Free Republic

One of the most curious political phenomena of the western world is the indestructible affection in which the British hold their National Health Service. No argument, no criticism, no evidence can diminish, let alone destroy, it. The only permissible criticism of it is that the government does not spend enough on it, a ‘meanness’ (with other people’s money) to which all the service’s shortcomings are attributable. In effect, the NHS is the national religion. Yet again, however, the NHS is in ‘crisis.’ The British Red Cross has called the present situation an incipient humanitarian crisis, as if the country were...

The number of NHS patients in England who had urgent operations cancelled hit record numbers in November, soaring to almost double the level a year ago, according to government data.

A chance glance and a big toe saved a 22-year-old woman’s life in the UK, the London Times reports. Sam Hemming, a law school graduate of North Wales’ Bangor University, was being driven home to Hereford by her boyfriend, Tom Curtis, in July when they got into an accident, per the Mirror: The car flipped, and while Curtis wasn’t badly hurt, Hemming was left with broken neck bones, a fractured arm, and severe head injuries, leading doctors to place her in a medically induced coma, the Sun notes. After 19 days, the doctors said hope was gone, and Hemming’s family...

The body that represents hospitals across England has issued a startling warning that the NHS is close to breaking point because of its escalating cash crisis. Years of underfunding have left the service facing such “impossible” demands that without urgent extra investment in November’s autumn statement it will have to cut staff, bring in charges or introduce “draconian rationing” of treatment – all options that will provoke public disquiet, it says. NHS 'in perpetual winter of Narnia' as waiting list reaches record 3.9m Read more In an unprecedentedly bleak assessment of the NHS’s own health, NHS Providers, which speaks for...

The body that represents hospitals across England has issued a startling warning that the NHS is close to breaking point because of its escalating cash crisis. Years of underfunding have left the service facing such “impossible” demands that without urgent extra investment in November’s autumn statement it will have to cut staff, bring in charges or introduce “draconian rationing” of treatment – all options that will provoke public disquiet, it says. n an unprecedentedly bleak assessment of the NHS’s own health, NHS Providers, which speaks for hospital trust chairs and chief executives, tells ministers that widespread breaches of performance targets,...

Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale. Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations. The decision, described by the Royal College of Surgeons as the “most severe the modern NHS has ever...

Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale. Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.

Hospitals are to cancel thousands of operations and appointments in a desperate bid to stop the NHS "buckling" this winter, under Government plans. Health officials are drawing up contingency measures to attempt to safeguard emergency care by diverting senior doctors from operating theatres into wards and Accident & Emergency departments as winter sets in. The national plan, detailed in evidence to the Commons health select committee, comes amid concern that the NHS is already in the grip of the worst bed-blocking crisis on record. Last night, Britain’s most senior A&E doctor said hospitals were under such strain that a bad...

Elderly patients are being told by opticians to buy darker sunglasses as the NHS will not pay for life-changing cataract surgery Others have been informed they are not ‘entitled’ just because they had laser treatment on their eyes 16 years ago.

Hospitals across the UK are imposing do not resuscitate orders on tens of thousands of patients without informing their families, an audit has found. The investigation, by the Royal College of Physicians, estimated that around 200,000 patients are issued with the order for health workers not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In 16% of cases, the study found there was no record with the patient about making the order. The study also found that hospitals are failing to tell relations that they will not perform the potentially lifesaving technique. Its audit of 9,000 dying patients found that one in 5...

Hospitals in England are braced for the first all-out doctors' strike in the NHS's history on Tuesday. Junior doctors will walk out of both routine and emergency care from 08:00 to 17:00 BST in the contract row. It is the first time services such as A&E, maternity and intensive care have been hit in the long-running dispute. NHS bosses believe plans are in place to ensure care will be safe, but say the situation will be monitored closely during the stoppage. A second strike is due to take place on Wednesday, between the same hours. -snip NHS England said "military...

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. Her devastated husband, Jim, is now demanding answers from Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust - the organisation where his wife had served as a non-executive member of the board of directors.

A young girl who dreamed of studying at Cambridge died of sepsis after being sent home twice by an NHS weekend walk-in centre. An inquest heard medics missed opportunities to save twelve-year-old Franchesca Pawson when she visited an NHS walk-in centre twice in a weekend. She was told to take paracetamol and ibuprofen at the centre, after nurses failed to detect the infection was spreading through her body. Her mother Elsa took her to the clinic in Derby on Saturday 10 January last year, because had been unwell for five days and was complaining of fever, a high temperature and...

A hospital doctor who gave a man a vasectomy by mistake after he complaint about waiting for another procedure has admitted misconduct charges. Associate specialist in urology Dr Nanikram Vaswani was meant to be removing scar tissue from the patient, but a string of failings meant he performed a vasectomy instead. A medical tribunal heard the patient had arrived at 7.30am for his surgery and was waiting with other men due to have vasectomies. There was "some disquiet" when patients who arrived at 11am were seen before those who arrived earlier leading to confusion over which procedure the man should...

The NHS chief at the centre of a growing 111 scandal authorised a separate policy which meant 999 calls were recorded as receiving a swift response - even if no help was given, a leaked report reveals. The head of South East Coast Ambulance trust ordered the secret scheme, which improved its apparent performance against national targets. Under NHS rules, 75 per cent of calls assessed as “life-threatening” should receive a response within eight minutes. But the trust retrospectively assessed thousands of missed calls, and counted them as receiving such a response - simply on the grounds that the patient...

Foreign press will need permission to publish anything online in China under new rules proposed by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier this week and reported by Quartz. Under the new provisions, which are due to take effect on March 10 and are the latest evidence that China is clamping down on foreign influence, the government said it hopes to “regulate online publishing” and “promote the healthy and orderly development of online publishing services.” “Sino-foreign joint ventures and foreign business units shall not engage in online publishing services” and must be approved by the government before doing so, the rules, which were...

Nearly 3,000 operations have been canceled as junior doctors in England take part in a second 24-hour strike over pay and conditions. Checkups, appointments and tests are also set to be disrupted as a result of the walkout, which began at 08:00 GMT. Formal talks broke down in January and there is mounting speculation ministers may soon seek to impose a new contract, potentially inflaming the row further. The key sticking point appears to be payments for working on Saturdays. ...

At least 2,400 cancer patients die needlessly every year because their GP does not refer them to a specialist quickly enough, research has suggested. The two-week wait means patients should see a specialist for their first appointment within two weeks of seeing a GP with suspected cancer symptoms. But new research has found a higher number of deaths in cancer patients whose GPs do not regularly use the pathway. Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK and National Institute for Health Research, examined data from 215,284 English cancer patients in 2009....

NHS trusts in England have racked up a deficit approaching £1 billion in the first three months of the financial year - the worst financial position "in a generation," regulators have said. The figure is more than the £820 million overspend for the entire previous year. They said the “staggering” figures would result in widespread cutbacks to services, with lengthening waiting times and increased rationing of care.

The number of cases of a terrifying superbug in NHS hospitals has surged after the Government ignored warnings—and relaxed the rules on fighting infections. Hundreds more patients fell ill with deadly Clostridium difficile—known as C.diff—between April 2014 and March 2015 than in the previous year. The increase, from 13,361 to 14,165, came immediately after the system for fining hospitals with too many cases was dramatically weakened. …