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Think they will get rid of PLAB and get docs in from the sub-continent now.
-
Contact the PP Team
The NHS (UK) thread
- Thread starter Cpt. Rishwat
- Start date
Think they will get rid of PLAB and get docs in from the sub-continent now.
SpiritOf1903
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What's the alternative?. Under Corbyn they had McDonnell whose policies have all been copied.
Now they're just a bunch of apologetic clowns and freaks
Robert
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And people are too uneducated to see it. Tories tell them to blame foreigners, and they keep voting Tory to make them feel safe from the foreigners. Works every time.
Robert
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Fund it properly.
Reverse Ken Clark’s 1993 reforms. Take the trusts back into District Health Authority control. Remove some of the cadre of administrators, and train up or import more doctors and nursing staff.
Brexit didn’t help as so many Euro staff left. Take us back into the Single Market and invite them to return.
This won’t happen under a Tory government.
Pakpak
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PLAB is finishing and being replaced by just one exam that ALL doctors whether UK based or foriegn will have to do.
Bringing in doctors won't do anything as the amount leaving is too much. The ones that come here from back home end up leaving for Middle East. I know so many personal examples.
The system isn't funded well at all, it's barely holding right now.
James
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The usual answer to this conundrum seems to be “Blame the Tories”, but that feels a bit superficial and overly simplified at times.
Sitting governments are always easy targets.
The government spending on the Department of Health and Social Care seems to be enormous, and going up every year:-
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
Is this not enough to provide a good service? (Genuine question)
(e.g.) Are there internal NHS issues with mismanagement of funds and unwise spending behaviours? — too many layers of management and unnecessary job roles? — could the institution itself improve its efficiency?
Sitting governments are always easy targets.
The government spending on the Department of Health and Social Care seems to be enormous, and going up every year:-
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
Is this not enough to provide a good service? (Genuine question)
(e.g.) Are there internal NHS issues with mismanagement of funds and unwise spending behaviours? — too many layers of management and unnecessary job roles? — could the institution itself improve its efficiency?
Technics 1210
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Exactly, typical drivel from LD/Labour supporters. When all else fails, blame the Tories, blame Brexit, and blame racists. When liberals actually propose solutions only then are they worth speaking to, but they cannot arrive at any propositions because they do not understand the problem. Until then it is just a blame game from these losers.
NHS has been struggling long before the UK joined the EU, and has been in decline ever since, including during the period of Labour government 97-10 when Labour setup Quangos (unnecessary levels of management). NOt forgetting the pathetic coalition involving the LDs of 2010-2015 - what did the LD party do to help the NHS? Sweet FA.
The solution to making the NHS more efficient is :
1. Abolish levels of quangos management.
2. Charge foreigners at point of service (Non UK domiciles/Non UK tax payers).
3. Increase wages of nurses and staff such that private health jobs aren't as attractive.
4. Big Pharma reduce costs of medicine.
5. Refuse assistance for minor cuts, coughs, and binge drinking related injuries.
6. Stop funding wars, I mean why spend £10 Billion on Ukraine when it can be better spent in the UK?
Also, private sector pay is far more attractive than NHS pay. This means even if the NHS is loaded with EU staff, said staff would work a few years then fob off to the private sector.
If anyone is not happy with the NHS, bore off, and sign up to a private medical health care insurance, which is LESS than your NI contributions, or catch the next flight to Rwanda.
NHS has been struggling long before the UK joined the EU, and has been in decline ever since, including during the period of Labour government 97-10 when Labour setup Quangos (unnecessary levels of management). NOt forgetting the pathetic coalition involving the LDs of 2010-2015 - what did the LD party do to help the NHS? Sweet FA.
The solution to making the NHS more efficient is :
1. Abolish levels of quangos management.
2. Charge foreigners at point of service (Non UK domiciles/Non UK tax payers).
3. Increase wages of nurses and staff such that private health jobs aren't as attractive.
4. Big Pharma reduce costs of medicine.
5. Refuse assistance for minor cuts, coughs, and binge drinking related injuries.
6. Stop funding wars, I mean why spend £10 Billion on Ukraine when it can be better spent in the UK?
Also, private sector pay is far more attractive than NHS pay. This means even if the NHS is loaded with EU staff, said staff would work a few years then fob off to the private sector.
If anyone is not happy with the NHS, bore off, and sign up to a private medical health care insurance, which is LESS than your NI contributions, or catch the next flight to Rwanda.
Pakpak
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It is the Tories' fault. But it is also probably the fact that the UK will have to at some point go for a hybrid system, seen it in Eastern Europe personally and it is doable. The population is too big, the amount of staff too small for this to sustain itself.
They're very lucky that private medicine isn't really that common. To practice privately you need vast experience and a lot of connections which a lot of doctors don't bother with and never are able to do. I know I won't be able to, its much easier to simply go abroad. Which is what is happening. Even to junior doctors pay in Australia is crazy compared to UK at SHO level. I know a few friends who went and can't say I wasn't tempted.
The other issue is management. Countless billions are wasted on management.
All this is irreversible however, with the introduction of cheap ANPs, cheap apprentice to doctor 2 year pathways and now courses where you can do surgical procedures means the government is unwilling or unable to pay doctors proper money.
Another issue which the pubic is unaware is:
-most patients are now elderly, who's cause of stay in hospital isn't medical issues but no place to go
-Almost 95% of the patients I see are elderly and I'd say a MASSIVE chunk are medically fit but unable to leave as it takes WEEKS (for some MONTHS) to get a nursing home spot. If they have no place to go they can't leave. The record is currently a lady in my ward for 6 months because no nursing home is available for her needs right ow.
NHS is little more than a nursing home sometimes.
No empty beds therefore means more backlog.
I don't see any other system than slowly what is in the US right now.
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People in life-threatening conditions in England had a record wait for an ambulance to arrive last month.
Ambulances took 9 minutes and 35 seconds to get to the most serious of 999 calls in July, 29 seconds longer than in June and the same as the record set in March.
In the equivalent month before the pandemic, July 2019, ambulances were more than two minutes faster at responding to these types of calls.
Heart attacks and strokes
People who had heart attacks or strokes in England waited more than half an hour longer for an ambulance to arrive in July compared with before the pandemic.
The average waiting time for these Category 2 calls, classed as emergencies, was almost an hour last month, 59 minutes and 7 seconds, compared with 23 minutes and 19 seconds in July 2019.
The NHS target is that patients in this category should wait no more than 18 minutes for an ambulance on average.
Response times for these calls have got worse at a faster rate than those immediately life-threatening calls which are prioritised. But the decline is arguably more important as they affect many more people.
Two thirds of 999 calls were classed as Category 2 in July, compared with one in six that fell into the life-threatening category.
Glenn Carrington, UNISON Branch Chair of East of England Ambulance Service and a paramedic for 36 years, explained why.
More than 1,000 people waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E every day, figures reveal
"You might have ten ambulances on shift, but you'll have nine of them waiting outside A&E, so we can only respond to the most immediate emergency.
"You might be on your way out to someone who's had a heart attack but you have to turn around because you've got another call about someone who's not breathing.
"Sometimes what we think is the biggest emergency isn't really, it's just someone who's shouting loudest. That's why we need to get out to everyone."
Urgent calls
Incidents classed as urgent made up about one in five 999 ambulance calls last month. The average waiting times for these was more than three hours.
The NHS target is that no more than one in 10 of these patients should wait more than two hours to be seen. In July, one in 10 people waited more than eight hours.
Richard Webber, lead spokesperson for the College of Paramedics said: "These cases don't have an immediate threat to life, but you get cases like older people who have fallen over and they're laying on the floor for 12 hours with a broken hip.
"They might wet themselves, they'll be dehydrated and thirsty, losing fluid into their leg and their condition will obviously deteriorate," he added.
More 999 calls but ambulances are doing less
Although the number of 999 calls has grown, the number of patients the ambulance service is able to get out to has fallen. There has been an attempt to try to treat more people over the phone to save ambulance resources and prevent people having to go to A&E.
"People are phoning 999 and expecting us to turn up in a few minutes. We can't because we're stuck in hospital queues and it's costing people's lives," said Mr Carrington.
"It's not the hospital's fault, because they haven't got enough beds. It's not the ambulance service's fault, because they don't have enough resources."
Mr Webber says that when calls are higher than the number of incidents that's because people are calling multiple times asking where their ambulance is.
Where in the country is performing worst?
People who had a heart attack or stroke in the East Midlands last month had to wait almost twice as long for an ambulance compared to those in the South East. People in London, the east of England and the Midlands all had to wait more than an hour.
Even in the best performing area people were waiting more than twice as long as the official NHS target of 18 minutes.
People with life-threatening conditions in the South West had to wait almost 12 minutes for paramedics on average in July, three minutes longer than those in London, the north of England and the West Midlands.
Why is this happening?
Mr Carrington and Mr Webber agreed that the biggest problem is not being able to discharge hospital patients into social care.
Mr Webber said: "An ambulance crew would normally do seven or eight call-outs on a 12 hour shift. Now they're spending three or four hours each time waiting to hand patients over, so they're only getting through two or three calls per shift. They're doing less than half the work they were before.
"You can put on more ambulance crews, but if you've lost half of your productive workforce to queues, putting on a few crews here and there is not a system solution. You need to unlock the things that are stopping the system flowing.
"The main issue is social care - hospitals have patients they can't discharge because there isn't space in social care. Because the hospitals have too many patients in it they can't bring the next cohort of patients in."
In July, an average of almost 13,000 hospital beds per day were occupied by patients who didn't need to be there.
Mr Carrington says his record so far is a nine and a half hour wait to drop a patient off in A&E. He says that when ambulances are parked for this amount of time they can't even provide air conditioning to keep the patient comfortable.
"Part of the beauty of the job is that it's never straightforward, but this used to be the time of year that we would get some respite. Now, it's the worst I've seen it in 36 years. It's heart-breaking, it's absolutely terrible, it's absurd.
"The NHS is in cardiac arrest and we're jumping up and down on its chest trying to resuscitate it but sadly I think it's broken beyond repair. We're just fighting to try and save what's left."
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: "Today's figures show the immense pressure our emergency services are under with more of the most serious ambulance callouts than the NHS has ever seen before, at levels more than a third higher than pre-pandemic.
"Recognising the pressure on urgent and emergency care services, we are working on plans to increase capacity and reduce call times ahead of winter in addition to our new contract with St John to provide extra support as needed.
"As the country faces another period of high temperatures after last month's record-breaking heatwave, it is vital that anyone who feels unwell seeks advice or an NHS referral through 111 online or their local pharmacy, and only calls 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency."
SKY
Ambulances took 9 minutes and 35 seconds to get to the most serious of 999 calls in July, 29 seconds longer than in June and the same as the record set in March.
In the equivalent month before the pandemic, July 2019, ambulances were more than two minutes faster at responding to these types of calls.
Heart attacks and strokes
People who had heart attacks or strokes in England waited more than half an hour longer for an ambulance to arrive in July compared with before the pandemic.
The average waiting time for these Category 2 calls, classed as emergencies, was almost an hour last month, 59 minutes and 7 seconds, compared with 23 minutes and 19 seconds in July 2019.
The NHS target is that patients in this category should wait no more than 18 minutes for an ambulance on average.
Response times for these calls have got worse at a faster rate than those immediately life-threatening calls which are prioritised. But the decline is arguably more important as they affect many more people.
Two thirds of 999 calls were classed as Category 2 in July, compared with one in six that fell into the life-threatening category.
Glenn Carrington, UNISON Branch Chair of East of England Ambulance Service and a paramedic for 36 years, explained why.
More than 1,000 people waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E every day, figures reveal
"You might have ten ambulances on shift, but you'll have nine of them waiting outside A&E, so we can only respond to the most immediate emergency.
"You might be on your way out to someone who's had a heart attack but you have to turn around because you've got another call about someone who's not breathing.
"Sometimes what we think is the biggest emergency isn't really, it's just someone who's shouting loudest. That's why we need to get out to everyone."
Urgent calls
Incidents classed as urgent made up about one in five 999 ambulance calls last month. The average waiting times for these was more than three hours.
The NHS target is that no more than one in 10 of these patients should wait more than two hours to be seen. In July, one in 10 people waited more than eight hours.
Richard Webber, lead spokesperson for the College of Paramedics said: "These cases don't have an immediate threat to life, but you get cases like older people who have fallen over and they're laying on the floor for 12 hours with a broken hip.
"They might wet themselves, they'll be dehydrated and thirsty, losing fluid into their leg and their condition will obviously deteriorate," he added.
More 999 calls but ambulances are doing less
Although the number of 999 calls has grown, the number of patients the ambulance service is able to get out to has fallen. There has been an attempt to try to treat more people over the phone to save ambulance resources and prevent people having to go to A&E.
"People are phoning 999 and expecting us to turn up in a few minutes. We can't because we're stuck in hospital queues and it's costing people's lives," said Mr Carrington.
"It's not the hospital's fault, because they haven't got enough beds. It's not the ambulance service's fault, because they don't have enough resources."
Mr Webber says that when calls are higher than the number of incidents that's because people are calling multiple times asking where their ambulance is.
Where in the country is performing worst?
People who had a heart attack or stroke in the East Midlands last month had to wait almost twice as long for an ambulance compared to those in the South East. People in London, the east of England and the Midlands all had to wait more than an hour.
Even in the best performing area people were waiting more than twice as long as the official NHS target of 18 minutes.
People with life-threatening conditions in the South West had to wait almost 12 minutes for paramedics on average in July, three minutes longer than those in London, the north of England and the West Midlands.
Why is this happening?
Mr Carrington and Mr Webber agreed that the biggest problem is not being able to discharge hospital patients into social care.
Mr Webber said: "An ambulance crew would normally do seven or eight call-outs on a 12 hour shift. Now they're spending three or four hours each time waiting to hand patients over, so they're only getting through two or three calls per shift. They're doing less than half the work they were before.
"You can put on more ambulance crews, but if you've lost half of your productive workforce to queues, putting on a few crews here and there is not a system solution. You need to unlock the things that are stopping the system flowing.
"The main issue is social care - hospitals have patients they can't discharge because there isn't space in social care. Because the hospitals have too many patients in it they can't bring the next cohort of patients in."
In July, an average of almost 13,000 hospital beds per day were occupied by patients who didn't need to be there.
Mr Carrington says his record so far is a nine and a half hour wait to drop a patient off in A&E. He says that when ambulances are parked for this amount of time they can't even provide air conditioning to keep the patient comfortable.
"Part of the beauty of the job is that it's never straightforward, but this used to be the time of year that we would get some respite. Now, it's the worst I've seen it in 36 years. It's heart-breaking, it's absolutely terrible, it's absurd.
"The NHS is in cardiac arrest and we're jumping up and down on its chest trying to resuscitate it but sadly I think it's broken beyond repair. We're just fighting to try and save what's left."
