NHS reform and cuts: special report

Healthy people should be encouraged to take a daily dose of aspirin to ward off cancer, says a detailed new study highlighting the benefits of the household drug.

Nurses vote overwhelmingly against charging patients a fee for appointments with their family doctor. Do you think you should pay to see a GP, if it saves the NHS money? Vote in our poll.

Simon Stevens, the new of NHS England, says the health service needs to expand local services and that too many people are being robbed of “dignity and compassion” due to a lack of local care.

An NHS watchdog encourages healthy women to give birth at home or in midwife-led wards – having previously urged caution over such births. But with a shortage of midwives, is this guidance feasible?

Would you choose cancer or dementia? As a new study finds cancer survival rates are improving, Channel 4 News looks at the diseases that are no longer a death sentence – and the diagnoses we now fear.

The doctor will Skype you now: One GP explains (via Skype) how a Skype consultation works, and says some people prefer it to meeting face to face – especially for those more embarrassing ailments…

Maggots in treatment rooms, out of date vaccines, and consulting rooms with no doors: inspectors reveal failings at some GP surgeries in England.

Hospital bosses will have to publish the number of nurses on wards in response to the Mid Staffs scandal. But the government has stopped short of imposing minimum staffing levels.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says hospitals need “nursing numbers” in order to be “good”, but says he is not the one to guarantee that NHS nursing levels are restored to 2010 levels.

A&E departments across England could be facing their worst crisis ever this winter. Figures showing big increases in A&E waiting times are described by top doctors as “a cause for grave concern”.

Jeremy Hunt announces the Conservatives will give the Care Quality Commission “teeth” to investigate any hospital or trust, without needing state permission, in the wake of the Mid Staffs scandal.

The government has tasked the NHS with making efficiency savings of £20bn of by 2015. But a study of senior managers shows one in ten believe there is a 50 per cent chance they will meet their target.

Hospital care should be provided seven days a week, and patients should not have to move beds or wards unless medically necessary, according to a new report by the Royal College of Physicians.

The scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire trust is to be prosecuted over the death of Gillian Astbury in 2007. But Julie Bailey of Cure the NHS tells Channel 4 News it is “too little, too late”.

Three in five hospital bosses give their food top marks, but more than half of patients are unhappy with their meals. Campaigners have done the sums and say new food standards are needed.