The NHS is facing one of its worst winters for years with warnings that increased patient numbers, fewer beds, and less money will increase pressures on an already struggling system.
The government says it wants most hospital doctors on seven-day contracts by the end of this parliament, claiming thousands of patients are dying unnecessarily thanks to lack of weekend cover. The British Medical Association says its members welcome a seven-day NHS, but it wants to know how ministers propose to pay for the extra hours. The…
Victoria Macdonald
Does it really matter whose facts and figures are right? In the end, it is all about perception. The rhetoric for some time now has been that it is difficult to get a GP appointment.
All the main parties say the NHS will be safe in their hands. But how will they plug what experts say is a £30bn funding gap?
Victoria Macdonald
If this winter has identified anything it is that the health and social care system is not working together as well as it should. Indeed, some less kindly souls might say it’s barely working at all.
Victoria Macdonald
An NHS hospital has called in the Red Cross to help with what is rather pejoratively called bed blocking.
Victoria Macdonald
A new report by Chief Executive Simon Stevens lays out a way forward for the NHS – but will it assuage concern over the private sector’s role in the health service?
Victoria Macdonald
Six million patients a year are turning up at hospital A&E units because they can’t get appointments with their GPs. Meanwhile, a study suggests a rise of 11 per cent in the number of unplanned visits to A&E over the last four years.
Victoria Macdonald
The government could be facing a cross-party revolt on the care bill, which would give it greater powers to close or downgrade hospital services.
Victoria Macdonald
Accident and emergency units would be no more under plans proposed today by England’s medical director. Instead they would be divided into emergency centres and major emergency centres.
Victoria Macdonald
NHS director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is due to release a report on urgent care, but with winter fast approaching for struggling A&E departments, what the NHS perhaps needs is radical solutions.
There is no doubt that A&E departments are under pressure, but are they shouldering GPs’ work as Jeremy Hunt claims? FactCheck dons its white coat.
Victoria Macdonald
There is a good case for some A&E units closing, but people love their local hospitals. To win them over, those running the NHS need to use less jargon and be less patronising.
A Conservative MP has suggested that mass immigration from eastern Europe has helped pile the pressure on accident and emergency wards. FactCheck sharpens its scalpel.
Can accident and emergency departments really be hitting their targets if the system is in danger of meltdown? FactCheck finds out.