appointment with my surgeon I was given the bad news that, […]
In the boardrooms that control our cortisol economies, tech executives rub their hands with glee and continue, avariciously, to guard the profits they have earned out of children’s dependency. Many of my peers describe to me how they know the impacts of social media on their mental health but just can’t stop scrolling, feeling like […]
Anita wrote to us, prefacing her piece thus: “My husband Ian Jacques wrote a few letters – mostly with a great deal of wit – and West Country Voices kindly published a few. Unfortunately, he passed away, aged 74, on January 3 2026, after a short illness. By way of an obituary, I wonder if […]
Last week, I participated in an incredibly moving and overwhelming experience. It’s called the Dementia Bus, an immersive, unique, scientifically designed simulation which provides a first-hand experience of what it is like to live with dementia. As someone with a family member who is living with dementia, I found the experience quite emotional and, to […]
As Donald Trump arrived in the UK on a state visit, a new tool was launched to show exactly what NHS patients would pay if Britain adopted the kind of insurance-based system pushed by Trump and his corporate backers. My NHS Bill (MyNHSBill.com) reveals the true cost of American-style healthcare by letting users enter NHS treatments […]
On a late August afternoon in Halifax, a woman who has spent fifteen years caring for patients in Britain’s National Health Service was racially abused and assaulted in front of her young daughter. Apple Moorhouse, a 42-year-old nurse originally from the Philippines, was walking with her family in Manor Heath Park when a simple request […]
I could feel the fear in a hall full of primary school parents in Totnes as they listened to campaigners going through the evidence about the impact of smartphones on kids at secondary school. The statistics are shocking: Nearly one in 10 children aged eight to 14 have watched online pornography Almost half of children […]
Dear Anna I am deeply concerned about the announcement this week that Derriford Hospital is expected to save £67m recurrently from its budget. The trust has taken away staff cups of tea and raised staff parking fees, but this is a drop in the ocean. The only way these cuts are truly possible is to […]
Dear Editor, Seaton Hospital is an issue in the local elections on May 1. The hospital steering committee submitted a proposal for using the threatened wing to NHS Property Services nine months ago. They have still not given us an answer. We have been fighting to save the hospital since 2016, when they first threatened […]
This is a special request to all members of the 99% Organisation and readers. It should only take five minutes of your time, but it is important. Please write to your MP today about a meeting in the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday 4 March. 99% will launch our new report The Rational policy-maker’s Guide to Rebuilding the NHS at a meeting […]
We needed some good news, so it’s great to be able to report that Wes Streeting has given the go-ahead for the much-needed Women and Children’s Hospital to be built at the Treliske site, on the edge of Truro. I first spoke to Roberta Fuller, the Programme Director for the scheme, in late 2024, when […]
Knot in the stomach. Sharp intake of breath. Then comes the M word. “Masculinity.” For some, it evokes ideas of strength, protection, and leadership. For others, it conjures images of harm, domination, and outdated ideals. What’s clear, however, is that masculinity is at a crossroads. Across the UK, and here in the West Country, young […]
Dear Editor I cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support over the years for 3.8 million UK taxpayers who were excluded from parity of Covid-19 financial support by the previous government. There are so many ExcludedUK members, like me, who are still far from recovered from the pandemic and are still struggling to claw […]
News that the long-awaited Women and Children’s Hospital promised for Cornwall may never be built has been described as “shocking and disappointing” by St Ives Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George. The £291m project – part of the previous government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP) – aims to combine maternity, neonatal, paediatric and obstetric and gynaecology services […]
It’s hard to focus on anything beyond July 4 and the results on July 5, but if you can get to Dartington Hall on Saturday 6 or Sunday 7, or both, you can still get tickets to attend the sessions that West Country Voices are hosting – and they are absolute bangers and wholly in […]
Award-winning film-maker David Wilkinson discovered very recently that he had stage 4 bowel cancer. He has been sharing his experience on Facebook with his friends and admirers, of whom there are very many, including the team here at WCV. We asked if we could publish this post. We believe it’s especially important as we approach […]
“It’s a scandal worse than the Post Office Horizon debacle,” says the retired consultant radiologist who contacted me, urging West Country Voices to look into the use of Physician Associates in the NHS. Plenty of us think we know what’s going on in the NHS. We’ve seen the charts detailing the systematic underfunding. We’ve read […]
In mid-April 2024, the Prime Minister got himself a juicy front cover on the Daily Express: PM tells sick Note Britain: Get a grip and get a job. He then put out a thread on X (formerly Twitter) claiming “We now spend £69bn on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health […]
In the bleak landscape of today’s NHS, a ground-breaking service in a Somerset GP practice is seeing patient and staff satisfaction running at unprecedented highs while reducing pressure on local hospitals. Why, then, is it closing at the end of May, after only four months, and what does the future hold? The GP Urgent Assessment […]
Mr Rishi Sunak, Good afternoon. As I brace myself for my own experiences with the NHS later this afternoon, I couldn’t help but mull over the implications of your latest proposal regarding mental health and fit notes. This latest proposal of yours seems to have spectacularly missed the mark, which to be fair, is how […]
A recent episode of the hospital drama Casualty misrepresented the very serious risks that Covid still poses. Jane Stevenson wrote to the BBC to explain just how wrong they’d got it. On Saturday 9 March, an episode of Casualty was broadcast, “Trauma”, which created a lot of upset. After reading a robust Twitter/X post by […]
In 2021, I wrote about the dangerous dowry left to the new Somerset unitary authority by the previous Conservative council. The combination of an unwanted reorganisation and a systematic failure to invest in local services had left Somerset especially vulnerable to financial crisis. The warning of trouble ahead was all too correct. In November 2023, […]
Dear Editor Re: Physician Associates I am writing to give my perspective on the role of physician associates( PAs). I am a recently retired Consultant Physician who was involved in the initiation of a PA programme in Devon over 10 years ago. Workforce planning in the NHS is notoriously difficult and an issue that central […]
Our NHS would collapse without migrants. Almost 20 per cent of the staff in NHS England are from overseas. Out of 1.5 million NHS staff in England, around 265,000 reported a non-British nationality as of June 2023. That’s 45,000 more than the previous year. What’s more, since Brexit, data indicates that the proportion of EU citizens working for the […]
Health warning: much or all of this will make your blood boil. Use your vote to secure health benefits. The only way we can get our blood pressure down is to get these liars, crooks, charlatans and incompetents out of office asap! What follows is a list of just a few of the dreadful things […]
Before Johnson gives his evidence we should consider a few things: 1. Just how bad was the UK pandemic response?2. How much could Johnson have affected this?3. What was Johnson’s intent?4. Was there any overt maleficence? 1. How did the UK perform?Badly. For many in the wider public, it will be quite obvious that the UK did very badly indeed. […]
Whitty’s testimony didn’t come with the headline-grabbing revelations of other testimonies, but it was one of the most illuminating of the Inquiry so far, particularly in terms of timeline and where the government properly failed. Here’s my impression of it and some key moments… The first thing to note is just how qualified Whitty is […]