nhs

Extra health funding and a population that is ageing faster than previously expected will add to the burden of spending over the next 50 years, according to the Treasury’s independent forecaster. The £20bn boost to the health budget by 2021-22 promised by Theresa May, coupled with falling...

Patients with hernia problems are being left in pain and at risk of needing emergency surgery, and even of death, because the NHS is increasingly rationing surgery to treat it. The number of NHS bodies across England that are restricting access to inguinal hernia surgery has doubled since 2014...

An "innovative" NHS virtual centre has received an outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Birmingham patients are able to book video consultations with a GP, nurse or pharmacist, seven days a week. Virtual services include an app for patients to access appointments and...

Posters have been put up at two hospitals reminding staff to make sure they are treating the correct patient after a series of mix-ups. Oxford University Hospitals NHS trust introduced the signs in staff areas at the John Radcliffe and Churchill following four "never events". They included the...

Jeremy Hunt arrived at the Department of Health in September 2012 with a largely thankless task: dealing with the top-down reorganisation of the NHS his predecessor Andrew Lansley had introduced, but which his boss, David Cameron, had promised would not take place. Mr Hunt described the...

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has accepted £32,000 from the chairman of a think-tank which wants to scrap the NHS. He also took £5,000 from the director of a private nursing firm which supplies agency workers to the health service. The donations will raise questions about the 39-year-old’s...

Hospitals will bear the brunt of “incredibly shortsighted” cuts to public health initiatives that will lead to more people having a heart attack or getting cancer, experts are warning. New research reveals that, by next year, spending per head in England on programmes to tackle smoking, poor...

CHANGING technology has improved people’s lives in all areas, especially in medicine. In our latest feature celebrating the NHS’s 70th anniversary we shine a light on the experiences of one of Bolton’s diabetes specialist nurses. AMY Savage, aged 49, has been a specialist in diabetes for 19...

Free at the point of need. That for me, as we debate the NHS on its 70th birthday, is the one thing that should remain sacrosanct. It is a beautiful concept, and a line that should not be crossed. Whatever the NHS’s flaws, it means that if you get sick you should expect to be treated without...

The government has unveiled a new NHS mobile app that will put patients in England in direct touch with their GPs. The app will allow users to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and see their medical files held by the surgery. They will also be able to sign up as organ donors...

Ten million teaspoons of sugar have been removed from NHS canteens, shops and vending machines – the equivalent of 1.1 million cans of fizzy drink – after the majority of hospital trusts signed up to a voluntary scheme. Last year NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens challenged trusts to...

Hundreds of thousands of NHS patients will be refused operations judged futile as part of cost-cutting measures in the health service. Procedures including injections for back pain, surgery to help snorers and knee arthroscopies for arthritis form part of an initial list of 17 operations that...

Presenter Alex Brooker found fame being funny, but a new documentary about the NHS sees him return to his journalistic roots. He talks to Georgia Humphreys about why he wanted to be involved ALEX BROOKER had no idea how much his life would change after the 2012 Paralympics. The 34-year-old was...

Police are called to at least one violent incident against NHS staff each day on average, figures have suggested. Statistics from four health boards showed officers were called 521 times in 2017/18 and 2,719 times since 2013. One nurse said she struggled to pass a street in Newport where she...

The NHS in England needs 74,000 more hospital beds to catch up with the average provision in EU-15 member states, new research has warned. The TUC and NHS Support Federation said England has 2.4 beds per 1,000 people compared to the average of 3.7 beds for EU-15 countries. The research also...

Doctors have said leaving the EU is “bad for Britain’s health” as they endorsed a public vote on the final Brexit deal. A motion opposing Brexit, supporting membership of the European single market and calling for the public to have a final say on the terms of the deal was passed at the British...

Theresa May’s claim that the extra £20bn-a-year for the NHS will be funded by a “Brexit dividend” is being challenged by parliament’s spending watchdog. The public accounts committee is warning that any cash boost that might come in the wake of the UK’s exit from the European Union is several...

The NHS leads the world at ensuring equal access to treatment but underperforms compared with other developed countries’ healthcare systems in preventing common causes of death, a major analysis has found. The report, which will fuel further debate about the current state of the NHS, also found...

I started my training as a midwife in St Lucia. Then I saw an advertisement saying that they were desperate in London to have qualified persons to help out, so I came here in 1958, when I was 20, and trained for three years at Mount Vernon hospital in Northwood. As a trainee in St Lucia, there...

The NHS is turning 70. It's a time for celebration. But like any big birthday, it naturally prompts thoughts of what is to come. What will the NHS look like in the future? Let's see if we can forecast what the health service will be like on its 100th birthday. Will there even be an NHS? It...