nhs

The NHS could help avoid a winter crisis this year by treating thousands more patients in ambulatory care units (ACUs), allowing people to go home the day they arrive, doctors say. Many more patients with blood clots, infections, seizures and anaemia could be treated in ACUs on the day and then...

Growing numbers of hospital units that provide cancer care and children’s services are among those being forced to shut because the NHS’s deepening staffing crisis means it has too few doctors and nurses to operate them safely. The closures are leading to patients having to travel further to...

The north of England deserves a greater slice of NHS funding to help it close the health gap between the region and the south and boost productivity, according to academics from six universities. The so-called “northern powerhouse” area, which covers 16 million people, should receive a...

“In the UK, we are spending £97bn of public money on treating disease and only £8bn preventing it,” the health secretary Matt Hancock said last week. “You don’t have to be an economist to see those numbers don’t stack up.” But Matt Hancock actually is an economist, so how does he know? I suppose...

Hello, my doctor has just told me he can only perscribe me a maximum of 2 months worth of insulin due to NHS rules. I have desperatly googled and cant find any legeslation or anything on the NHS that implies doctors can only perscribe 2 months worth maximum. Im really worried now as i am...

Doctors should prescribe song playlists as well as medication, the health secretary has said. Patients with mental health conditions could be given dancing and music classes, under new "social prescribing" plans. Matt Hancock has criticised the reliance of treating long-term illnesses with...

Alcohol, sugar, salt and fat. These are a few of my favourite things. But because I want to live into spritely old age I must apparently use my enormous willpower to banish these evils from my life. Why? Because yet another puffed up young man, this one called Matt Hancock, tells me to. Who is...

A rising number of patients are facing long waits for key NHS tests as UK hospitals struggle with staff shortages, a BBC investigation shows. Tests such as scans and biopsies are crucial for diagnosing illnesses. But tens of thousands of patients are waiting weeks - sometimes months - for...

One of the biggest NHS trusts is to stop providing chemotherapy at one of its hospitals because it has too few specialist cancer nurses to staff the unit. The Cedar Centre at King George hospital in Ilford, east London, will cease provision from 12 November because four of its nurses have quit...

New measures to protect NHS staff are to be introduced to try to reduce the thousands of assaults on them that take place every year. Staff are to be given better training in dealing with violent situations and offenders will be prosecuted more quickly. Health Secretary Matt Hancock will set...

Spending on public health, and doctors' and nurses' training in England is set to fall next year according to the fine print of the Budget documents. The chancellor announced annual real-terms funding increases for NHS England which provides front-line services. But other areas of health...

Theresa May is being urged to write off almost £12bn in overspending by hospitals or risk her £20bn NHS boost being spent on debt repayment rather than improving healthcare. NHS experts are warning that promised expansions of cancer and mental healthcare will prove impossible because a large...

GPs in England are being given permission to prescribe patients "social" activities, such as dance classes, to tackle loneliness. The strategy, announced by Prime Minister Theresa May, will also see postal delivery workers checking in on isolated people during their rounds. The government says...

A clear majority of the UK’s doctors and nurses think that the NHS will deteriorate after Brexit, with the result being longer waiting times and staff shortages, according to a new poll of medical professionals. The survey by YouGov also suggests that opposition to Brexit has grown among...

Patients claiming free prescriptions face checks before medicine is issued in an effort to stamp out fraud. Prescription fraud currently costs the NHS an estimated £256m a year in England. A new digitised system to be piloted next year will mean pharmacies can instantly verify who is entitled...

The government’s decision to allow many more overseas doctors and nurses to work in the NHS was only temporary, Sajid Javid has said, in a move that has prompted concern that tough restrictions on numbers may be reimposed. The home secretary hinted at a possible U-turn on the relaxation of...

A six-year-old boy who suffered a catastrophic brain injury after contracting herpes has won a record £37 million NHS compensation payout. Following his birth at Watford General Hospital, the youngster was infected with the virus, which developed into a devastating brain fever, a court heard...

A hospital trust has brought in robot medical secretaries to work alongside its human staff in what it claims is a first for the NHS. The three so-called virtual workers at Ipswich Hospital, run by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, are designed to free staff up from “mundane and...

A criminal investigation has been launched into how a major NHS supplier employed by dozens of hospital trusts retained body parts including amputated limbs and waste from cancer treatment. The Environment Agency said Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) had breached its permits at five...

NHS UK has produced some new, updated pages about Type 1 diabetes: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/ There is also information about Type 2 diabetes (last updated 2017) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-2-diabetes/