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: "Today's figures show the immense pressure our emergency services are under with more of the most serious ambulance callouts than the NHS has ever seen before, at levels more than a third higher than pre-pandemic.
"Recognising the pressure on urgent and emergency care services, we are working on plans to increase capacity and reduce call times ahead of winter in addition to our new contract with St John to provide extra support as needed.
"As the country faces another period of high temperatures after last month's record-breaking heatwave, it is vital that anyone who feels unwell seeks advice or an NHS referral through 111 online or their local pharmacy, and only calls 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency."
SKY
Robert
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The layers of management are the Tories’ fault, introduced in 1993 when Ken Clarke made the trusts self-governing and set up the “internal market” which wasn’t a market.
Blair and Brown didn’t change it back and should have done.
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Black and Asian people in England have to wait longer for a cancer diagnosis than white people, with some forced to wait an extra six weeks, according to a “disturbing” analysis of NHS waiting times.
A damning review of the world’s largest primary care database by the University of Exeter and the Guardian discovered minority ethnic patients wait longer than white patients in six of seven cancers studied. Race and health leaders have called the results “deeply concerning” and “absolutely unacceptable”.
The analysis of 126,000 cancer cases over a decade found the median time between a white person first presenting symptoms to a GP and getting diagnosed is 55 days. For Asian people, it is 60 days (9% longer). For black people, it is 61 days (11% longer).
Diagnosis delays may mean fewer treatment options while starting treatment later may also mean it is less effective – reducing the odds of survival. Previous research had already shown that ethnic minority patients have worse outcomes when it comes to some cancers in England and are less likely to report positive healthcare experiences.
Some of the differences in wait times for specific cancers are incredibly stark. The median time for white people to get a diagnosis for oesophagogastric cancer – of the stomach or oesophagus – is 53 days. For Asian people it is 100 days, more than six weeks longer than the median seven weeks’ wait for white people.
In myeloma, the third most common type of blood cancer, the median diagnosis wait time for white people is 93 days. For black people, it is 127 days – more than a month longer.
The government and the NHS have repeatedly promised to tackle ethnic inequalities in healthcare. Experts say the findings show serious action is needed to understand how and why black and Asian people wait longer – and to prevent it from happening.
“These findings are deeply worrying, with potential life-altering consequences for the health of black and Asian people,” said Jabeer Butt, the chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation.
The differences are “disturbing” but “sadly not surprising”, he added. “We urgently need to address these underlying factors holding black and Asian patients back from getting a fair chance when it comes to fighting cancer.”
The University of Exeter looked at 126,000 cancer cases in England between 2006 and 2016. The data covered the four most common cancers – lung, breast, prostate and colorectal – and three commonly diagnosed in ethnic minorities: oesophagogastric, myeloma and ovarian.
The findings “help explain” why ethnic minorities “have poorer outcomes for some cancers, and report worse experiences of healthcare”, said the University of Exeter researcher, Tanimola Martins. “We urgently need to understand why this is the case for black and Asian groups.”
Michelle Mitchell, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said that while the differences are “unlikely to be the sole explanation for the inequalities in cancer survival”, at the very least “extended wait times may cause additional stress and anxiety for ethnic minority patients”.
A review of the data by the Guardian found that in six of the seven cancers analysed, black or Asian patients waited longer for a diagnosis than white patients. The exception was lung cancer, where the median wait time was 103 days for black patients, 115 for Asian patients, and 129 for white patients.
The median myeloma diagnosis wait time for black people was 37% longer than for white people, the Guardian also discovered. Dr Sophie Castell, the chief executive of Myeloma UK, said myeloma patients in general, and black patients in particular, experience some of the longest waits for a diagnosis in the country. The disparity will probably worsen as a result of the pandemic, she added.
“The longer it takes to be diagnosed, the more likely patients are to suffer avoidable yet irreversible, lifelong complications like broken bones and spines,” she added. “This is absolutely unacceptable. Everyone deserves the same opportunity to get a timely diagnosis and live well for as long as possible.”
With breast cancer, the difference in diagnosis wait times becomes even larger among the patients waiting the longest. Overall, the median wait time was 13 days for white patients, 13 for Asian patients, and 14 for black patients. The gap between black and white patients grows alarmingly among the 10% of patients waiting the longest.
The median for white patients waiting longest is 41 days, for Asian patients it is 56, and for black patients it is 73. It means black patients waiting the longest for a breast cancer diagnosis wait an entire month longer than white women also forced to wait.
Delyth Morgan, the chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said black women were more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced breast cancer, for which survival outcomes are poorer.
She said: “It’s deeply concerning that this data suggests black and Asian women may also be waiting longer than white women to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer after presenting with symptoms and we urgently need to understand why this is the case.”
The revelations follow a series of stories by the Guardian exposing major health disparities in England and the UK. Mitchell said that more “needs to be done now” to “understand and tackle drivers of inequality.”
“For this to happen, our next prime minister needs to make cancer a priority. Crucially, they must take targeted action to address inequalities and ensure a important timely diagnosis for everyone.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...sedgntp&cvid=e2393fed85b8267ab02b411f5d76c102
A damning review of the world’s largest primary care database by the University of Exeter and the Guardian discovered minority ethnic patients wait longer than white patients in six of seven cancers studied. Race and health leaders have called the results “deeply concerning” and “absolutely unacceptable”.
The analysis of 126,000 cancer cases over a decade found the median time between a white person first presenting symptoms to a GP and getting diagnosed is 55 days. For Asian people, it is 60 days (9% longer). For black people, it is 61 days (11% longer).
Diagnosis delays may mean fewer treatment options while starting treatment later may also mean it is less effective – reducing the odds of survival. Previous research had already shown that ethnic minority patients have worse outcomes when it comes to some cancers in England and are less likely to report positive healthcare experiences.
Some of the differences in wait times for specific cancers are incredibly stark. The median time for white people to get a diagnosis for oesophagogastric cancer – of the stomach or oesophagus – is 53 days. For Asian people it is 100 days, more than six weeks longer than the median seven weeks’ wait for white people.
In myeloma, the third most common type of blood cancer, the median diagnosis wait time for white people is 93 days. For black people, it is 127 days – more than a month longer.
The government and the NHS have repeatedly promised to tackle ethnic inequalities in healthcare. Experts say the findings show serious action is needed to understand how and why black and Asian people wait longer – and to prevent it from happening.
“These findings are deeply worrying, with potential life-altering consequences for the health of black and Asian people,” said Jabeer Butt, the chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation.
The differences are “disturbing” but “sadly not surprising”, he added. “We urgently need to address these underlying factors holding black and Asian patients back from getting a fair chance when it comes to fighting cancer.”
The University of Exeter looked at 126,000 cancer cases in England between 2006 and 2016. The data covered the four most common cancers – lung, breast, prostate and colorectal – and three commonly diagnosed in ethnic minorities: oesophagogastric, myeloma and ovarian.
The findings “help explain” why ethnic minorities “have poorer outcomes for some cancers, and report worse experiences of healthcare”, said the University of Exeter researcher, Tanimola Martins. “We urgently need to understand why this is the case for black and Asian groups.”
Michelle Mitchell, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said that while the differences are “unlikely to be the sole explanation for the inequalities in cancer survival”, at the very least “extended wait times may cause additional stress and anxiety for ethnic minority patients”.
A review of the data by the Guardian found that in six of the seven cancers analysed, black or Asian patients waited longer for a diagnosis than white patients. The exception was lung cancer, where the median wait time was 103 days for black patients, 115 for Asian patients, and 129 for white patients.
The median myeloma diagnosis wait time for black people was 37% longer than for white people, the Guardian also discovered. Dr Sophie Castell, the chief executive of Myeloma UK, said myeloma patients in general, and black patients in particular, experience some of the longest waits for a diagnosis in the country. The disparity will probably worsen as a result of the pandemic, she added.
“The longer it takes to be diagnosed, the more likely patients are to suffer avoidable yet irreversible, lifelong complications like broken bones and spines,” she added. “This is absolutely unacceptable. Everyone deserves the same opportunity to get a timely diagnosis and live well for as long as possible.”
With breast cancer, the difference in diagnosis wait times becomes even larger among the patients waiting the longest. Overall, the median wait time was 13 days for white patients, 13 for Asian patients, and 14 for black patients. The gap between black and white patients grows alarmingly among the 10% of patients waiting the longest.
The median for white patients waiting longest is 41 days, for Asian patients it is 56, and for black patients it is 73. It means black patients waiting the longest for a breast cancer diagnosis wait an entire month longer than white women also forced to wait.
Delyth Morgan, the chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said black women were more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced breast cancer, for which survival outcomes are poorer.
She said: “It’s deeply concerning that this data suggests black and Asian women may also be waiting longer than white women to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer after presenting with symptoms and we urgently need to understand why this is the case.”
The revelations follow a series of stories by the Guardian exposing major health disparities in England and the UK. Mitchell said that more “needs to be done now” to “understand and tackle drivers of inequality.”
“For this to happen, our next prime minister needs to make cancer a priority. Crucially, they must take targeted action to address inequalities and ensure a important timely diagnosis for everyone.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...sedgntp&cvid=e2393fed85b8267ab02b411f5d76c102
Robert
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Yes, another raced-based health inequality. Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
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The grieving family of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from hospital have told Sky News he would still be alive if they had been listened to.
Zaheer Ahmed said he "begged and begged" for his nephew Yusuf Mahmud Nazir to be admitted to hospital but was told "there are no beds and not enough doctors".
Yusuf first complained of a sore throat on 13 November. His parents took him to their GP, who prescribed antibiotics.
The next day, when their son's health did not improve, they drove him to the emergency department of Rotherham General Hospital.
Mr Ahmed told Sky News that they waited all night to be seen by a doctor and after Yusuf was examined he was sent home, even though the doctor treating his nephew said "it was the worst case of tonsillitis he had ever seen".
His nephew was struggling to breathe, could not swallow and was clearly in a distressed state, he said.
At home, after Yusuf's condition deteriorated further, his worried parents called an ambulance and insisted he was taken to see the specialist paediatric team at Sheffield Children's Hospital.
But it was too late to save the young boy's life.
The infection had spread to his lungs and caused multiple organ failure resulting in several cardiac arrests.
Yusuf died of pneumonia on Monday.
'We begged and begged for help'
Mr Ahmed said: "He stopped breathing, he stopped talking, when he was choking, he couldn't breathe. He was struggling. And it's led to his life being taken at five years old.
"If they would have treated him where we wanted him to be treated he would be here with us now.
"He would have been here playing like he was. We've lost a beautiful child… it's not his fault. We begged and begged and begged for help. We couldn't get it. We just did not get the help we wanted, or we needed or we should have got.
"They kept saying to us, they kept saying to us, 'We've got one doctor. What do you want us to do? We've got no beds available. What do you want us to do? We've got no space for him. What do you want us to do? Complain to the big people, don't complain to us. Complain to the big ones that only gave us one doctor'."
Mr Ahmed said he wanted some good to come from his nephew's life.
He said: "Even if it saves one child's life, saves one parent going through what we're going through, it saves one family to suffer what we've suffered. That will be enough for me.
"If Yusuf, who's passed away, if he can save one child, we're happy. We do not want anybody to go through this. And we're just asking them to please listen to people. Because when you don't listen to people, this is what happens."
Dr Richard Jenkins, chief executive of the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, has offered his condolences to Yusuf's family and told Sky News: "We have commenced a thorough investigation into Yusuf's care, which will include liaison with Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
"We have contacted the family and will continue to do so as part of the investigation."
Children's doctors call November "paediatric winter". The season starts with a spike in winter respiratory viruses and as these cases subside, flu cases rise.
Senior paediatric consultants have told Sky News about their concerns of unsustainable pressure on emergency children's services.
One doctor said child patients were being transferred to his London hospital from Wales because there were no PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) beds available anywhere in England south of Stoke.
In response, an NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS has seen a sharp rise in the number of children requiring invasive ventilation with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in recent weeks and as a result, pressure on paediatric intensive care units has been higher than usual.
"The NHS has tried and tested surge plans in place which includes mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure services are able to provide the highest quality care to all children and we have reminded local areas about this guidance."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "All children deserve the highest levels of care and we are taking urgent action to ensure no families have to experience these kinds of tragedies.
"Last week we announced up to £8bn for health and social care in 2024/25 and we're giving an extra £500m to speed up hospital discharge and free up beds, ensuring people are only in hospital for as long as they need to be.
"The NHS is also creating the equivalent of 7,000 more beds this winter - enabling hospitals to treat patients sooner, including by using remote monitoring to provide care at home or in the community."
SKY
Zaheer Ahmed said he "begged and begged" for his nephew Yusuf Mahmud Nazir to be admitted to hospital but was told "there are no beds and not enough doctors".
Yusuf first complained of a sore throat on 13 November. His parents took him to their GP, who prescribed antibiotics.
The next day, when their son's health did not improve, they drove him to the emergency department of Rotherham General Hospital.
Mr Ahmed told Sky News that they waited all night to be seen by a doctor and after Yusuf was examined he was sent home, even though the doctor treating his nephew said "it was the worst case of tonsillitis he had ever seen".
His nephew was struggling to breathe, could not swallow and was clearly in a distressed state, he said.
At home, after Yusuf's condition deteriorated further, his worried parents called an ambulance and insisted he was taken to see the specialist paediatric team at Sheffield Children's Hospital.
But it was too late to save the young boy's life.
The infection had spread to his lungs and caused multiple organ failure resulting in several cardiac arrests.
Yusuf died of pneumonia on Monday.
'We begged and begged for help'
Mr Ahmed said: "He stopped breathing, he stopped talking, when he was choking, he couldn't breathe. He was struggling. And it's led to his life being taken at five years old.
"If they would have treated him where we wanted him to be treated he would be here with us now.
"He would have been here playing like he was. We've lost a beautiful child… it's not his fault. We begged and begged and begged for help. We couldn't get it. We just did not get the help we wanted, or we needed or we should have got.
"They kept saying to us, they kept saying to us, 'We've got one doctor. What do you want us to do? We've got no beds available. What do you want us to do? We've got no space for him. What do you want us to do? Complain to the big people, don't complain to us. Complain to the big ones that only gave us one doctor'."
Mr Ahmed said he wanted some good to come from his nephew's life.
He said: "Even if it saves one child's life, saves one parent going through what we're going through, it saves one family to suffer what we've suffered. That will be enough for me.
"If Yusuf, who's passed away, if he can save one child, we're happy. We do not want anybody to go through this. And we're just asking them to please listen to people. Because when you don't listen to people, this is what happens."
Dr Richard Jenkins, chief executive of the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, has offered his condolences to Yusuf's family and told Sky News: "We have commenced a thorough investigation into Yusuf's care, which will include liaison with Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
"We have contacted the family and will continue to do so as part of the investigation."
Children's doctors call November "paediatric winter". The season starts with a spike in winter respiratory viruses and as these cases subside, flu cases rise.
