nhs

One in four people over-65 in Britain are clinically obese, shocking NHS figures reveal. Now experts are calling for the sugar tax levied on fizzy drinks to be extended to help stem the epidemic. Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said lack of exercise as well as sugary foods...

The NHS walk-in centers in London are popular with many because you can get treatment for minor ailments without having to wait weeks for an appointment with a general practitioner. Yet cost pressures are pushing the NHS to review these cherished centers in many parts of the capital. It was...

Though winter crises are nothing new to the NHS, this one is proving exceptionally difficult. By any measure, patients are waiting longer in A&E. The number waiting more than 12 hours for a bed once it has been decided they need to be admitted to hospital (so-called trolley waits), was up more...

THE NHS in Dorset spends £52 more on diabetes drugs per patient than it did five years ago, figures reveal. The charity Diabetes UK says the disease is “one of our biggest health crises”, and the health service allocated more than £1 billion in the last financial year alone to devices and drugs...

Plans to scrap the four-hour A&E target have sparked a furious backlash from doctors and nurses, with some claiming it is driven by ministers’ desire to avoid negative publicity about patients facing increasingly long delays. A&E consultants led a chorus of medical opposition to the move. They...

Thousands of A&E patients were left more than four hours before being dealt with at hospitals in West Yorkshire in December, as a number of local NHS Trusts recorded their worst waiting time performance in five years. Medical professionals warn that services are at breaking point nationally...

The NHS has revealed it is desperate for more male blood donations but the campaign has led some men to speak out about the difficulties they have experienced trying to donate. Only 41% of new blood donors in England last year were men. Certain factors mean only male blood is used in some...

Future medical advances are at risk because NHS pressures are hampering the ability of staff to take part in vital research, leading academics say. The Academy of Medical Sciences said the number of doctors involved in research had fallen, while budgets had been frozen. It said despite...

Almost 5,500 patients have died over the past three years because they have spent so long on a trolley in an A&E unit waiting for a bed in overcrowded hospitals, a study by leading NHS doctors has found. Their conclusion that long delays finding spare beds is costing patients’ lives has emerged...

More than half of hospitals have opened extra beds to help them cope with the NHS winter crisis amid an influx of patients with potentially fatal breathing problems. Many of the so-called escalation beds are already occupied by people suffering from flu, pneumonia or chronic obstructive...

Millions of patients will be stopped from having an X-ray on their sore back, hernia repair surgery or scan of their knee to detect arthritis under controversial plans from NHS and doctors to ration “unnecessary” treatment. The Guardian has seen a list of 34 diagnostic tests and treatments that...

The NHS is relying on less qualified staff to plug workforce gaps because of a huge shortage of nurses, according to a new report. Support staff, such as healthcare assistants and nursing associates, have been used to shore up staffing numbers, said the Health Foundation charity. The NHS has...

Labour has obtained official documents showing the US is demanding that the NHS will be “on the table” in talks on a post-Brexit trade deal, Jeremy Corbyn has said. The Labour leader said the uncensored papers gave the lie to Boris Johnson’s claims that the NHS would not be part of any trade...

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has ruled out scrapping home visits for GPs after doctors backed the idea in a vote, arguing that they were too over-stretched to deliver the service. Delegates representing GPs across England at a British Medical Association conference voted to try to remove...

Hospitals are so short of doctors and nurses that patients’ safety and quality of care are under threat, senior NHS leaders have warned in a dramatic intervention in the general election campaign Nine out of 10 hospital bosses in England fear understaffing across the service has become so...

The NHS is running short of dozens of lifesaving medicines including treatments for cancer, heart conditions and epilepsy, the Guardian has learned. An internal 24-page document circulated to some doctors last Friday from the medicine supply team at the Department of Health and Social Care...

One in six patients waited longer than four hours in A&E in England during October – the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004, according to data. Just 83.6% of patients arriving at A&E were treated or admitted in four hours, figures from NHS England show. The shadow...

The NHS is likely to take centre stage in next month’s election. Debate to date has focused on what the health service might look like in a post-Brexit world if America’s for-profit buccaneer “big pharma” gain a significant foothold following a US-UK trade deal. Jeremy Corbyn was spot on when he...

As a GP working in London, it is not uncommon for me to hear people say they can’t afford prescription charges, or that they don’t have the money to buy their medication until they get paid at the end of the month. Some drugs are so expensive they are wholly out of people’s reach. “But if this...

The price the NHS pays for US medicines could soar under a trade deal with the United States after the UK leaves the European Union, according to an investigation. Despite Boris Johnson’s assertion that the NHS is not on the table, sources with knowledge of the initial trade discussions between...