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THE NHS should not be treated as a “national religion” while millions of patients receive a “wholly unsatisfactory” service from GPs and hospitals, the official regulator has warned. David Prior, the chairman of the Care Quality Commission, said the health service had been allowed to reach the brink of crisis because it was “too powerful” to be criticised. He said parts of the NHS were “out of control” because honest debate about the weaknesses of the health service was not tolerated. Mr Prior said priority must be given to reform of an “out of control” system of emergency care, overloaded...

First published on FrontPage Magazine. By Enza Ferreri In light of the ongoing ObamaCare debacle, it can be interesting to see how a state-run national health system free for all, like Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) – Obama’s favourite model -, has failed to deliver. The UK is one of the few countries in the world – mostly concentrated in Europe - to have completely free universal health provision. It sounds cuddly and comfy, but, like in all utopias and fairy tales, reality is a different matter. The NHS is Britain's sacred cow. No party, if it wants to be...

A quarter of new mothers said they were abandoned by their NHS midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors Three damning reports last night laid bare the crisis in NHS hospitals, maternity units and GP surgeries. One investigation revealed that a quarter of new mothers were abandoned by their midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors. The second found that mistakes deemed so serious they should never happen are being made in hospitals five times a week. And the third survey said thousands of...

Thousands of people who go on to be diagnosed with cancer are not being referred to specialists quickly enough by GPs, NHS England figures suggest. Under NHS targets, 95% of people with suspected cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks. But the data indicates that this target was missed in more than half of the 4,000 GP surgeries sampled. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government was tackling the "unacceptable variation". NHS England said the figures were not a clear measure of performance, as some patients did not have obvious symptoms. National performance data allows patients to...

Have you seen Question Time on BBC1 tonight? Among the panelists was Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. They talked about the NHS (National Health Service), welfare, pensions, youth unemployment, housing crisis. If you haven’t seen it you can watch it on BBC iPlayer online. Interesting points have been: the idea of forcing owners to sell or develop property on unused land seems popular (although some people would probably forcibly impose developing, which seems to me communist-style; the idea of a tax on unused land or brownfield sites to make owners sell or develop is better). the average age of people...

Paramedics will be told to take fewer patients to hospital as part of radical reforms of the NHS to be unveiled this week. A review led by the NHS medical director will call for sweeping changes to ease pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units, and is expected to conclude that up to half of 999 calls should result in patients receiving care at home. Amid a growing NHS crisis, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will say that the total number of A&E departments should not be reduced — and may need to be expanded. However, his report is understood to...

Cancer surgery for legitimate patients is being canceled every week to make way for health tourists scamming the NHS. One of Britain’s most senior surgeons has condemned having to put bogus patients before those entitled to cancer care in a creaking health service. Professor J. Meirion Thomas has called on ministers to introduce a “NHS passport” to combat the abuse. “It is so easy to breach the system. It is awful for me as a doctor to have to treat someone I know is ineligible,” he said. Under NHS rules, any patient urgently referred by a GP for cancer surgery...

For more than 65 years the National Health Service has occupied a sainted position in British life. Even the most radical, right-leaning Governments have hesitated before embarking on reforms which could be characterized by opponents as “cuts”. In recent years, however, the halo has slipped dramatically. … Now, details from a secret report on Wexham Park Hospital have provided devastating confirmation. … The report highlights huge structural problems, with a top-heavy cadre of bureaucrats spending their time—and our money—feuding with each other, against a backdrop of deepening financial problems and a chronic bed shortage. Shockingly, we have also established that...

The family of a pensioner who spent four days begging for food and water after he was placed on a controversial end-of-life programme have accused a hospital of treating him "like a dog". The family of Ron Jee claim the 80-year-old was put on a programme similar to the Liverpool Care Pathway. This involves the withdrawal of food, fluids and medication for terminally ill patients who often die within hours of being put on it. But they say he was treated like a dog after he spent four days on the end of life pathway when doctors said his condition...