Senior paediatric consultants have told Sky News about their concerns of unsustainable pressure on emergency children's services.
One doctor said child patients were being transferred to his London hospital from Wales because there were no PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) beds available anywhere in England south of Stoke.
In response, an NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS has seen a sharp rise in the number of children requiring invasive ventilation with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in recent weeks and as a result, pressure on paediatric intensive care units has been higher than usual.
"The NHS has tried and tested surge plans in place which includes mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure services are able to provide the highest quality care to all children and we have reminded local areas about this guidance."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "All children deserve the highest levels of care and we are taking urgent action to ensure no families have to experience these kinds of tragedies.
"Last week we announced up to £8bn for health and social care in 2024/25 and we're giving an extra £500m to speed up hospital discharge and free up beds, ensuring people are only in hospital for as long as they need to be.
"The NHS is also creating the equivalent of 7,000 more beds this winter - enabling hospitals to treat patients sooner, including by using remote monitoring to provide care at home or in the community."
SKY
Nurses' strikes: Full list of NHS employers affected as up to 100,000 plan to walk out
Up to 100,000 nurses will go on strike next month in a dispute over pay.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will stage their biggest-ever walkout on 15 and 20 December after voting in favour in a ballot.
Nurses and other nursing staff will take action at half of the locations in England where the legal mandate for strikes was secured in November, while there will be strike action at every NHS employer in Wales except one and throughout Northern Ireland.
The RCN said the number of NHS employers affected would increase in January unless negotiations were held.
The Scottish government has made a separate pay offer.
The union said it had repeatedly called on the UK government to accept its request for negotiations to resolve the dispute over pay and patient safety.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: "Ministers have declined my offer of formal pay negotiations and instead chosen strike action.
"It has left us with no choice but to announce where our members will be going on strike in December.
"Nursing is standing up for the profession and their patients. We've had enough of being taken for granted and being unable to provide the care patients deserve.
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"Ministers still have the power and the means to stop this by opening negotiations that address our dispute."
Nurses 20% worse off in real terms
The RCN said despite this year's pay award of £1,400, experienced nurses were 20% worse off in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.
It is calling for a pay rise of 5% above RPI inflation, saying the economic argument for paying nursing staff fairly is clear when billions of pounds is being spent on agency staff to plug workforce gaps.
The RCN said in the last year 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register, with 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England's NHS alone.
Workers from several different industries are set to walk out over pay and conditions this winter, while unions representing ambulance crews, midwives and hospital cleaners are also balloting their members on strikes.
SKY
Up to 100,000 nurses will go on strike next month in a dispute over pay.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will stage their biggest-ever walkout on 15 and 20 December after voting in favour in a ballot.
Nurses and other nursing staff will take action at half of the locations in England where the legal mandate for strikes was secured in November, while there will be strike action at every NHS employer in Wales except one and throughout Northern Ireland.
The RCN said the number of NHS employers affected would increase in January unless negotiations were held.
The Scottish government has made a separate pay offer.
The union said it had repeatedly called on the UK government to accept its request for negotiations to resolve the dispute over pay and patient safety.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: "Ministers have declined my offer of formal pay negotiations and instead chosen strike action.
"It has left us with no choice but to announce where our members will be going on strike in December.
"Nursing is standing up for the profession and their patients. We've had enough of being taken for granted and being unable to provide the care patients deserve.
Advertisement
"Ministers still have the power and the means to stop this by opening negotiations that address our dispute."
Nurses 20% worse off in real terms
The RCN said despite this year's pay award of £1,400, experienced nurses were 20% worse off in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.
It is calling for a pay rise of 5% above RPI inflation, saying the economic argument for paying nursing staff fairly is clear when billions of pounds is being spent on agency staff to plug workforce gaps.
The RCN said in the last year 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register, with 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England's NHS alone.
Workers from several different industries are set to walk out over pay and conditions this winter, while unions representing ambulance crews, midwives and hospital cleaners are also balloting their members on strikes.
SKY
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- Oct 2, 2004
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- 217,977
A Year 8 pupil at a school in southeast London has died after contracting Strep A - as another bereaved family revealed the symptoms their son experienced in his final days.
Colfe's School wrote to parents on Thursday to inform them a student had died after developing the infection.
Sky News understands that the pupil was in Year 8 and over the age of 10. Current UKHSA figures on Strep A deaths only account for cases in the under-10 age group, with six deaths reported as of Friday.
It comes as families who have lost children to the disease warn others about the symptoms to look out for.
Speaking to Sky News' Sadiya Chowdhury, Muhammad Ibrahim Ali's mother, Shabana Kousar, said the first sign of her little boy being unwell was a red rash across his lower back.
A full course of antibiotics appeared to help the four-year-old, but when his symptoms persisted two weeks later, she was given Calpol for him.
Ibrahim's condition worsened and he developed stomach pains.
Strep A causes scarlet fever (pictured), which can be treated with antibiotics, but sometimes the bacteria can be life threatening
Less mixing due to COVID pandemic could be behind increased Strep A infections, says expert, after six children die
Ms Kousar told Sky News that people should be more aware of the initial symptoms.
She said: "I believe parents should be made aware of the symptoms and act on it if their child is experiencing something similar".
Azra Ali, Ibrahim's aunt, told Sky's Sadiya Chowdhury that the government "needs to provide the correct guidance to local authorities".
She said: "I'm worried that the public are still unaware of how serious this is as we've been told on the news that it's very rare that children die from this strep A, but unfortunately they're forgetting that we've had six deaths within the space of two weeks and I believe more are to come if the government don't act quickly."
Sky News has asked Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board to comment on the case.
The highly contagious bacterial infection is often relatively mild and causes scarlet fever, but can be deadly if it enters the bloodstream and other parts of the body.
Parents are being urged to be vigilant and look out for symptoms which include: pain when swallowing, fever, swollen tonsils with white patches, swollen neck glands, a high temperature or a skin rash.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from The University of Reading, said: "The only way of being sure that somebody has got Strep A infection is to take a swab from the back of their throat and culture it in a laboratory."
He added that while the "initial signals" are good indicators, "they are not proof and people should see their doctors".
Hanna Roap, a seven-year-old girl from Wales, also died after contracting Strep A.
Her father, Abul Roap, told The Telegraph that his daughter was prescribed steroids for her cough and "never woke up".
He said Hanna "did not get the right medication" and said if she had been given antibiotics "it could have been potentially a different story."
SKY
Colfe's School wrote to parents on Thursday to inform them a student had died after developing the infection.
Sky News understands that the pupil was in Year 8 and over the age of 10. Current UKHSA figures on Strep A deaths only account for cases in the under-10 age group, with six deaths reported as of Friday.
It comes as families who have lost children to the disease warn others about the symptoms to look out for.
Speaking to Sky News' Sadiya Chowdhury, Muhammad Ibrahim Ali's mother, Shabana Kousar, said the first sign of her little boy being unwell was a red rash across his lower back.
A full course of antibiotics appeared to help the four-year-old, but when his symptoms persisted two weeks later, she was given Calpol for him.
Ibrahim's condition worsened and he developed stomach pains.
Strep A causes scarlet fever (pictured), which can be treated with antibiotics, but sometimes the bacteria can be life threatening
Less mixing due to COVID pandemic could be behind increased Strep A infections, says expert, after six children die
Ms Kousar told Sky News that people should be more aware of the initial symptoms.
She said: "I believe parents should be made aware of the symptoms and act on it if their child is experiencing something similar".
Azra Ali, Ibrahim's aunt, told Sky's Sadiya Chowdhury that the government "needs to provide the correct guidance to local authorities".
She said: "I'm worried that the public are still unaware of how serious this is as we've been told on the news that it's very rare that children die from this strep A, but unfortunately they're forgetting that we've had six deaths within the space of two weeks and I believe more are to come if the government don't act quickly."
Sky News has asked Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board to comment on the case.
The highly contagious bacterial infection is often relatively mild and causes scarlet fever, but can be deadly if it enters the bloodstream and other parts of the body.
Parents are being urged to be vigilant and look out for symptoms which include: pain when swallowing, fever, swollen tonsils with white patches, swollen neck glands, a high temperature or a skin rash.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from The University of Reading, said: "The only way of being sure that somebody has got Strep A infection is to take a swab from the back of their throat and culture it in a laboratory."
He added that while the "initial signals" are good indicators, "they are not proof and people should see their doctors".
Hanna Roap, a seven-year-old girl from Wales, also died after contracting Strep A.
Her father, Abul Roap, told The Telegraph that his daughter was prescribed steroids for her cough and "never woke up".
He said Hanna "did not get the right medication" and said if she had been given antibiotics "it could have been potentially a different story."
SKY
SpiritOf1903
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This is truly wondering and I think schools need to introduce mandatory masks, distancing and maybe even home schooling.
This is another pandemic
This is another pandemic
James
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- Jan 8, 2006
- Runs
- 50,818
- Post of the Week
- 2
<b>Hospital apologises after hiding surgeon's error for seven years</b>
A hospital trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon had been responsible for a massive haemorrhage that almost killed her after a Caesarean section.
For seven years, East Kent Hospitals Trust maintained the size of Louise Dempster's baby was to blame.
"It was just continuous lies," the 34-year-old told BBC News.
East Kent Hospitals chief executive Tracy Fletcher promised "to ensure lessons are learned".
Louise Dempster gave birth in May 2015 but the surgeon's error only emerged during an inquiry into poor maternity care at East Kent Hospitals Trust which reported this year.
It was Louise's first pregnancy and had been uneventful, until she developed two potentially dangerous conditions in the days before she was due to give birth.
A scan showed excessive growth of her baby, and that Louise had pre-eclampsia and a liver condition, which put her at risk of bleeding after birth.
She went into her local hospital, The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Margate, part of the East Kent Hospitals Trust, to be induced.
In October, an inquiry by Dr Bill Kirkup found at least 45 babies who died at the Trust's maternity services between 2009 and 2020 could have survived with better treatment.
When Louise's labour stalled, she was taken for a Caesarean section and her son was born large and healthy.
Louise was left by staff in the recovery room with her family, but her mother, Linda, noticed she appeared to be losing consciousness: "I was talking to her and I just saw her drift away and her eyes roll back."
The 61-year-old lifted her daughter's sheets and found "blood from head to toe".
Linda is a senior nurse who has worked nationally on quality and infection control.
It didn't require her level of expertise to realise that her daughter was in serious trouble.
"I tried to pull the emergency buzzer… but it didn't work," she remembers.
Louise says she thought she was dying: "All I remember is my mum screaming for help. And her stroking my hair and telling me she loved me. I knew that something was wrong".
Louise was taken back to surgery. After her operation the surgeon told her the bleeding had happened because her uterus hadn't shrunk back to its normal size after birth.
He inserted an instrument called a Bakri balloon to stop the bleeding - but a few hours later Louise was rushed back to surgery after Linda again spotted she was still losing a lot of blood.
Her original surgeon called in another surgeon, a cancer specialist, to help. Louise needed an extensive blood transfusion, but eventually recovered after several days in hospital.
The family felt there must have been something wrong with Louise's treatment and set about getting all her documents together and speaking to the clinicians involved.
But they felt like they hit a brick wall.
All the notes confirmed her original surgeon's version of events.
The Trust didn't consider what happened to be a serious incident and the investigation stopped.
Louise says she was told she was lucky to have a baby, and she should just "get on with it".
But the psychological impact was significant: "I think my mental health has probably been affected by it. I also feel like I've never had the opportunity to have another baby, which I really wanted to. I have lots of triggers from that time and lots of flashbacks I have to deal with," she says.
In 2020 Louise and her mother gave evidence to the Kirkup inquiry.
A few weeks before the findings were made public, inquiry chairman, Dr Bill Kirkup, asked to meet them.
He said he had discovered a document that had not been disclosed to the family, which showed Louise's bleeding had been caused by a surgical error, not by the size of her son as they had been led to believe.
Louise was furious her suspicions about what happened to her had been confirmed.
"They had so many points, they could have told me what actually happened. And they didn't," she says.
"I spent so much time after the birth, visiting professionals trying to find out what happened."
The Kirkup report found evidence of staff "omitting key details in accounts given to families as well as to official bodies" and "the effect... was to cover up the truth."
The Trust says it is determined to improve clinical practice and will review Louise's care.
Its chief executive Tracy Fletcher said: "We apologise unreservedly to Louise and her family for the mistakes in her care and for failing in our duty to explain what went wrong, which falls far short of the standards and compassion patients should expect and deserve."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63920920
A hospital trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon had been responsible for a massive haemorrhage that almost killed her after a Caesarean section.
For seven years, East Kent Hospitals Trust maintained the size of Louise Dempster's baby was to blame.
"It was just continuous lies," the 34-year-old told BBC News.
East Kent Hospitals chief executive Tracy Fletcher promised "to ensure lessons are learned".
Louise Dempster gave birth in May 2015 but the surgeon's error only emerged during an inquiry into poor maternity care at East Kent Hospitals Trust which reported this year.
It was Louise's first pregnancy and had been uneventful, until she developed two potentially dangerous conditions in the days before she was due to give birth.
A scan showed excessive growth of her baby, and that Louise had pre-eclampsia and a liver condition, which put her at risk of bleeding after birth.
She went into her local hospital, The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Margate, part of the East Kent Hospitals Trust, to be induced.
In October, an inquiry by Dr Bill Kirkup found at least 45 babies who died at the Trust's maternity services between 2009 and 2020 could have survived with better treatment.
When Louise's labour stalled, she was taken for a Caesarean section and her son was born large and healthy.
Louise was left by staff in the recovery room with her family, but her mother, Linda, noticed she appeared to be losing consciousness: "I was talking to her and I just saw her drift away and her eyes roll back."
The 61-year-old lifted her daughter's sheets and found "blood from head to toe".
Linda is a senior nurse who has worked nationally on quality and infection control.
It didn't require her level of expertise to realise that her daughter was in serious trouble.
"I tried to pull the emergency buzzer… but it didn't work," she remembers.
Louise says she thought she was dying: "All I remember is my mum screaming for help. And her stroking my hair and telling me she loved me. I knew that something was wrong".
Louise was taken back to surgery. After her operation the surgeon told her the bleeding had happened because her uterus hadn't shrunk back to its normal size after birth.
He inserted an instrument called a Bakri balloon to stop the bleeding - but a few hours later Louise was rushed back to surgery after Linda again spotted she was still losing a lot of blood.
Her original surgeon called in another surgeon, a cancer specialist, to help. Louise needed an extensive blood transfusion, but eventually recovered after several days in hospital.
The family felt there must have been something wrong with Louise's treatment and set about getting all her documents together and speaking to the clinicians involved.
But they felt like they hit a brick wall.
All the notes confirmed her original surgeon's version of events.
The Trust didn't consider what happened to be a serious incident and the investigation stopped.
