Displaying items by tag: NHS

Friday, 15 October 2021 10:14

Coronavirus report: lessons learned to date

A report compiled by two committees, containing MPs from all parties, revealed that the early response to stop Covid spreading was a complete failure. Attempting herd immunity led to a delay in introducing the first lockdown and cost over 150,000 lives. The report covers a variety of successes and failures in 150 pages. MPs Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, chairing the committees, said the nature of the pandemic meant it was ‘impossible to get everything right’. ‘The UK has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both’, they said. Stephen Barclay said scientific advice had been followed and difficult judgments had been made to protect the NHS. A full public inquiry is expected in 2022, and the Government will not shy away from any lessons to be learned. Pray for the inquiry to have bereaved families at its heart.

Published in British Isles
Friday, 08 October 2021 10:09

Christian nurse suing NHS trust

Mary Onuoha, an operating theatre specialist at Croydon University Hospital, was bullied and pressured to remove her cross necklace while on duty. Mary says she was forced out of the job she loved after working there for 18 years. She is challenging the NHS trust for harassment, victimisation, and constructive unfair dismissal as they had breached her freedom to express her faith under the European Convention of Human Rights and the Equality Act. In August 2018 bosses ordered her to remove the cross which was a breach of NHS dress code and a ‘health risk’ to her and to patients. Mary argues that the dress code was applied inconsistently. Other nurses were not asked to remove jewellery, hijabs, saris, turbans or religious bracelets. Also Mary wore several lanyards at the same time with no anti-strangle clasps, yet her cross supposedly posed ‘a risk of injury or infection’.

Published in British Isles
Friday, 08 October 2021 10:06

Concerns over transgender patients in hospitals

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is to review guidance on transgender patients, following a newspaper investigation which discovered that male sex offenders who self-identify as women are placed on female-only wards. Despite instructions from the Department of Health to eliminate mixed-sex wards, guidance from hospitals states that patients should be admitted based on the gender they identify with and can choose which ward, lavatories and facilities they use. A whistleblower nurse warned, ‘If patients question why there is a male-bodied person on a female-only ward, medics are told to say that there are no men present. Staff raising safeguarding concerns may be threatened with disciplinary action. The NHS is influenced by the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.’ See

Published in British Isles
Friday, 10 September 2021 04:42

Social care system

The National Health Service has been providing free health care to all UK citizens based on their need for medical care rather than their ability to pay for it since its inception in 1948. This mandate does not extend to social care such as home care and residential care, which is means-tested. There is no overall limit on social care costs so thousands of frail and elderly people have had to sell their homes to pay for residential care.  See Only those with savings, homes and assets worth less than £23,250 currently receive free council help with residential care. On 8th September Boris Johnson revealed plans to fund England’s social care and help the NHS recover after the pandemic. Employees, employers and self-employed will pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance from April 2022. It will raise £12bn annually for the NHS and a proportion will be moved into social care over the next three years. Care cost contributions are to be capped at £86,000 from October 2023. If someone has less than £20,000 their care will be free and from £20,000 - £100,000 costs will be subsidised on a sliding scale.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 02 September 2021 22:42

NHS needs extra £10bn next year

Health bosses say that patients will be put at risk unless the NHS receives an extra £10bn next year to recover from the pandemic. A five-year settlement will see the funding increase by £33bn by 2023-24, but Covid has added to costs in a way that could not have been envisaged when Theresa May's government agreed the settlement in 2019. NHS leaders say the pandemic has led to pressures never seen in the history of the health service. Hospital layouts have had to be overhauled, services moved off site into new buildings, extra infection control procedures have been brought in, and the scale of sickness being seen means extra staff are needed to care for patients. At the same time, there is a growing backlog of traditional care such as hip and knee operations. Instead of budget growth by £4bn under the existing settlement, NHS leaders need almost £15bn.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 19 August 2021 21:42