Two junior clerical workers say they told NHS managers that they were being ordered to falsify data, so that it seemed that patients were being treated far more quickly than was the case. Police are considering whether to launch a criminal investigation after regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found evidence that staff were put under pressure to falsify data, leaving some patients waiting up to four months for urgent treatment. The chief inspector of hospitals has said lives may have been risked by “shocking” decisions taken at Colchester Hospital University Foundation trust to delay crucial treatment for cancer patients,...

A mother has demanded "justice" for her son who died at a hospital which could face a police investigation after allegedy falsifying data about cancer patients. Danielle Uren believes four-year-old Mackenzie Cackett, who suffered a brain tumour, could have still been alive had it not been for mistakes in his diagnosis and treatment at Colchester General Hospital, Essex. He allegedly endured a series of lengthy delays and blunders before dying in May last year. Miss Uren, from Halstead in Essex, said: "It has been such a difficult time. We knew there was something wrong but we were ignored and that...

Soaring demand, a shortage of doctors and "toxic" overcrowding on hospital warns could make this the "worst winter yet" for NHS accident and emergency departments, a senior consultant has warned. Bernadette Garrihy, a member of the board of the College of Emergency Medicine, said doctors were concerned about their ability to provide "a safe and quality service" this winter and advised patients to only attend casualty departments "as a last resort." She said Government measures to ease the pressure on A&E amounted to "a drop in the ocean" and called for all parts of the NHS and social services to...

The Obamacare website has more than annoying bugs. A cybersecurity expert has found a way to hack into users' accounts. Until the Department of Health fixed the security hole last week, anyone could easily reset your Healthcare.gov password without your knowledge and potentially hijack your account. The glitch was discovered last week by Ben Simo, a software tester in Arizona. Simo found that gaining access to people's accounts was frighteningly simple:

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's highest court has ruled in favor of a hospital that withheld treatment from a terminally ill man despite the family's opposition.

The NHS could become an American-style service paid for through insurance contributions following the appointment of a new chief executive, the head of health at the country's largest union has suggested. Christina McAnea, Unison's head of health, made the comments after Simon Stevens - a former advisor to Tony Blair who is currently an executive for a US private healthcare firm - was announced as the next head of the organisation. She said she was “concerned” about what the move could mean. “Is this the Tory and Lib Dem Government hoping to import America-type values into the NHS, a sort...

Rock legend Roger Daltrey has questioned the effectiveness of the NHS claiming it encourages people to lead unhealthy lives because they know they will get free treatment. The Who frontman, who at 69 is still a picture of good health, said offering state-run free healthcare meant people did not bother looking after themselves. He said: “We have this free NHS, which makes us take our health for granted and means we don’t take responsibility for looking after ourselves. “Most illnesses people suffer from are because of their lifestyles.” His comments came just days after Labour peer Lord Warner’s dire warning

Up to £500m could be recovered from overseas visitors' and migrants' use of the NHS every year, ministers believe. The figure represents a quarter of the costs of treating such patients, the Department of Health data suggested. But ministers said it was a realistic target as some of the spending was unavoidable. The savings would come from a levy on foreigners, deterring health tourism and getting the NHS to claw back money it is owed by other countries. The government is currently consulting on the measures it will be taking to tackle this issue. It has already said a £200-a-year...

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital. Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Hundreds of hospital kitchens across the country are dirty, have cockroach and mice infestations or are stocking out-of-date food, a MailOnline investigation has revealed. Inspectors found that three-quarters of kitchens are flouting basic food hygiene rules while nearly a third were not properly cleaned. Six NHS hospitals had mice, two had rats, five had cockroaches and another hospital had an unspecified problem with “pests”. … An analysis of 769 environmental health inspection reports revealed that 581 hospitals across Britain are breaking the rules. …

Andy Mitchell, medical director for National Health Service (NHS) England in London said, “At times, throughout the week, even throughout the day, services aren’t safe”. Mitchell’s admission comes after the NHS Confederation said the service will soon be “unsustainable” if radical reforms are not presented before the next general election. The top health officials said the NHS is currently facing "the most challenging period in its 65-year existence,” and that the service might not be able to provide free health care for all patients any more. “Demand continues to rise, drugs cost more, and NHS inflation is higher than general...