Louise says she was told she was lucky to have a baby, and she should just "get on with it".
But the psychological impact was significant: "I think my mental health has probably been affected by it. I also feel like I've never had the opportunity to have another baby, which I really wanted to. I have lots of triggers from that time and lots of flashbacks I have to deal with," she says.
In 2020 Louise and her mother gave evidence to the Kirkup inquiry.
A few weeks before the findings were made public, inquiry chairman, Dr Bill Kirkup, asked to meet them.
He said he had discovered a document that had not been disclosed to the family, which showed Louise's bleeding had been caused by a surgical error, not by the size of her son as they had been led to believe.
Louise was furious her suspicions about what happened to her had been confirmed.
"They had so many points, they could have told me what actually happened. And they didn't," she says.
"I spent so much time after the birth, visiting professionals trying to find out what happened."
The Kirkup report found evidence of staff "omitting key details in accounts given to families as well as to official bodies" and "the effect... was to cover up the truth."
The Trust says it is determined to improve clinical practice and will review Louise's care.
Its chief executive Tracy Fletcher said: "We apologise unreservedly to Louise and her family for the mistakes in her care and for failing in our duty to explain what went wrong, which falls far short of the standards and compassion patients should expect and deserve."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63920920
James
World Star
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- Jan 8, 2006
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- 50,818
- Post of the Week
- 2
<b>Nurses' strike could be 'paused' - union chief says</b>
A nurses' strike due to start this week could be called off if the health secretary negotiates "seriously" over pay, says the head of the Royal College of Nursing.
"I won't dig in if he doesn't," general secretary Pat Cullen told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
But Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was not the government's role to negotiate pay.
Walkouts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on 15 and 20 December.
The RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate.
On the programme Ms Cullen urged the health secretary to hold talks with her on a one-to-one basis or negotiate through Acas, the independent organisation which mediates disputes between employers and workers as early as Monday morning.
She said the union would not be "found wanting" in the negotiations but she said its position had not changed.
Asked if the union could accept a lower pay rise, Ms Cullen said: "Come to the table and let's have the discussion."
She said her priority was making sure nurses could "make ends meet", adding: "It's not about lining their pockets with gold."
Mr Cleverly said Health Secretary Steve Barclay had already met with union officials, but added:
"Ultimately, salary negotiations are done between union leaders on behalf of their members and their employer. And in this instance, the nurses' employer is the NHS."
NHS England's medical director Prof Stephen Powis said pay was a matter for the independent review body and the government.
He said emergency services and key treatments like kidney dialysis and chemotherapy would continue during the walkouts, but that services would be disrupted.
Under trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided during strike action.
Prof Powis said there was "trouble brewing this winter" for the NHS, with an increase in people arriving at A&E and a rising number hospital patients with flu.
Both Mr Cleverly and Prof Powis said the NHS was prepared for the strike and wanted to minimise any disruption.
The Scottish government increased its offer to nurses and other health workers to a minimum increase of £2,205 with more for some staff - that was equivalent to an average 7.5% increase.
Talks with unions are ongoing and the public service workers' union Unison has recommended the offer to members in Scotland.
Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said that if Mr Barclay was to mirror Holyrood's approach and commit to boosting wages this year, "the threat of pre-Christmas strikes could well be lifted".
The Department of Health and Social Care said the government accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full, meaning newly qualified nurses had a 5.5% increase while those on the lowest salaries, such as porters and cleaners, received a pay rise of up to 9.3%.
"Ministers have had constructive talks with unions, including the RCN and Unison, on how we can make the NHS a better place to work - and have been clear the door remains open for further talks," a spokesperson for the department added.
BBC
A nurses' strike due to start this week could be called off if the health secretary negotiates "seriously" over pay, says the head of the Royal College of Nursing.
"I won't dig in if he doesn't," general secretary Pat Cullen told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
But Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was not the government's role to negotiate pay.
Walkouts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on 15 and 20 December.
The RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate.
On the programme Ms Cullen urged the health secretary to hold talks with her on a one-to-one basis or negotiate through Acas, the independent organisation which mediates disputes between employers and workers as early as Monday morning.
She said the union would not be "found wanting" in the negotiations but she said its position had not changed.
Asked if the union could accept a lower pay rise, Ms Cullen said: "Come to the table and let's have the discussion."
She said her priority was making sure nurses could "make ends meet", adding: "It's not about lining their pockets with gold."
Mr Cleverly said Health Secretary Steve Barclay had already met with union officials, but added:
"Ultimately, salary negotiations are done between union leaders on behalf of their members and their employer. And in this instance, the nurses' employer is the NHS."
NHS England's medical director Prof Stephen Powis said pay was a matter for the independent review body and the government.
He said emergency services and key treatments like kidney dialysis and chemotherapy would continue during the walkouts, but that services would be disrupted.
Under trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided during strike action.
Prof Powis said there was "trouble brewing this winter" for the NHS, with an increase in people arriving at A&E and a rising number hospital patients with flu.
Both Mr Cleverly and Prof Powis said the NHS was prepared for the strike and wanted to minimise any disruption.
The Scottish government increased its offer to nurses and other health workers to a minimum increase of £2,205 with more for some staff - that was equivalent to an average 7.5% increase.
Talks with unions are ongoing and the public service workers' union Unison has recommended the offer to members in Scotland.
Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said that if Mr Barclay was to mirror Holyrood's approach and commit to boosting wages this year, "the threat of pre-Christmas strikes could well be lifted".
The Department of Health and Social Care said the government accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full, meaning newly qualified nurses had a 5.5% increase while those on the lowest salaries, such as porters and cleaners, received a pay rise of up to 9.3%.
"Ministers have had constructive talks with unions, including the RCN and Unison, on how we can make the NHS a better place to work - and have been clear the door remains open for further talks," a spokesperson for the department added.
BBC
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England's chief nurse says she'd like to see a resolution to nurses' strikes as soon as possible, as tens of thousands of nurses take action across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Staff have expressed anger and sadness at being forced to strike for more pay.
The UK government says the Royal College of Nursing's pay demands are unaffordable.
Nurses got an extra 3% last year after the pandemic and another rise recommended by a pay review body.
The strikes have been held in around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales. Nurses in Scotland are not striking today while they consider a pay offer from the Scottish government.
England's chief nurse Dame Ruth May met striking nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London. A video on Twitter sees her calling for the government to "make sure they work with the RCN and other unions to get an urgent resolution to pay".
Downing Street said she was not speaking for the government and had her own views as chief nurse.
May also thanked nurses working on wards around the country "this day and every day", adding that they would continue to "ensure minimal risk to patient safety".
BBC
Staff have expressed anger and sadness at being forced to strike for more pay.
The UK government says the Royal College of Nursing's pay demands are unaffordable.
Nurses got an extra 3% last year after the pandemic and another rise recommended by a pay review body.
The strikes have been held in around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales. Nurses in Scotland are not striking today while they consider a pay offer from the Scottish government.
England's chief nurse Dame Ruth May met striking nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London. A video on Twitter sees her calling for the government to "make sure they work with the RCN and other unions to get an urgent resolution to pay".
Downing Street said she was not speaking for the government and had her own views as chief nurse.
May also thanked nurses working on wards around the country "this day and every day", adding that they would continue to "ensure minimal risk to patient safety".
BBC
James
World Star
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- Jan 8, 2006
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- 50,818
- Post of the Week
- 2
<b>Ambulance strike: Health bosses have warned they cannot guarantee patient safety during strikes by thousands of ambulance workers in England and Wales on Wednesday.</b>
But NHS England says emergency care will continue to be provided.
Ambulance response times are already twice as long as two years ago and there is huge pressure on A&Es.
People are being asked to use services "wisely" and only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency - with 111 online the first port of call.
No industrial action is taking place in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and there will be no strikes in the east of England or the Isle of Wight.
But elsewhere, there is likely to be major disruption as paramedics, call handlers, emergency care assistants and technicians go on strike.
Around 750 armed forces staff are being drafted in to cover the walkouts in England and Wales.
However, their role will be limited - they won't be sent on call-outs involving critical care and they won't provide any clinical care.
In a letter to the prime minister, the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said there was now "deep worry among NHS leaders about the level of harm and risk that could occur to patients tomorrow and beyond".
"This is not something NHS leaders would ever say lightly," the letter stated, "but many now tell us that they cannot guarantee patient safety tomorrow".
The letter has now also been signed by NHS Providers, the body which represents hospital trusts, mental health and ambulance services.
Not all unions are striking for the same hours on Wednesday, and it is difficult to say how many workers at each individual service will strike.
The industrial action by ambulance workers follows two days of strikes by nurses this month over pay. It has also been some of the busiest months on record for people attending Accident and Emergency departments.
Long waits for ambulances after an emergency 999 call have become a regular occurrence, as have queues of ambulances outside A&E waiting to offload patients.
Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB Union, said ambulance staff were tired of going to work and spending all day in an ambulance outside a hospital with a patient because of delays in handing over patients to A&E.
She said they were "being physically prevented from carrying out their jobs" and did not know if patients would "still be alive" when they reached them after a callout.
"We've been raising these issues for years and [have] been ignored," she added.
Ambulance workers are asking for a pay rise above inflation - although not a precise figure - and a plan for recouping lost earnings over many years.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay met union representatives on Tuesday afternoon but there were no discussions around pay - only what care would still be provided during the strike.
After the meeting, Mr Barclay tweeted that union demands for higher pay were "unaffordable during these challenging times", but he said he was "open to engaging with unions on how to make the NHS a better place to work".
"My priority remains patient safety. We have contingency plans in place and I have met with ambulance union reps today, urging them to honour their commitment to provide responses to life-threatening emergency calls," he said.
Onay Kasab, Unite's national lead officer, said the meeting was "entirely pointless" because the health secretary had refused to discuss the key issue - pay.
And Christina McAnea from Unison said there was "no movement", adding she was "very disappointed" the strike would go ahead.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted he will not back down against striking workers.
He has said the best way to help the workforce would be to reduce inflation as quickly as possible.
One Conservative MP said the prime minister must show some flexibility, and accused the of government "parroting" the decision of the pay review boards.
MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: "These things have got to be solved by negotiation. There are people who are desperately likely to need this service over Christmas."
NHS England says it has increased the number of staff answering 999 calls and is helping individual trusts speed up the process of handing over emergency patients and discharging those who are well enough to go home.
Earlier on Tuesday, health minister Will Quince urged people to think again about contact sports and unnecessary car journeys during the ambulance strike.
Wales's health minister Eluned Morgan also urged people not to "add extra pressure", warning that crews would only be able to respond to the most urgent calls.
London Ambulance Service is testing out an alternative way of doing things on Wednesday - instead of dispatching an ambulance to all 999 callouts, they are going to have a team of clinicians call patients back to see if they can be helped in other ways.
For those who do need an ambulance, there will be 200 vehicles compared to the normal 400.
And most of those will be staffed by a member of the military, with a clinician alongside that may or may not be a paramedic.
The service says it may also use taxis for some patients.
Chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: "If that resource is not enough to get to all of the life-threatening emergencies, then our staff from the picket lines will go and respond."
He said Wednesday was going to be a "very difficult day" because they were already extremely busy.
But he said he was confident "we'll be able to get to everyone who has a life-threatening emergency in London tomorrow".
Five ambulance services declared critical incidents on Tuesday - North East Ambulance Service, South East Coast Ambulance Service, the East of England Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and South Central Ambulance Service - because of pressure on services.
A critical incident allows services to prioritise certain patients and cancel non-urgent demands on staff such as training. It can happen because of a very high number of calls, for example.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64037468
But NHS England says emergency care will continue to be provided.
Ambulance response times are already twice as long as two years ago and there is huge pressure on A&Es.
People are being asked to use services "wisely" and only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency - with 111 online the first port of call.
No industrial action is taking place in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and there will be no strikes in the east of England or the Isle of Wight.
But elsewhere, there is likely to be major disruption as paramedics, call handlers, emergency care assistants and technicians go on strike.
Around 750 armed forces staff are being drafted in to cover the walkouts in England and Wales.
However, their role will be limited - they won't be sent on call-outs involving critical care and they won't provide any clinical care.
In a letter to the prime minister, the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said there was now "deep worry among NHS leaders about the level of harm and risk that could occur to patients tomorrow and beyond".
"This is not something NHS leaders would ever say lightly," the letter stated, "but many now tell us that they cannot guarantee patient safety tomorrow".
The letter has now also been signed by NHS Providers, the body which represents hospital trusts, mental health and ambulance services.
Not all unions are striking for the same hours on Wednesday, and it is difficult to say how many workers at each individual service will strike.
The industrial action by ambulance workers follows two days of strikes by nurses this month over pay. It has also been some of the busiest months on record for people attending Accident and Emergency departments.
Long waits for ambulances after an emergency 999 call have become a regular occurrence, as have queues of ambulances outside A&E waiting to offload patients.
Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB Union, said ambulance staff were tired of going to work and spending all day in an ambulance outside a hospital with a patient because of delays in handing over patients to A&E.
She said they were "being physically prevented from carrying out their jobs" and did not know if patients would "still be alive" when they reached them after a callout.
"We've been raising these issues for years and [have] been ignored," she added.
Ambulance workers are asking for a pay rise above inflation - although not a precise figure - and a plan for recouping lost earnings over many years.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay met union representatives on Tuesday afternoon but there were no discussions around pay - only what care would still be provided during the strike.
After the meeting, Mr Barclay tweeted that union demands for higher pay were "unaffordable during these challenging times", but he said he was "open to engaging with unions on how to make the NHS a better place to work".
"My priority remains patient safety. We have contingency plans in place and I have met with ambulance union reps today, urging them to honour their commitment to provide responses to life-threatening emergency calls," he said.
Onay Kasab, Unite's national lead officer, said the meeting was "entirely pointless" because the health secretary had refused to discuss the key issue - pay.
And Christina McAnea from Unison said there was "no movement", adding she was "very disappointed" the strike would go ahead.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted he will not back down against striking workers.
He has said the best way to help the workforce would be to reduce inflation as quickly as possible.
One Conservative MP said the prime minister must show some flexibility, and accused the of government "parroting" the decision of the pay review boards.
MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: "These things have got to be solved by negotiation. There are people who are desperately likely to need this service over Christmas."
NHS England says it has increased the number of staff answering 999 calls and is helping individual trusts speed up the process of handing over emergency patients and discharging those who are well enough to go home.
Earlier on Tuesday, health minister Will Quince urged people to think again about contact sports and unnecessary car journeys during the ambulance strike.
Wales's health minister Eluned Morgan also urged people not to "add extra pressure", warning that crews would only be able to respond to the most urgent calls.
London Ambulance Service is testing out an alternative way of doing things on Wednesday - instead of dispatching an ambulance to all 999 callouts, they are going to have a team of clinicians call patients back to see if they can be helped in other ways.
