Victoria Macdonald , Health and Social Care Editor

The Covid inquiry and the government continue to lock horns.

Cutting waiting times, reducing heart disease and preventing suicides – these were just some of Sir Keir Starmer’s pledges – when he promised to make the NHS ‘fit for the future’.

It was created with the very best of intentions – to help hospitals learn lessons when a baby or mother is harmed or dies.

It was set up to investigate harms and deaths of babies and mothers during birth – but staff have warned that there are fundamental flaws in the national organisation for patient safety which may end up making outcomes even worse.

Community pharmacies in England will be given new cash to take on some patient treatment roles, from basic prescriptions to routine tests – designed to relieve the pressure on GPs. While doctors have broadly welcomed the plans, they said it wouldn’t address the acute staff shortage – while  the Prime Minister would not be drawn…

The World Health Organisation has declared Covid is no longer a global emergency.

What happens next as nurses vote against the government’s pay offer?

England’s hospital waiting times have never been longer. Ambulances are taking longer to respond too. If you’re trying to get routine treatment, even for cancer – or help with an emergency – then be prepared to wait, and wait. A situation hardly helped by the continuing strike action by junior doctors – now in its…

Hospital bosses say they’re worried about providing overnight care to patients, describing it as a “long, difficult week for the NHS” as junior doctors across England continue their four-day strike.

Endometriosis is a debilitating condition that affects one in ten women – but so far there is no cure, and relatively little research has been done into possible causes and treatments. Those living with it can experience severe pain, excessive bleeding and, in many cases, problems with fertility. A lack of awareness – and even…

There are more than 600,000 people in the UK living with epilepsy, many of whom use drug sodium valproate to control their seizures.

Junior doctors have announced what will be the biggest strike in NHS history – a four-day walk out in mid-April.

Just over three weeks ago the Department of Health was saying that any pay award above three and a half per cent was unaffordable.

Thousands of junior doctors have walked out at the start of a three-day strike over pay and conditions – setting up picket lines outside hospitals across England.

It is a simple test – blow into a plastic bag, analyse it – and see if the patient has esophageal cancer, a tumour in the windpipe.