Don’t ignore cancer signs

Thousands of people could be risking their lives by delaying seeking medical help. Tummy pain or a cough that does not go away could be caused by cancer, so these symptoms should be checked out. Cancers detected early can often be treated quickly and easily. But three in five people don't want to bother the NHS, while others are not aware of the common symptoms. NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said cancer services were now ‘running at full speed with new, innovative ways of working in place’. NHS TV advertisements are warning people not to ignore signs. Over the past year 10% fewer people have started cancer treatment; they are being encouraged to come forward now. Abdominal, throat, stomach, bowel, pancreatic, ovarian, prostate, kidney and bladder cancers account for 44% of all diagnoses, and two in five deaths from cancer in England.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 05 August 2021 21:51

Decisions on vaccinating children

Paul Whiteman of the school leaders' union says UK policy on jabs for children should be led by clinicians. Schools should not be responsible for promoting, enforcing, or policing pupil vaccinations. A record 1.13 million children in England were out of school for Covid-19 related reasons towards the end of term. Pupils will return to schools next month, and the Government needs to take every possible step to prevent transmission of the virus amongst people in school communities, no matter what their age. Vaccine decisions for teenagers will be guided by data from other countries. The reason to roll out the vaccine to children is to break the transmission chains in households and in schools for the autumn term, while we know the winter is going to be especially difficult with seasonal respiratory infections. Mr Whiteman recommends everyone over 12 should get the Covid vaccination, which is safe and effective. Israel is vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds, feeling that protection from vaccination outweighs the risks.

Published in British Isles
Friday, 30 July 2021 10:22

NHS ‘under similar pressure to January’

In a letter to Boris Johnson, cabinet ministers and the NHS England chief executive, the NHS Providers group says demands on staff are rising. Many chief executives are saying that the overall level of pressure they are now experiencing is different in shape, but similar in scale to what they saw in January when the NHS was under the greatest pressure in a generation. The letter calls on the Government to make ‘the right decisions’ as it finalises NHS funding for the second half of the financial year. Hospital pressures include going ‘full speed’ to address the backlog of mental health and community care services, and record demands for urgent and emergency care. There are growing hospital admissions for Covid, along with more than a million cases of long Covid and people suffering poor mental health. Hospitals are currently running enhanced infection control measures, leading to ‘significant loss of capacity’, with staff self-isolating or suffering stress and mental health issues.

Published in British Isles
Friday, 23 July 2021 10:21

NHS praise without a raise means little

Health workers protested in July against a 1% pay rise which the Government insisted was all it could afford. 1% was rejected by unions representing the 1.2m NHS English personnel. Conservative MPs are worried that it made the government look ungrateful for frontline workers’ herculean efforts during the pandemic. Opinion polls suggested the public agreed, and health leaders warned that it would only increase the NHS’s debilitating problems in recruiting and retaining staff. The prime minister has now offered 3%. But unions called the offer an insult and are prepared to force an increase. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, GMB and Unite are seriously considering taking action (work to rule or strike) by medics, including nurses and junior doctors, and are canvassing their members’ views on the offer.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 03 June 2021 21:16

Christian doctor - abortion reversal treatment

Dr Dermot Kearney, who is a highly skilled doctor and former president of the Catholic Medical Association, has been blocked from providing an abortion reversal treatment while an investigation takes place. Dr Kearney provided emergency abortion rescue service to women who later regretted taking the first of two abortion pills (Mifepristone) and wanted to try to save their babies. He prescribed the natural hormone progesterone which inhibits Mifepristone effects. Abortion reversal is about 68% successful if treatment starts within 72 hours. The Christian Legal Centre is supporting Dr Kearney. He is still practising in his NHS hospital but not offering the abortion reversal service. There will be a final disciplinary hearing at which all options will be open about his continuing to practise and his future. He offered the service because the Catholic Medical Association was getting many queries from women, asking for help.

Published in British Isles