For those who do need an ambulance, there will be 200 vehicles compared to the normal 400.
And most of those will be staffed by a member of the military, with a clinician alongside that may or may not be a paramedic.
The service says it may also use taxis for some patients.
Chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: "If that resource is not enough to get to all of the life-threatening emergencies, then our staff from the picket lines will go and respond."
He said Wednesday was going to be a "very difficult day" because they were already extremely busy.
But he said he was confident "we'll be able to get to everyone who has a life-threatening emergency in London tomorrow".
Five ambulance services declared critical incidents on Tuesday - North East Ambulance Service, South East Coast Ambulance Service, the East of England Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and South Central Ambulance Service - because of pressure on services.
A critical incident allows services to prioritise certain patients and cancel non-urgent demands on staff such as training. It can happen because of a very high number of calls, for example.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64037468
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The number of people phoning 999 appears to have dropped in parts of England as thousands of ambulance staff and paramedics strike until midnight.
The West Midlands Ambulance Trust thanked people for heeding their advice to only call in an emergency as ambulance trusts reported receiving fewer calls.
The drop in calls comes as health leaders have urged people to still phone for an ambulance if they are in a life-threatening emergency.
It is feared some people in desperate need of help will not phone 999 during the strike action.
Hundreds of members of the army, navy and RAF have been drafted in to cover as paramedics, technicians, control room workers and other staff in England are on strike.
All Category 1 calls (the most life-threatening, such as cardiac arrest) are being responded to during the walkouts, while some ambulance trusts have agreed exemptions with unions for specific incidents within Category 2 (serious conditions, such as stroke or chest pain).
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said: "There may be a number of reasons why 999 calls are dropping - hesitancy may be a key factor during the industrial action.
"We want to reassure patients and the public that if they need emergency care, A&Es remain open."
The Welsh Ambulance Service has said demand is "manageable" but any "influx of calls would put significant pressure on our service".
Meanwhile, the East Midlands Ambulance Service said it was too early to say how the service was coping.
Up to half of its more than 4,000 workforce were GMB members who were striking.
South Central Ambulance Service said its main impact from strikes was patient transport services in Sussex and Surrey, rather than urgent and emergency care services.
The London Ambulance Service declined to comment on how services were running.
Meanwhile, a chief executive of a large northern teaching trust told the Health Service Journal (HSJ) it had "so far not (been) as bad as I'd feared in terms of hospital pressures - in fact, (emergency departments) are less pressured than usual.
"We haven't seen cars/taxis with patients arriving in large numbers but the problem is that much of the risk is not currently visible to us given people will be at home.
"We therefore expect very busy days on Thursday and Friday."
It comes as the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan declared a critical incident and said it was full after facing "unprecedented pressures" in its A&E department.
The strike action has taken place as there is a bitter war of words between unions and Health Secretary Steve Barclay who has said he will not back down on pay.
Mr Barclay said the Unite, Unison and GMB unions had "refused" to work with the government at the national level to set out plans for dealing with the strikes.
But the unions said all those agreements had been made locally and were in place.
From a picket line in Longford, Coventry, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused Mr Barclay of a "blatant lie" for saying ambulance unions had taken a "conscious decision" to inflict harm on patients.
Meanwhile, a paramedic in Nottinghamshire said patients' lives have been at risk for a long time due to issues in the NHS.
Tom, 33, from the East Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "I've attended elderly patients who have been on the floor with broken hips for over 20 hours.
"They've been waiting that long that their limbs have started to become necrotic (dying tissue), resulting in major surgery to remove said limbs."
A former Royal Marine who is among striking health workers described it as "demoralising" to spend entire shifts waiting outside hospitals with patients stuck in the back of ambulances as he demanded "something needs to change".
Harry Maskers from Cardiff, who works for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said that while he was unable to strike during his military career, he was taking the opportunity to do so now, with "the kicker" being the government's refusal to discuss the issue of pay.
Mr Barclay had earlier urged the public to "use their common sense in terms of what activities they do" while ambulance workers are on strike, while the medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis urged people not to get "blind drunk".
The walkout by ambulance staff and paramedics comes as nurses in Scotland overwhelmingly rejected the latest pay offer from the Scottish government, in a move which could see members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) take strike action for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, National Highways workers will go on strike from Thursday until Christmas Day in the latest phase of industrial action by the biggest civil service union.
The strike involves members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working as on-road traffic officers and regional operating centre operatives, in London and southeast England.
It comes as planned strikes by railway cleaners in a dispute over pay have been called off.
More than 1,000 cleaners, who are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, would have been involved.
SKY
The West Midlands Ambulance Trust thanked people for heeding their advice to only call in an emergency as ambulance trusts reported receiving fewer calls.
The drop in calls comes as health leaders have urged people to still phone for an ambulance if they are in a life-threatening emergency.
It is feared some people in desperate need of help will not phone 999 during the strike action.
Hundreds of members of the army, navy and RAF have been drafted in to cover as paramedics, technicians, control room workers and other staff in England are on strike.
All Category 1 calls (the most life-threatening, such as cardiac arrest) are being responded to during the walkouts, while some ambulance trusts have agreed exemptions with unions for specific incidents within Category 2 (serious conditions, such as stroke or chest pain).
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said: "There may be a number of reasons why 999 calls are dropping - hesitancy may be a key factor during the industrial action.
"We want to reassure patients and the public that if they need emergency care, A&Es remain open."
The Welsh Ambulance Service has said demand is "manageable" but any "influx of calls would put significant pressure on our service".
Meanwhile, the East Midlands Ambulance Service said it was too early to say how the service was coping.
Up to half of its more than 4,000 workforce were GMB members who were striking.
South Central Ambulance Service said its main impact from strikes was patient transport services in Sussex and Surrey, rather than urgent and emergency care services.
The London Ambulance Service declined to comment on how services were running.
Meanwhile, a chief executive of a large northern teaching trust told the Health Service Journal (HSJ) it had "so far not (been) as bad as I'd feared in terms of hospital pressures - in fact, (emergency departments) are less pressured than usual.
"We haven't seen cars/taxis with patients arriving in large numbers but the problem is that much of the risk is not currently visible to us given people will be at home.
"We therefore expect very busy days on Thursday and Friday."
It comes as the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan declared a critical incident and said it was full after facing "unprecedented pressures" in its A&E department.
The strike action has taken place as there is a bitter war of words between unions and Health Secretary Steve Barclay who has said he will not back down on pay.
Mr Barclay said the Unite, Unison and GMB unions had "refused" to work with the government at the national level to set out plans for dealing with the strikes.
But the unions said all those agreements had been made locally and were in place.
From a picket line in Longford, Coventry, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused Mr Barclay of a "blatant lie" for saying ambulance unions had taken a "conscious decision" to inflict harm on patients.
Meanwhile, a paramedic in Nottinghamshire said patients' lives have been at risk for a long time due to issues in the NHS.
Tom, 33, from the East Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "I've attended elderly patients who have been on the floor with broken hips for over 20 hours.
"They've been waiting that long that their limbs have started to become necrotic (dying tissue), resulting in major surgery to remove said limbs."
A former Royal Marine who is among striking health workers described it as "demoralising" to spend entire shifts waiting outside hospitals with patients stuck in the back of ambulances as he demanded "something needs to change".
Harry Maskers from Cardiff, who works for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said that while he was unable to strike during his military career, he was taking the opportunity to do so now, with "the kicker" being the government's refusal to discuss the issue of pay.
Mr Barclay had earlier urged the public to "use their common sense in terms of what activities they do" while ambulance workers are on strike, while the medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis urged people not to get "blind drunk".
The walkout by ambulance staff and paramedics comes as nurses in Scotland overwhelmingly rejected the latest pay offer from the Scottish government, in a move which could see members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) take strike action for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, National Highways workers will go on strike from Thursday until Christmas Day in the latest phase of industrial action by the biggest civil service union.
The strike involves members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working as on-road traffic officers and regional operating centre operatives, in London and southeast England.
It comes as planned strikes by railway cleaners in a dispute over pay have been called off.
More than 1,000 cleaners, who are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, would have been involved.
SKY
James
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It shouldn’t take an ambulance strike to reduce the number of calls into 999, which can sometimes just be nonsense calls, or alternatively important calls that are unnecessarily referred as emergencies when the patient really could be calling 111 instead (or seeing their doctor for a non urgent appointment).
People have been ignoring this important advice from the NHS for years and constantly calling out for ambulances without a justified reason.
But will lessons be learned when the ambulances return to normal service? I doubt it.
People have been ignoring this important advice from the NHS for years and constantly calling out for ambulances without a justified reason.
But will lessons be learned when the ambulances return to normal service? I doubt it.
shaz619
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The NHS is a disgrace, all the English should be ashamed. So much for being a proper welfare state, our nation keeps stooping to new lows. The quality of living is horrific and we have the audacity to take the moral high ground when it comes to how more oiled countries go about their business
James
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<b>Ambulance strike: Blame game escalates between unions and ministers
Ministers and unions have clashed over who would be to blame for preventable deaths during ambulance strikes.</b>
Unite boss Sharon Graham accused Health Secretary Steve Barclay of telling "a blatant lie" when he said ambulance unions had "taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients".
Mr Barclay blamed unions for striking when the NHS was under significant pressure.
But the unions said he was at fault for refusing to negotiate on pay.
Paramedics, control room staff and support workers, who are members of the Unison, GMB and Unite unions, are striking across much of England and Wales on Wednesday.
Unions representing ambulance workers want pay increases to keep up with the rising cost of living. They have not set a specific figure but argue any offer needs to be high enough to prevent a recruitment crisis.
However, ministers say they will not negotiate on pay as they have met independent pay recommendations.
NHS bosses are warning patient safety cannot be guaranteed during the strike action, although unions say life-threatening callouts will still be responded to by an ambulance.
They also argue patients are already being put at risk due to waiting times, made worse by staff shortages.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Barclay accused ambulance unions of choosing to harm patients and making contingency planning more difficult.
He said unions had refused to work with the government at a national level on how they would cover emergency calls during strike action.
Unison said it was "utterly shocked" by the comments, while the GMB union said they were "insulting".
Mr Barclay later told BBC Breakfast ambulance unions had chosen to strike at a time "when the system is already facing very significant pressure" from increased flu and Covid admissions.
Asked who would be responsible for any preventable deaths during the industrial action, he said: "It is the trade unions who are taking this action at a point of maximum pressure for the NHS."
But unions rejected Mr Barclay's claims.
Ms Graham said: "The unions have negotiated critical cover, including 999 calls, at a local level with hosts of NHS Trusts.
"Steve Barclay obviously doesn't understand how these issues are dealt with in the NHS.
"That is an embarrassment for him and the government. He has now lost all credibility. Clearly he isn't the man for the job."
Christina McAnea, head of Unison, said the health secretary had "never specifically asked Unison for a national contingency agreement" and had acknowledged local unions had negotiated "detailed, appropriate plans for their areas".
She has previously said any deaths during the strikes would "absolutely" be the fault of the government for refusing to open negotiations.
Ambulance response times for emergency category two 999 calls, such as strokes and heart attacks, are already twice as long as two years ago.
Some unions and ambulance services said there had been less demand than usual on Wednesday, as the public appeared to heed warnings to only call in an emergency.
Unions have agreed striking workers can leave picket lines to respond to the most serious, life-threatening calls if necessary.
This contributed to some picket lines being less busy than during Tuesday's nursing strikes.
In Cardiff, all those on the picket line were called away to respond to emergencies.
Outside other ambulance headquarters the scene was noisier, with some members of the public honking their car horns or dropping off food to show their support.
Dave Skinner, an emergency medical technician for the London Ambulance Service who is striking, said staff were burnt out and struggling with shortages.
"Patients are dying waiting for us because there's physically nobody to send," he told the BBC.
He said experienced people were leaving the profession for better pay and conditions, adding: "I don't blame my colleagues for going elsewhere."
One paramedic, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they would not strike, after the "bad memories of how [industrial action in 1989] left me financially".
However, they said they understood why others had chosen to walk out.
"This government is systematically destroying the NHS and harming patients on a daily basis," they told the BBC.
There are currently no signs ministers will budge on pay, although some Conservative MPs believe they will have to compromise eventually.
Asked whether the government would stick to its position not to deviate from the offer recommended by the independent pay review body, Mr Barclay said this was "a long-standing position".
However, he said staff should "look forward" to next year's pay review process, which is already under way.
The UK is facing a wave of strikes this winter, with nurses, rail workers and Royal Mail staff among those walking out.
Some MPs are concerned offering concessions on pay to one group of workers could lead to other demanding the same, which they argue would make inflation worse.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64050277
Ministers and unions have clashed over who would be to blame for preventable deaths during ambulance strikes.</b>
Unite boss Sharon Graham accused Health Secretary Steve Barclay of telling "a blatant lie" when he said ambulance unions had "taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients".
Mr Barclay blamed unions for striking when the NHS was under significant pressure.
But the unions said he was at fault for refusing to negotiate on pay.
Paramedics, control room staff and support workers, who are members of the Unison, GMB and Unite unions, are striking across much of England and Wales on Wednesday.
Unions representing ambulance workers want pay increases to keep up with the rising cost of living. They have not set a specific figure but argue any offer needs to be high enough to prevent a recruitment crisis.
However, ministers say they will not negotiate on pay as they have met independent pay recommendations.
NHS bosses are warning patient safety cannot be guaranteed during the strike action, although unions say life-threatening callouts will still be responded to by an ambulance.
They also argue patients are already being put at risk due to waiting times, made worse by staff shortages.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Barclay accused ambulance unions of choosing to harm patients and making contingency planning more difficult.
He said unions had refused to work with the government at a national level on how they would cover emergency calls during strike action.
Unison said it was "utterly shocked" by the comments, while the GMB union said they were "insulting".
Mr Barclay later told BBC Breakfast ambulance unions had chosen to strike at a time "when the system is already facing very significant pressure" from increased flu and Covid admissions.
Asked who would be responsible for any preventable deaths during the industrial action, he said: "It is the trade unions who are taking this action at a point of maximum pressure for the NHS."
But unions rejected Mr Barclay's claims.
Ms Graham said: "The unions have negotiated critical cover, including 999 calls, at a local level with hosts of NHS Trusts.
"Steve Barclay obviously doesn't understand how these issues are dealt with in the NHS.
"That is an embarrassment for him and the government. He has now lost all credibility. Clearly he isn't the man for the job."
Christina McAnea, head of Unison, said the health secretary had "never specifically asked Unison for a national contingency agreement" and had acknowledged local unions had negotiated "detailed, appropriate plans for their areas".
She has previously said any deaths during the strikes would "absolutely" be the fault of the government for refusing to open negotiations.
Ambulance response times for emergency category two 999 calls, such as strokes and heart attacks, are already twice as long as two years ago.
Some unions and ambulance services said there had been less demand than usual on Wednesday, as the public appeared to heed warnings to only call in an emergency.
