~theguardian-world | Bookmarks (37)

Demand for private treatment booms as NHS waiting lists remain long, while more people also sign up for dental cover Britain’s health cover market has grown by £385m in a year as the NHS crisis prompted more people to seek out private medical treatment and demand for dental insurance increased, according to a report.The total health cover market, including medical and dental insurance and...

Health Foundation report also predicts people in poorest areas will be three times more likely to die by the age of 70A record 3.7 million workers in England will have a major illness by 2040, according to research.On current trends, 700,000 more working-age adults will be living with high healthcare needs or substantial risk of mortality by 2040 – up nearly 25% from 2019...

Leading consultant paediatrician says unproven treatments and ‘toxicity’ of trans debate damaging outcomesKey findingsAnalysisThousands of vulnerable children questioning their gender identity have been let down by the NHS providing unproven treatments and by the “toxicity” of the trans debate, a landmark report has found.The UK’s only NHS gender identity development service used puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which masculinise or feminise people’s appearances, despite...

Nuffield Trust says system for treatment is ‘obsolete’ as number of patients in England awaiting assessment hits record highThe NHS is experiencing an “avalanche of need” over autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but the system in place to cope with surging demand for assessments and treatments is “obsolete”, a health thinktank has warned.There must be a “radical rethink” of how people with...

Only private jabs are available to most, but annual shots could reduce healthcare costs and prevent deathsCheaper private Covid jabs may end up as costly as pricier ones, say expertsPrivate Covid boosters are available for people who do not qualify to receive these vaccines on the NHS. But is it worth paying for a shot?With most people now having been exposed to Sars-CoV-2 through...

RCEM calculates 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 while waiting up to 12 hours for a bedAlmost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours a new estimate suggests.Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that...

Exclusive: Man who has now given party at least £10m copied Steve Barclay into email about problems with bid, documents showThe Conservative mega-donor Frank Hester complained to the NHS and the health secretary last year over problems his IT business had bidding for a contract, documents show.The Leeds businessman, who owns a healthcare tech firm responsible for 60m UK medical records, raised a complaint...

Yearly cost to people, business and public sector found to be twice as big as NHS England’s annual budgetMental illness costs England £300bn a year, equivalent to nearly double its NHS budget, according to research.Researchers for the Centre for Mental Health thinktank analysed the economic, health and care impact of mental ill health, as well as human costs from reduced quality of life and...

Exclusive: Surge in nurses originally from outside the EU moving overseas prompts concern Britain is a ‘staging post’ in their careersAlmost 9,000 foreign nurses a year are leaving the UK to work abroad, amid a sudden surge in nurses quitting the already understaffed NHS for better-paid jobs elsewhere.The rise in nurses originally from outside the EU moving to take up new posts abroad has...

Public accounts committee finds real-terms median pay has decreased for most Whitehall staff since 2013Morale in the civil service is being hit by chronic low pay, and Whitehall is increasingly unable to keep staff because salaries have declined in real terms for a decade, the public accounts committee has warned.The cross-party watchdog, chaired by the Labour MP Meg Hillier, said there were “chronic pay...

Royal College of Nursing survey shows NHS nurses’ distress as 77% say they are worse off than a year ago‘I can’t do another one like last year’: nurses on cost of living crisisSix out of 10 NHS nurses have had to use credit or their savings over the last year to help them cope with the soaring cost of living, according to new research.Acute...

Three nurses share how they have been affected as survey finds many in NHS in England turning to credit or savingsSix in 10 nurses have used credit or savings to cope – surveyThe soaring cost of living has led to six out of 10 NHS nurses having to use credit or their savings over the last year to help them cope, research shows.Findings from...

In today’s newsletter: Amid many other crises, the standard of NHS care for patients’ families is declining – this is what it feels like• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. It is no secret that NHS England has many problems: it is crumbling (literally), patient care backlogs are at record highs, there is a recruitment and retention crisis, and quality...

Doctors told to ration liquid form of salbutamol, which plays vital role in treating asthma, emphysema and bronchitisNHS hospitals have been hit by a UK-wide shortage of a life-saving drug used to keep alive patients who are at risk of dying because they cannot breathe without medical intervention.Doctors have been told to ration their use of the liquid form of salbutamol, which plays a...

Dostarlimab or Jemperli, an immunotherapy used alongside chemotherapy, could extend life expectancyA drug that could improve the quality of life of hundreds of women with womb cancer will be rolled out on the NHS across England from Tuesday.Dostarlimab, also known as Jemperli, is an immunotherapy that works by attracting specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells to help the immune system attack them....

Exclusive: findings raise concerns over ‘two-tier service’ with poorer people also feeling less heard by medicsPoorer people find it much harder to access NHS care than the well-off and have a worse experience when they do get it, research by the health service’s consumer watchdog has found.Those on the lowest incomes have much more difficulty getting a GP appointment, dental care or help with...

Fears for impact on NHS workforce as leaked letter reveals ministers stall on aim to increase trainee doctors to 15,000 by 2031Ministers have dramatically stalled plans to double the number of doctors being trained in England by 2031 in a move that has caused dismay across the NHS, as well in medical schools and universities, the Observer can reveal.In June last year, ministers backed...

Scam involves more than 700 healthcare workers who used proxies to pass test in Nigeria enabling them to work in the UKHundreds of frontline NHS staff are treating patients despite being under investigation for their part in an alleged “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.More than 700 nurses are caught up in a potential scandal, which a former head of the Royal College of Nursing said could...

Clinics de-listed people without warning, forcing them to go private or find another NHS practicePatients across England who failed to visit their dentists since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic have been systematically barred by some clinics from getting NHS treatment.Dental practices across the country informed patients they could no longer get NHS treatment, citing non-attendance over a period of two years or more...

Exclusive: As NHS targets are being missed nearly 300,000 people paid for chemotherapy in last five yearsHundreds of thousands of cancer patients in the UK are being forced to pay for private treatment amid record NHS waiting times, according to data obtained by the Guardian.The figures emerged as King Charles began treatment for the disease within days of being diagnosed. Buckingham Palace has not...

Treatment for ailments including sore throats, earaches and shingles to be offered without a GP appointmentPatients in England can get treatment for seven common conditions without needing to see a GP, under a shake-up of pharmacy services.From Wednesday, thousands of pharmacists will be able to assess and treat patients for sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections...

More than 1.5 million women in the UK are affected by the painful condition - but new study says NHS is failing themWomen with endometriosis who have endured years of excruciating pain are being “fobbed off” by doctors and told their symptoms are “all in their head”, leading them to give up seeking NHS treatment, new research has found.A study carried out by academics...

Dental union says region will be ‘disproportionately’ affected by EU amalgam phase-out as health service is weakest in UKConcerns have been raised about the future availability of silver dental fillings in Northern Ireland due to an imminent phasing out of the amalgam across the EU.The plan to phase out amalgam by 1 January next year will apply in Northern Ireland due to the Brexit...

Union says government’s plans for General Medical Council regulation diminishes role of doctors and could confuse patientsSenior doctors are urging MPs to reject government plans to regulate “physician associates”, whose growing use in the NHS has divided the medical profession.The British Medical Association has said that allowing the General Medical Council (GMC) to regulate physician associates (PAs) would “blur the lines” between doctors and...