nhs

Ministers are on course to miss their target of increasing the number of mental health staff by 21,000 by 2020, according to NHS workforce figures obtained by Labour. A year after the government made the pledge, NHS mental health trusts in England had employed just 1,524 extra personnel...

All NHS patients in England will be able to book GP appointments online, order repeat prescriptions and access their full medical history on a new cloud system as part of a shake-up of IT systems. The changes, which aim to replace outdated IT technology and improve digital coordination between...

Hospitals are making hundreds of millions of pounds from car parking charges, with more than four in 10 NHS trusts increasing the cost of a stay in the past year. An investigation using freedom of information requests has found that some trusts have doubled the price of car parking for patients...

The government has set up a team of troubleshooters to tackle problems in the NHS in the event of a no-deal Brexit, including drug shortages and the loss of key staff. Ministers have admitted there will be disruption in the NHS if Britain leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal, and the team’s...

A hip replacement patient took an £11,500 loan to pay for an operation after the NHS postponed treatment due to his weight. Roland Crooke was in "huge pain" when he was denied surgery by Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG]. The group's guidelines mean anyone with a body mass index...

The government’s chaos over Brexit has forced NHS leaders to delay publication of the health service’s long-term plan. The document, which will set out how the NHS in England will spend the £20.5bn budget increase Theresa May has promised, was due to come out early next week, but that has been...

Almost all the £20.5bn extra a year for the NHS risks being swallowed up by the ageing population, pay rises, the rising cost of drugs and hospitals’ deficits, a report has concluded. As little as £1.3bn of the increase could be left to fund improvements in treatment unless the service...

Hospitals in England are so overcrowded ahead of Christmas care is being put at risk, experts say, with some places having to turn away ambulances because they cannot accept any more patients. NHS England's first weekly report of the winter shows nearly 95% of beds are occupied. Anything above...

The sharp slowdown in EU migrant workers coming to Britain has pushed the hiring needs of the NHS and the wider public sector to the highest levels in seven years. According to a poll of 2,102 employers across nine different industry sectors by the recruitment firm ManpowerGroup, which is used...

The NHS will be banned from buying fax machines from next month - and has been told by the government to phase out the machines entirely by 31 March 2020. In July, the Royal College of Surgeons revealed nearly 9,000 fax machines were in use across the NHS in England. The Department of Health...

Hey everyone Just a general question - how often should someone expect to be able to access diabetes clinic nurse appointments? I'm guessing this will vary depending on where people are with their diabetes, but is there a standard minimum other than foot/eye tests once a year? My nurse went...

Some London CCGs are contesting being charged a fee for patients in their areas that have signed up to Babylon GP at Hand. CCGs were told to ‘set aside’ money to cover the costs of patients who reside within the CCG but are registered with the digital-first service, which is based in NHS...

One in five patients now has to wait at least 15 days to see a GP in England, NHS figures have revealed. Just under 5m of the 27.1m appointments at GPs’ surgeries in October involved waiting anywhere between 15 and 28 or more days to see a doctor or practice nurse. That was almost one in five...

The head of the NHS and the government are at loggerheads over how much the health service can be improved for the £20.5bn extra Theresa May has pledged to give it, the Guardian can reveal. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has been having major disagreements behind the scenes...

Volunteers play a vital role in hospitals such as by doing tea rounds and fetching medications but should never be required to do the work of trained staff, according to a report. An estimated 78,000 volunteers perform a variety of roles in NHS hospitals across England. Richard Murray, the...

NHS bosses are considering a shake-up of A&E care that could lead to patients with only minor ailments no longer being guaranteed that they will be treated within four hours. Under the plans being examined, people with non-urgent medical needs would be advised to seek help at a GP surgery...

I couldn't sleep last night, so I was up all night playing games on Pogo. :( Then, finally, when my carer came and gave me my breakfast, I was finally ready to sleep -- but remembered that I had to wait up for the district nurse to come and give me my insulin shot. She normally turns up at...

The number of EU nationals leaving jobs at public bodies such as hospital trusts and universities rose by an estimated 15% between 2016 and 2017, according to freedom of information data assembled by a pro second referendum group. Best for Britain collected data from 82 hospital trusts and 116...

The NHS is set to make a record-breaking saving after reaching deals with manufacturers on low-cost “biosimilar” versions of its most expensive drug, according to the health service’s chief executive in England. The deal should save hospitals £300m, which equates to roughly three-quarters of...

Primary and community healthcare in England will benefit from a real-terms boost of £3.5bn a year by 2023/24, the government has announced. The spending, part of the NHS long term plan backed by £20.5bn over the next five years, is intended to improve care in the home, and thereby avoid...