Unions have agreed striking workers can leave picket lines to respond to the most serious, life-threatening calls if necessary.
This contributed to some picket lines being less busy than during Tuesday's nursing strikes.
In Cardiff, all those on the picket line were called away to respond to emergencies.
Outside other ambulance headquarters the scene was noisier, with some members of the public honking their car horns or dropping off food to show their support.
Dave Skinner, an emergency medical technician for the London Ambulance Service who is striking, said staff were burnt out and struggling with shortages.
"Patients are dying waiting for us because there's physically nobody to send," he told the BBC.
He said experienced people were leaving the profession for better pay and conditions, adding: "I don't blame my colleagues for going elsewhere."
One paramedic, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they would not strike, after the "bad memories of how [industrial action in 1989] left me financially".
However, they said they understood why others had chosen to walk out.
"This government is systematically destroying the NHS and harming patients on a daily basis," they told the BBC.
There are currently no signs ministers will budge on pay, although some Conservative MPs believe they will have to compromise eventually.
Asked whether the government would stick to its position not to deviate from the offer recommended by the independent pay review body, Mr Barclay said this was "a long-standing position".
However, he said staff should "look forward" to next year's pay review process, which is already under way.
The UK is facing a wave of strikes this winter, with nurses, rail workers and Royal Mail staff among those walking out.
Some MPs are concerned offering concessions on pay to one group of workers could lead to other demanding the same, which they argue would make inflation worse.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64050277
James
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<b>Ambulance strike: Warning of very challenging days ahead
Hospitals have been quieter than normal during a day of ambulance strikes, but Thursday is likely to be "very challenging" with lots of patients turning up, health bosses say.</b>
Only the most serious 999 calls have being responded to.
But there is no evidence of people going to A&E in taxis or their own cars, NHS Providers told the BBC.
Thousands of paramedics, call handlers and technicians are taking action in England and Wales until midnight.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, mental-health trusts and ambulance services in England, said it was still too early to know the full impact of the strike, but she said category-one calls - which are life-threatening situations - "had been answered".
And she said she had heard talk of union members "coming off the picket line" to answer those calls.
But she warned of a rebound effect over the coming days as large numbers of people turn up across all parts of the health service, making it similar to a day after a bank holiday.
"Tomorrow and Friday are going to be incredibly difficult days across the NHS because there is a lot of unseen demand and risk out there," she said.
"People have changed their behaviour today. They've heeded the call not to use services.
"But some will have chosen not to use them at all, even though they need them."
A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service - one of nine where industrial action was taking place in England - said there had been a reduction in calls and staff were grateful to the public for heeding advice to call 999 only in life-threatening situations.
Meanwhile, South East Coast and Yorkshire Ambulance Services said they were still in the midst of a critical incident - a level at which there is an unusually high amount of pressure on services.
Unions have agreed that ambulance workers will still respond to category-one 999 calls and the most serious category-two calls (emergencies, including strokes and major burns) during strikes, but there would be no guarantee of a response to less urgent calls, such as falls.
This prompted Health Secretary Stephen Barclay to accuse unions of taking a conscious decision to inflict harm on patients - an accusation that Unite union leader Sharon Graham said was a "blatant lie".
"The unions have negotiated critical cover, including 999 calls, at a local level with hosts of NHS trusts. That is how it is done," she said.
People were also being urged to use their own transport or take a taxi to get to hospital, and some hospitals are advising pregnant women very close to their due date to make alternative plans to travel there, should they need to.
But Ms Cordery said that "as far as we can tell", people had not been attending A&E in taxis or by their own vehicles.
The strikes come at a time when the health service is already under immense pressure.
Lengthy ambulance response times, long delays to hand over patients at A&E departments, and patients not being discharged quickly enough from hospital when they are ready to go home are creating a 'flow' problem, experts say.
Ambulance waits for calls classed as emergencies have doubled in two years - from an average of around 20 minutes to more than 40 minutes. The target is 18 minutes.
There are also record-high numbers of people waiting for operations - now seven million in England alone - an issue that has been made much worse by the Covid pandemic.
Today's strike only involves staff in England and Wales.
Ambulance workers are demanding a pay rise above inflation which they say will improve morale and help prevent staff, faced with rising pressures, from leaving their jobs.
But government ministers say most ambulance staff have received a pay rise of at least 4%, taking average earnings to £47,000. A further pay increase would mean taking money from frontline services, they added.
In Scotland, two major health unions - Unison and Unite - previously called off ambulance strike action following pay talks.
The GMB union voted to reject a pay deal from the Scottish government - but it is not striking there today because it's still considering its next steps, and it says it hopes strike action will not be necessary.
Northern Ireland's ambulance service held a 24-hour strike on 12 December.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64053080
Hospitals have been quieter than normal during a day of ambulance strikes, but Thursday is likely to be "very challenging" with lots of patients turning up, health bosses say.</b>
Only the most serious 999 calls have being responded to.
But there is no evidence of people going to A&E in taxis or their own cars, NHS Providers told the BBC.
Thousands of paramedics, call handlers and technicians are taking action in England and Wales until midnight.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, mental-health trusts and ambulance services in England, said it was still too early to know the full impact of the strike, but she said category-one calls - which are life-threatening situations - "had been answered".
And she said she had heard talk of union members "coming off the picket line" to answer those calls.
But she warned of a rebound effect over the coming days as large numbers of people turn up across all parts of the health service, making it similar to a day after a bank holiday.
"Tomorrow and Friday are going to be incredibly difficult days across the NHS because there is a lot of unseen demand and risk out there," she said.
"People have changed their behaviour today. They've heeded the call not to use services.
"But some will have chosen not to use them at all, even though they need them."
A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service - one of nine where industrial action was taking place in England - said there had been a reduction in calls and staff were grateful to the public for heeding advice to call 999 only in life-threatening situations.
Meanwhile, South East Coast and Yorkshire Ambulance Services said they were still in the midst of a critical incident - a level at which there is an unusually high amount of pressure on services.
Unions have agreed that ambulance workers will still respond to category-one 999 calls and the most serious category-two calls (emergencies, including strokes and major burns) during strikes, but there would be no guarantee of a response to less urgent calls, such as falls.
This prompted Health Secretary Stephen Barclay to accuse unions of taking a conscious decision to inflict harm on patients - an accusation that Unite union leader Sharon Graham said was a "blatant lie".
"The unions have negotiated critical cover, including 999 calls, at a local level with hosts of NHS trusts. That is how it is done," she said.
People were also being urged to use their own transport or take a taxi to get to hospital, and some hospitals are advising pregnant women very close to their due date to make alternative plans to travel there, should they need to.
But Ms Cordery said that "as far as we can tell", people had not been attending A&E in taxis or by their own vehicles.
The strikes come at a time when the health service is already under immense pressure.
Lengthy ambulance response times, long delays to hand over patients at A&E departments, and patients not being discharged quickly enough from hospital when they are ready to go home are creating a 'flow' problem, experts say.
Ambulance waits for calls classed as emergencies have doubled in two years - from an average of around 20 minutes to more than 40 minutes. The target is 18 minutes.
There are also record-high numbers of people waiting for operations - now seven million in England alone - an issue that has been made much worse by the Covid pandemic.
Today's strike only involves staff in England and Wales.
Ambulance workers are demanding a pay rise above inflation which they say will improve morale and help prevent staff, faced with rising pressures, from leaving their jobs.
But government ministers say most ambulance staff have received a pay rise of at least 4%, taking average earnings to £47,000. A further pay increase would mean taking money from frontline services, they added.
In Scotland, two major health unions - Unison and Unite - previously called off ambulance strike action following pay talks.
The GMB union voted to reject a pay deal from the Scottish government - but it is not striking there today because it's still considering its next steps, and it says it hopes strike action will not be necessary.
Northern Ireland's ambulance service held a 24-hour strike on 12 December.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64053080
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<b>Ambulance workers in England to strike again in January
Ambulance staff in five areas of England are to stage two further strikes in January, union leaders say.</b>
The industrial action on 11 and 23 January is likely to heap more pressure on emergency care, which is already under serious strain.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said further strike action was in no one's best interest.
Unison leaders say the action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay.
Life-threatening calls to 999, as well as the most serious emergency calls, will still be responded to, they say.
Services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will take action over pay and staffing.
The January strikes will each last for 24 hours from midnight, Unison says, and will involve all ambulance employees - not just 999 response crews.
Ambulance staff, including paramedics, call handlers and technicians, staged a strike in England and Wales on Wednesday, and are set to strike again on 28 December.
Three unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB union - were involved in the strike action.
"We are disappointed that some union members have chosen to take further strike action," said Mr Barclay.
He said the pay demands the unions were making "would mean taking money away from frontline services and cause further delays to treatment" and called for further strikes to be reconsidered.
Even before Wednesday's strike, a quarter of ambulances were delayed for more than an hour outside A&E, according to the latest NHS England statistics.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the prospect of prolonged strikes by more health unions in January was "incredibly worrying".
"There are no winners in this situation. Serious talks must take place between health ministers and unions, and fast."
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said no health workers wanted to go out on strike but holding talks was the only way the dispute would end.
She said accusing NHS staff of making a conscious decision to inflict harm on the public by taking action this week "was not the health secretary's finest hour".
"Neither was it a particularly smart move for Steve Barclay to falsely accuse health unions of failing to deliver a national emergency cover plan," she added.
"It's time [he] stopped with the insults and fibs and called the unions in for proper talks about improving NHS pay."
The health secretary has repeatedly said that ambulance workers have already been given a pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and that any further increase was unaffordable.
Mr Barclay is said to be keen to focus on settling next year's pay deal for NHS staff in England, from April 2023, but the unions say strikes are about this year's pay offer, which he is refusing to negotiate on.
The average earnings for ambulance staff in England were £46,643, figures from NHS Digital for April 2021 to March 2022 show.
Of this, £13,854 came from extra payments for things like shift work and overtime.
Workers classed as support staff - such as ambulance technicians and non-emergency ambulance drivers - had average pay of £29,139, of which £7,842 came from extra payments.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64069236
Ambulance staff in five areas of England are to stage two further strikes in January, union leaders say.</b>
The industrial action on 11 and 23 January is likely to heap more pressure on emergency care, which is already under serious strain.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said further strike action was in no one's best interest.
Unison leaders say the action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay.
Life-threatening calls to 999, as well as the most serious emergency calls, will still be responded to, they say.
Services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will take action over pay and staffing.
The January strikes will each last for 24 hours from midnight, Unison says, and will involve all ambulance employees - not just 999 response crews.
Ambulance staff, including paramedics, call handlers and technicians, staged a strike in England and Wales on Wednesday, and are set to strike again on 28 December.
Three unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB union - were involved in the strike action.
"We are disappointed that some union members have chosen to take further strike action," said Mr Barclay.
He said the pay demands the unions were making "would mean taking money away from frontline services and cause further delays to treatment" and called for further strikes to be reconsidered.
Even before Wednesday's strike, a quarter of ambulances were delayed for more than an hour outside A&E, according to the latest NHS England statistics.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the prospect of prolonged strikes by more health unions in January was "incredibly worrying".
"There are no winners in this situation. Serious talks must take place between health ministers and unions, and fast."
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said no health workers wanted to go out on strike but holding talks was the only way the dispute would end.
She said accusing NHS staff of making a conscious decision to inflict harm on the public by taking action this week "was not the health secretary's finest hour".
"Neither was it a particularly smart move for Steve Barclay to falsely accuse health unions of failing to deliver a national emergency cover plan," she added.
"It's time [he] stopped with the insults and fibs and called the unions in for proper talks about improving NHS pay."
The health secretary has repeatedly said that ambulance workers have already been given a pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and that any further increase was unaffordable.
Mr Barclay is said to be keen to focus on settling next year's pay deal for NHS staff in England, from April 2023, but the unions say strikes are about this year's pay offer, which he is refusing to negotiate on.
The average earnings for ambulance staff in England were £46,643, figures from NHS Digital for April 2021 to March 2022 show.
Of this, £13,854 came from extra payments for things like shift work and overtime.
Workers classed as support staff - such as ambulance technicians and non-emergency ambulance drivers - had average pay of £29,139, of which £7,842 came from extra payments.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64069236
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A doctors' surgery in England has apologised after sending patients a text telling them they had advanced lung cancer instead of wishing them a merry Christmas, reports said on Thursday.
"Diagnosis -- Aggressive lung cancer with metastases. Thanks," read the misfired text received by a number of patients.
It added that one of the surgery's doctors had asked for them to be given a form for people with terminal illness.
That was followed just over 20 minutes later by an apology from the Askern Medical Practice, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
AFP
"Diagnosis -- Aggressive lung cancer with metastases. Thanks," read the misfired text received by a number of patients.
It added that one of the surgery's doctors had asked for them to be given a form for people with terminal illness.
That was followed just over 20 minutes later by an apology from the Askern Medical Practice, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
AFP
James
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Unreal!
James
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<b>Flu rise warning from NHS in England</b>
There were more than 3,700 patients a day in hospital with flu last week - up from 520 a day the month before, the latest data from NHS England shows.
Of these, 267 people needed specialised care in critical care beds last week.
NHS England warns pressures on the health service continue to grow as viruses like flu re-circulate after a hiatus during the pandemic.
This time last year, when social mixing was low, there were only 34 patients in hospital a day with flu.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said:
"Sadly, these latest flu numbers show our fears of a 'twindemic' have been realised, with cases up seven-fold in just a month and the continued impact of Covid hitting staff hard, with related absences up almost 50% on the end of November."
He warned this was "no time to be complacent" with the risk of serious illness being "very real" and encouraged those eligible to take up their flu and Covid jabs as soon as possible.
Admissions among children under 5 have been high this flu season, as well as among older people.
The report suggests NHS staff have also been affected by the spread of viruses during winter, with staff absences from all causes sitting at around 63,296 a day.
This compares to 52,556 at the end of last month.
In Wales, admissions with flu have been rising since the beginning of December, with 702 people in hospital with flu on Christmas day and 29 of those patients required critical care support.
Flu-related hospital admissions in Scotland have also been steadily increasing over the winter with the rate at 7.5 patients per 100,000 of the population, according to the latest figures. This is the highest on record since 2017.
The latest figures published for Northern Ireland, for mid-December, show the number of positive flu tests in hospital have risen sharply compared to previous weeks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64126654
There were more than 3,700 patients a day in hospital with flu last week - up from 520 a day the month before, the latest data from NHS England shows.
Of these, 267 people needed specialised care in critical care beds last week.
NHS England warns pressures on the health service continue to grow as viruses like flu re-circulate after a hiatus during the pandemic.
This time last year, when social mixing was low, there were only 34 patients in hospital a day with flu.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said:
"Sadly, these latest flu numbers show our fears of a 'twindemic' have been realised, with cases up seven-fold in just a month and the continued impact of Covid hitting staff hard, with related absences up almost 50% on the end of November."
He warned this was "no time to be complacent" with the risk of serious illness being "very real" and encouraged those eligible to take up their flu and Covid jabs as soon as possible.
Admissions among children under 5 have been high this flu season, as well as among older people.
The report suggests NHS staff have also been affected by the spread of viruses during winter, with staff absences from all causes sitting at around 63,296 a day.
This compares to 52,556 at the end of last month.
In Wales, admissions with flu have been rising since the beginning of December, with 702 people in hospital with flu on Christmas day and 29 of those patients required critical care support.
Flu-related hospital admissions in Scotland have also been steadily increasing over the winter with the rate at 7.5 patients per 100,000 of the population, according to the latest figures. This is the highest on record since 2017.
The latest figures published for Northern Ireland, for mid-December, show the number of positive flu tests in hospital have risen sharply compared to previous weeks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64126654
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James
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<b>Pressure on the NHS is unsustainable, medics warn</b>
Pressure on the NHS is "intolerable and unsustainable", according to the British Medical Association (BMA) which represents doctors.
Chair of the BMA council, Professor Phil Banfield, has called on the government to "step up and take immediate action" to solve the crisis.
Hospitals are facing soaring demands, which experts believe is in part driven by winter illnesses like flu and Covid.
The government said it recognised the pressures faced by the NHS.
A number of hospitals have declared critical incidents in recent days, meaning they cannot function as usual due to extraordinary pressure.
According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) - which monitors standards of care in UK A&E departments - the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record and some A&E departments are in a "complete state of crisis".
Dr Ian Higginson, the college's vice-president, said he was in "no doubt" there was a risk to patients.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live the waits being experienced by patients in emergency departments were "appalling" - and said he had heard of waits of up to four days.
"Emergency departments are in a really difficult and in some cases a complete state of crisis right now... and in many cases we are unable to provide care at the standard we would like."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64142614
Pressure on the NHS is "intolerable and unsustainable", according to the British Medical Association (BMA) which represents doctors.
Chair of the BMA council, Professor Phil Banfield, has called on the government to "step up and take immediate action" to solve the crisis.
Hospitals are facing soaring demands, which experts believe is in part driven by winter illnesses like flu and Covid.
The government said it recognised the pressures faced by the NHS.
A number of hospitals have declared critical incidents in recent days, meaning they cannot function as usual due to extraordinary pressure.
According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) - which monitors standards of care in UK A&E departments - the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record and some A&E departments are in a "complete state of crisis".
Dr Ian Higginson, the college's vice-president, said he was in "no doubt" there was a risk to patients.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live the waits being experienced by patients in emergency departments were "appalling" - and said he had heard of waits of up to four days.
"Emergency departments are in a really difficult and in some cases a complete state of crisis right now... and in many cases we are unable to provide care at the standard we would like."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64142614
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Thousands of junior doctors will start voting on Monday on whether to strike over pay in the latest outbreak of industrial unrest.
About 45,000 British Medical Association (BMA) members in England are being balloted, with a result set for the end of February.
About 45,000 British Medical Association (BMA) members in England are being balloted, with a result set for the end of February.
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Sir Keir Starmer has promised to overhaul GP services if he gets into power, saying the NHS will "die" without drastic change.
The Labour leader revealed his plans in the Sunday Telegraph, including making family doctors direct employees of the NHS and allowing patients to self refer to specialists.
The Labour leader revealed his plans in the Sunday Telegraph, including making family doctors direct employees of the NHS and allowing patients to self refer to specialists.
Robert
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I took my fourth COVID jab, but declined my flu jab this year.
A friend, younger than me and looking strong, was hospitalised with COVID for a week, and it was touch-and-go as to whether he would be intubated. That sounds like hell on Earth to me. Forced into sedation with a tube down your throat. Like an Alien movie. Unable to wake up for days, hovering between life and death, and with PTSD from the constant nightmares.
Now I think I should have got the flu jab too. Had it once a long time ago. It’s not like a cold. It pole-axed me for 96 hours. I was young and fit then. Now I wonder if it would put strain on my heart. Both jabs for Robert next year!
"No Beds, Not Enough Doctors": UK's Healthcare System In Crisis
Five-year-old Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died from pneumonia after being sent home, despite a doctor describing his tonsillitis as the worst he had ever seen.
Martin Clark, 68, was driven to hospital by his family after they waited 45 minutes for an ambulance when he suffered chest pains at home. He later died after a cardiac arrest.
As nurses went on strike on Wednesday, with its focus on low pay, the extent of the crisis facing patients in the UK's state-run National Health Service (NHS) is being laid bare.
"We go to work every day as nurses, and we do our best, and our best isn't enough right now, and that's because our workload keeps increasing and our resources aren't matching that," Orla Dooley, an accident an emergency nurse, told AFP.
"It (the strike) is about people's mums who are at home in the community having heart attacks and not having treatment because there's no ambulances to go out to them.
"It's about your dad not having surgery for cancer, because there's no bed for him to go to after his operation.
"And it's about your granny dying on a ward by herself because there's no nurse to hold her hand because there just isn't enough nurses. That's what it's about."
'Suffering'
The situation is being described as the worst crisis since the NHS was set up in 1948, with a particular focus on accident and emergency (A&E) but which also includes longer waiting times for other appointments and treatment.
According to NHS England, a record 54,532 people in December waited for more than 12 hours once arriving at A&E.
The average wait for an ambulance for category two patients -- which includes suspected strokes or heart attacks -- is more than 90 minutes. The target time is 18 minutes.
A&E doctor Waheed Arian told The Times this week he was once confronted with 14 ambulances lined up outside his hospital in Coventry, central England.
"I had to open up each ambulance and look inside and decide which patient could come in because we only had two beds," he said.
"They were all suffering, they should all have had a bed. The NHS is under such stress that we're being asked to do things that we shouldn't be doing."
In Rotherham, northern England, young Yusuf's uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, said they were told there were "no beds and not enough doctors" when they begged for him to be admitted.
"They kept saying to us, 'we've got one doctor. What do you want us to do? We've got no beds available," he told British media.
Clark's family in East Sussex, southern England, said he had been a fit man but they were left wondering if he could have survived if he had received prompt treatment.
"The NHS is broken," his widow Ann told the BBC. "Everybody is scared if they get ill. Where can they turn? Something needs to change."
Excess deaths
Ambulance workers, who launched a first round of strike action in December and are expected to walk out again in the coming weeks, blame the situation on delays on admissions outside A&E.
The government attributes the difficulties to the effects of the pandemic but an increase in excess deaths last year have also been partly blamed on the staffing crisis.
Whatever the reason, that is no consolation to Matthew Simpson, whose wife Teresa, 54, had diabetes and the muscle wasting disease myotonic dystrophy. She died after nearly 17 hours waiting for help.
Mr Simpson, 47, from Hull, in northern England, said he called the emergency 999 number after she became confused.
Both fell asleep while waiting for paramedics but when Mr Simpson woke up he found his wife lifeless.
Paramedics eventually arrived as he was attempting to resuscitate her.
"One hundred per cent I believe that if they got to my wife in six hours she would still be here," he told Sky News.
Darrel Wilson, 54, from Stockport, says nurses told him he would not have survived had his wife not driven him to hospital herself.
He called an ambulance one night in October at around 10:00 pm after suffering shortness of breath and chest pains.
His wife Debbie called 999 eight more times during the night before finally driving him to hospital just 20 minutes away the following morning.
Mr Wilson said nurses told him he "wouldn't be alive" if he had waited for the ambulance.
NDTV
Five-year-old Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died from pneumonia after being sent home, despite a doctor describing his tonsillitis as the worst he had ever seen.
Martin Clark, 68, was driven to hospital by his family after they waited 45 minutes for an ambulance when he suffered chest pains at home. He later died after a cardiac arrest.
As nurses went on strike on Wednesday, with its focus on low pay, the extent of the crisis facing patients in the UK's state-run National Health Service (NHS) is being laid bare.
"We go to work every day as nurses, and we do our best, and our best isn't enough right now, and that's because our workload keeps increasing and our resources aren't matching that," Orla Dooley, an accident an emergency nurse, told AFP.
"It (the strike) is about people's mums who are at home in the community having heart attacks and not having treatment because there's no ambulances to go out to them.
"It's about your dad not having surgery for cancer, because there's no bed for him to go to after his operation.
"And it's about your granny dying on a ward by herself because there's no nurse to hold her hand because there just isn't enough nurses. That's what it's about."
'Suffering'
The situation is being described as the worst crisis since the NHS was set up in 1948, with a particular focus on accident and emergency (A&E) but which also includes longer waiting times for other appointments and treatment.
According to NHS England, a record 54,532 people in December waited for more than 12 hours once arriving at A&E.
The average wait for an ambulance for category two patients -- which includes suspected strokes or heart attacks -- is more than 90 minutes. The target time is 18 minutes.
A&E doctor Waheed Arian told The Times this week he was once confronted with 14 ambulances lined up outside his hospital in Coventry, central England.
"I had to open up each ambulance and look inside and decide which patient could come in because we only had two beds," he said.
"They were all suffering, they should all have had a bed. The NHS is under such stress that we're being asked to do things that we shouldn't be doing."
In Rotherham, northern England, young Yusuf's uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, said they were told there were "no beds and not enough doctors" when they begged for him to be admitted.
"They kept saying to us, 'we've got one doctor. What do you want us to do? We've got no beds available," he told British media.
Clark's family in East Sussex, southern England, said he had been a fit man but they were left wondering if he could have survived if he had received prompt treatment.
"The NHS is broken," his widow Ann told the BBC. "Everybody is scared if they get ill. Where can they turn? Something needs to change."
Excess deaths
Ambulance workers, who launched a first round of strike action in December and are expected to walk out again in the coming weeks, blame the situation on delays on admissions outside A&E.
The government attributes the difficulties to the effects of the pandemic but an increase in excess deaths last year have also been partly blamed on the staffing crisis.
Whatever the reason, that is no consolation to Matthew Simpson, whose wife Teresa, 54, had diabetes and the muscle wasting disease myotonic dystrophy. She died after nearly 17 hours waiting for help.
Mr Simpson, 47, from Hull, in northern England, said he called the emergency 999 number after she became confused.
Both fell asleep while waiting for paramedics but when Mr Simpson woke up he found his wife lifeless.
Paramedics eventually arrived as he was attempting to resuscitate her.
"One hundred per cent I believe that if they got to my wife in six hours she would still be here," he told Sky News.
Darrel Wilson, 54, from Stockport, says nurses told him he would not have survived had his wife not driven him to hospital herself.
He called an ambulance one night in October at around 10:00 pm after suffering shortness of breath and chest pains.
His wife Debbie called 999 eight more times during the night before finally driving him to hospital just 20 minutes away the following morning.
Mr Wilson said nurses told him he "wouldn't be alive" if he had waited for the ambulance.
NDTV
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NHS to treat 50,000 elderly and vulnerable patients in 'virtual wards' at home
The NHS is planning to free up space in A&E by treating up to 50,000 elderly and vulnerable patients in "virtual wards" at home.
In December, about 10,000 people were being cared for in that way in England, and ministers want to increase the monthly figure five-fold.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said more "urgent community response teams" will be created to provide patients with at-home support "within two hours".
The changes are being made in "recognition of the pressures facing A&E".
"Up to 20% of emergency hospital admissions (are) avoidable with the right care in place," the DHSC said.
It is hoped that ambulance response times will improve as the plan is rolled out.
On Monday, NHS England is due to publish its Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, the purpose of which is to "reduce waiting times and improve care for patients".
The DHSC said there is "growing evidence" that virtual wards are a "safe and efficient alternative to hospital care, particularly for frail patients".
Those looked after in this way include frail elderly patients or those with acute respiratory infections and cardiac conditions.
The NHS is planning to free up space in A&E by treating up to 50,000 elderly and vulnerable patients in "virtual wards" at home.
In December, about 10,000 people were being cared for in that way in England, and ministers want to increase the monthly figure five-fold.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said more "urgent community response teams" will be created to provide patients with at-home support "within two hours".
The changes are being made in "recognition of the pressures facing A&E".
"Up to 20% of emergency hospital admissions (are) avoidable with the right care in place," the DHSC said.
It is hoped that ambulance response times will improve as the plan is rolled out.
On Monday, NHS England is due to publish its Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, the purpose of which is to "reduce waiting times and improve care for patients".
The DHSC said there is "growing evidence" that virtual wards are a "safe and efficient alternative to hospital care, particularly for frail patients".
Those looked after in this way include frail elderly patients or those with acute respiratory infections and cardiac conditions.
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The father of a junior doctor who took her own life says action must be taken to change a "toxic environment" at the hospital where she worked.
Dr Ravi Kumar, who also works for the NHS, was speaking ahead of the publication of a report into allegations of bullying at the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust, one of the largest hospital trusts in England.
The report has also examined claims of threats of disciplinary action against whistleblowers.
Dr Vaishnavi Kumar killed herself in June last year. The 35-year-old had been working at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital Birmingham.
Her parents say she left a note before taking a lethal overdose.
"She wrote a letter," her father told Sky News. "She very clearly mentioned that she was doing this because of the QE hospital."
After taking the overdose she waited three hours to call an ambulance. Her father says that when paramedics arrived "she said under no circumstances was she going to the QE hospital".
PM says pension change will reduce NHS backlog through extra hours - but figures show only 105 doctors retired early last year
Dr Kumar says his daughter was "bright, fun-loving and compassionate" but things changed soon after she began working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
"She started facing this toxic environment and she started getting a bit more worried and tearful and sometimes when she was coming back from work will say that people are belittling her and demeaning her.
"She used to get very stressed with some consultants when she was doing the handover because of the way they used to treat her during the handover, laughing at her for treatments and things like that.
"And she being a very senior registrar and also quite experienced and well-liked by all the others, that was becoming… it was taking a toll on her."
Dr Kumar says he hopes the Trust acts on the findings of the report.
"The first thing is to realise, accept that this has happened. The second thing is to find out why it has happened and action be taken" he said.
"It makes me angry and at the same time worried about other junior doctors who are going to follow her.
"Our lives stopped on the 22 June and it's very hard. Each day is a struggle.
"Now my main worry is to stop it happening to others and that is why I want to bring this forward so people realise that there is a toxic atmosphere".
The review into UHB has been chaired by Professor Mike Bewick, a former deputy medical director at NHS England, who is now an independent consultant.
The Trust employs more than 20,000 people. As well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham it also operates Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, and Solihull Hospital.
In 2021 the Care Quality Commission rated the Trust as "requires improvement" and highlighted concerns about patient safety.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham said: "Dr Vaishnavi Kumar was a much loved and respected doctor, who was popular with colleagues and patients alike. Her unexpected death was a tragedy and our heartfelt condolences remain with Vaishnavi's family.
"We have reflected on our response to Vaishnavi's death, have learnt lessons from this, and are acting on them.
"Dr Kumar wants his daughter's death to result in improvements in the support offered to all doctors in training and to see a change in the culture of the Trust. We are pleased that he has agreed to work with the Trust on this."
The Trust said it will respond in full to the findings of the report by Professor Bewick after it has been published.
SKY
Dr Ravi Kumar, who also works for the NHS, was speaking ahead of the publication of a report into allegations of bullying at the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust, one of the largest hospital trusts in England.
The report has also examined claims of threats of disciplinary action against whistleblowers.
Dr Vaishnavi Kumar killed herself in June last year. The 35-year-old had been working at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital Birmingham.
Her parents say she left a note before taking a lethal overdose.
"She wrote a letter," her father told Sky News. "She very clearly mentioned that she was doing this because of the QE hospital."
After taking the overdose she waited three hours to call an ambulance. Her father says that when paramedics arrived "she said under no circumstances was she going to the QE hospital".
PM says pension change will reduce NHS backlog through extra hours - but figures show only 105 doctors retired early last year
Dr Kumar says his daughter was "bright, fun-loving and compassionate" but things changed soon after she began working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
"She started facing this toxic environment and she started getting a bit more worried and tearful and sometimes when she was coming back from work will say that people are belittling her and demeaning her.
"She used to get very stressed with some consultants when she was doing the handover because of the way they used to treat her during the handover, laughing at her for treatments and things like that.
"And she being a very senior registrar and also quite experienced and well-liked by all the others, that was becoming… it was taking a toll on her."
Dr Kumar says he hopes the Trust acts on the findings of the report.
"The first thing is to realise, accept that this has happened. The second thing is to find out why it has happened and action be taken" he said.
"It makes me angry and at the same time worried about other junior doctors who are going to follow her.
"Our lives stopped on the 22 June and it's very hard. Each day is a struggle.
"Now my main worry is to stop it happening to others and that is why I want to bring this forward so people realise that there is a toxic atmosphere".
The review into UHB has been chaired by Professor Mike Bewick, a former deputy medical director at NHS England, who is now an independent consultant.
The Trust employs more than 20,000 people. As well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham it also operates Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, and Solihull Hospital.
In 2021 the Care Quality Commission rated the Trust as "requires improvement" and highlighted concerns about patient safety.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham said: "Dr Vaishnavi Kumar was a much loved and respected doctor, who was popular with colleagues and patients alike. Her unexpected death was a tragedy and our heartfelt condolences remain with Vaishnavi's family.
"We have reflected on our response to Vaishnavi's death, have learnt lessons from this, and are acting on them.
"Dr Kumar wants his daughter's death to result in improvements in the support offered to all doctors in training and to see a change in the culture of the Trust. We are pleased that he has agreed to work with the Trust on this."
The Trust said it will respond in full to the findings of the report by Professor Bewick after it has been published.
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Emergency and urgent care will be prioritised over routine appointments and treatment during this week's junior doctors' strike, NHS England says.
The strike will begin early on Tuesday and run through until the early hours of Saturday, bringing "immense pressures" to staff and services, according to national medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis.
SKY
The strike will begin early on Tuesday and run through until the early hours of Saturday, bringing "immense pressures" to staff and services, according to national medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis.
SKY
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Junior doctors across England have begun a four-day walkout, expected to be the most disruptive in NHS history.
More than a quarter of a million appointments and operations could be cancelled, and some hospitals say up to half of planned treatment is affected.
The British Medical Association said "we've had no offer whatsoever" from Health Secretary Steve Barclay.
Mr Barclay called the action "extremely disappointing" as it risked patient safety.
The BMA said there were plans to pull doctors off picket lines if lives were in immediate danger. Under trade union laws, life-and-limb cover must be provided.
The junior doctors' approach contrasts with recent strikes by nurses and ambulance workers, which saw unions agree to exempt certain emergency services.
But doctors say they are striking for patient safety as much as about pay, saying that current pay levels are affecting recruitment and leading to many doctors leaving the profession.
Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the BMA, said they are hoping this round of industrial action will be the last - but "we will continue" if the government does not move.
She told BBC Breakfast. "This is not a situation where we are fixed in our position. We are looking for negotiations and Steve Barclay isn't even willing to talk to us.
"He hasn't put any offer at all on the table. If we want to start a negotiation there has to be two sides in the discussion."
Mr Barclay accused organisers of timing the strike just after the Bank Holiday Easter weekend - a period when the NHS already faces increased demand and greater staff absence - "to maximise disruption".
He said he had hoped to begin formal pay negotiations with the BMA last month but said its demand for a 35% pay rise was "unreasonable". He added this would would result in some junior doctors "receiving a pay rise of over £20,000".
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-652...BCNews&at_medium=social&at_link_type=web_link
More than a quarter of a million appointments and operations could be cancelled, and some hospitals say up to half of planned treatment is affected.
The British Medical Association said "we've had no offer whatsoever" from Health Secretary Steve Barclay.
Mr Barclay called the action "extremely disappointing" as it risked patient safety.
The BMA said there were plans to pull doctors off picket lines if lives were in immediate danger. Under trade union laws, life-and-limb cover must be provided.
The junior doctors' approach contrasts with recent strikes by nurses and ambulance workers, which saw unions agree to exempt certain emergency services.
But doctors say they are striking for patient safety as much as about pay, saying that current pay levels are affecting recruitment and leading to many doctors leaving the profession.
Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the BMA, said they are hoping this round of industrial action will be the last - but "we will continue" if the government does not move.
She told BBC Breakfast. "This is not a situation where we are fixed in our position. We are looking for negotiations and Steve Barclay isn't even willing to talk to us.
"He hasn't put any offer at all on the table. If we want to start a negotiation there has to be two sides in the discussion."
Mr Barclay accused organisers of timing the strike just after the Bank Holiday Easter weekend - a period when the NHS already faces increased demand and greater staff absence - "to maximise disruption".
He said he had hoped to begin formal pay negotiations with the BMA last month but said its demand for a 35% pay rise was "unreasonable". He added this would would result in some junior doctors "receiving a pay rise of over £20,000".
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-652...BCNews&at_medium=social&at_link_type=web_link
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Why are junior doctors striking - and why could it be the worst NHS strike yet?
By Josephine Franks, news reporter
The junior doctors' strikes will bring "immense pressures" to staff and services, NHS England has warned, with people urged to avoid "risky behaviour" that could land them in hospital.
So when will the strike finish, why are junior doctors striking, and what will the impact be on the NHS?
Having kicked off at 7am today, the industrial action will last 96 hours until 7am on Saturday.
Up to 47,600 medics are expected to join in.
The strikes are primarily over pay. The BMA said the wage for junior doctors has fallen 26% in the last 15 years, with newly qualified medics making less than a barista in a coffee shop.
It has demanded a 35% pay rise for junior doctors to bring salaries back to 2008-2009 levels, calling this "pay restoration".
It is expected that around a quarter of a million NHS appointments and operations could be delayed.
Health leaders said they were having to plan for the worst to protect patient safety, including by cancelling more appointments and elective procedures than they would like to.
SKY
By Josephine Franks, news reporter
The junior doctors' strikes will bring "immense pressures" to staff and services, NHS England has warned, with people urged to avoid "risky behaviour" that could land them in hospital.
So when will the strike finish, why are junior doctors striking, and what will the impact be on the NHS?
Having kicked off at 7am today, the industrial action will last 96 hours until 7am on Saturday.
Up to 47,600 medics are expected to join in.
The strikes are primarily over pay. The BMA said the wage for junior doctors has fallen 26% in the last 15 years, with newly qualified medics making less than a barista in a coffee shop.
It has demanded a 35% pay rise for junior doctors to bring salaries back to 2008-2009 levels, calling this "pay restoration".
It is expected that around a quarter of a million NHS appointments and operations could be delayed.
Health leaders said they were having to plan for the worst to protect patient safety, including by cancelling more appointments and elective procedures than they would like to.
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Escalating nurse strike action in England by withdrawing protection for emergency hospital care will endanger patient safety, an NHS leader has warned as the government said a "full and final" pay offer had been made to staff.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health trusts, also raised concerns over the possibility of nurses and junior doctors walking out at the same time in the dispute over pay.
His comments came as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Friday its members will strike for 48 hours from 8pm on 30 April after rejecting the government's pay offer.
Politics latest - Tories set to lose 'more than 1,000 seats' in local elections
NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards will also take industrial action for the first time.
In a letter to RCN chief Pat Cullen, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he was "disappointed" at the rejection of the pay deal, but offered talks to "avoid this escalatory action" and made clear the offer still stood.
Mr Taylor told Trevor Phillips on Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that removing derogations agreed by the unions - protections for certain areas of care - would have an impact.
SKY
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health trusts, also raised concerns over the possibility of nurses and junior doctors walking out at the same time in the dispute over pay.
His comments came as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Friday its members will strike for 48 hours from 8pm on 30 April after rejecting the government's pay offer.
Politics latest - Tories set to lose 'more than 1,000 seats' in local elections
NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards will also take industrial action for the first time.
In a letter to RCN chief Pat Cullen, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he was "disappointed" at the rejection of the pay deal, but offered talks to "avoid this escalatory action" and made clear the offer still stood.
Mr Taylor told Trevor Phillips on Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that removing derogations agreed by the unions - protections for certain areas of care - would have an impact.
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The leader of the Royal College of Nursing has said a legal attempt by the health secretary to block next weekend’s strike in England is “frightening for democracy and very frightening for trade unionism”.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said it was “disgraceful” that Steve Barclay was attempting to thwart the strike via the courts, and said nurses would “not be bullied into silence”.
“We have instructed our legal counsel and we will stand up for nursing. This is about standing up not just for nursing but for trade unionism and for democracy,” she told the Observer.
The court battle over the strike is the latest escalation in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. It comes as the government faces discontent on several fronts, with teachers in England and Northern Ireland also set to go on strike again this week, and further junior doctor strikes also on the cards.
If the next nursing strike goes ahead as planned, it will see thousands of members of the RCN working for the NHS in England walk out for 48 hours over the May bank holiday weekend.
The industrial action would include nurses in emergency departments and intensive care units, for the first time, and is expected to cause widespread disruption for patients.
But the government and the NHS Employers organisation believe it is unlawful and have urged the RCN to call it off. They say the union’s six-month mandate for industrial action expires during the strike period, and argue that this renders the whole strike unlawful. In legal documents issued on Friday, Barclay ordered the union to cancel the walkout by midday on Monday or face further action.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...p&cvid=414728204c634311a727f20b0f2f4a47&ei=67
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said it was “disgraceful” that Steve Barclay was attempting to thwart the strike via the courts, and said nurses would “not be bullied into silence”.
“We have instructed our legal counsel and we will stand up for nursing. This is about standing up not just for nursing but for trade unionism and for democracy,” she told the Observer.
The court battle over the strike is the latest escalation in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. It comes as the government faces discontent on several fronts, with teachers in England and Northern Ireland also set to go on strike again this week, and further junior doctor strikes also on the cards.
If the next nursing strike goes ahead as planned, it will see thousands of members of the RCN working for the NHS in England walk out for 48 hours over the May bank holiday weekend.
The industrial action would include nurses in emergency departments and intensive care units, for the first time, and is expected to cause widespread disruption for patients.
But the government and the NHS Employers organisation believe it is unlawful and have urged the RCN to call it off. They say the union’s six-month mandate for industrial action expires during the strike period, and argue that this renders the whole strike unlawful. In legal documents issued on Friday, Barclay ordered the union to cancel the walkout by midday on Monday or face further action.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...p&cvid=414728204c634311a727f20b0f2f4a47&ei=67
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London NHS workers to strike next month over pay - union.
Workers at four London National Health Service Trusts will strike next month in a dispute over "safe staffing" and pay, the Unite union said on Thursday.
It will involve over 2,800 workers, including nurses, pathologists, cleaners, caterers, porters and ancillary roles, the union said.
The workers are employed at Barts Health NHS Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust, East London Foundation Trust and Guys and St Thomas.
www.reuters.com
Workers at four London National Health Service Trusts will strike next month in a dispute over "safe staffing" and pay, the Unite union said on Thursday.
It will involve over 2,800 workers, including nurses, pathologists, cleaners, caterers, porters and ancillary roles, the union said.
The workers are employed at Barts Health NHS Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust, East London Foundation Trust and Guys and St Thomas.
London NHS workers to strike next month over pay - union
Workers at four London National Health Service Trusts will strike next month in a dispute over "safe staffing" and pay, the Unite union said on Thursday.
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No GP appointment needed: List of illnesses pharmacies will now be able to diagnose and treat
Thousands of pharmacists across England will be able to assess and treat patients for sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women under 65, without the need for a GP appointment or prescription.
Pharmacies will now be able to treat seven common conditions without patients needing to see a doctor.
From today, thousands of pharmacists across England will be able to assess and treat patients without the need for a GP appointment or prescription for:
• Sinusitis
• Sore throat
• Earache
• Infected insect bites
• Impetigo
• Shingles
• Uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women under 65NHS England said more than nine in 10 community pharmacies in England - 10,265 in total - will be offering the checks under the Pharmacy First scheme.
The move is intended to give people more places to get the care they need and to free up 10 million GP appointments a year.
Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: "GPs are already treating millions more people every month than before the pandemic, but with an ageing population and growing demand, we know the NHS needs to give people more choice and make accessing care as easy as possible.
"People across England rightly value the support they receive from their high street pharmacist, and with eight in 10 living within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in areas of deprivation, they are the perfect spot to offer people convenient care for common conditions."
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, welcomed the move but warned pharmacies are "severely underfunded to the tune of £1.2bn now and as a direct result of that are reducing opening hours and even closing completely".
She added: "This nonsense cannot go on and this stranglehold of chronic underfunding must be relieved now to ensure our community pharmacies continue to exist and can deliver to the potential the government is expecting."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Community pharmacies already do a tremendous job at treating minor conditions and with the Pharmacy First service - backed by £645m - we're determined to go further and unlock their full potential to deliver routine care.
"Patients who need treatment or prescription medication for common conditions like an earache will now be able to get it directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment.
"This is about ensuring people get the treatment they need closer to home, while crucially helping deliver on our plan to cut waiting lists, by freeing up 10 million GP appointments a year, so people get the care they need more quickly."
Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said the scheme would "play to the strengths of pharmacists as medicines experts" and free up GPs for other work.
"Patients will get convenient clinical advice, close to where they live, work and shop," he added.
"The pharmacy sector is under great pressure but, despite this, pharmacy teams will step up and successfully deliver this highly beneficial service.
"This could be a stepping stone to the development of other NHS clinical services in the future, as patients become familiar with going to their local pharmacy for primary care."
SOURCE: https://news.sky.com/story/no-gp-ap...ll-now-be-able-to-diagnose-and-treat-13060001Thousands of pharmacists across England will be able to assess and treat patients for sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women under 65, without the need for a GP appointment or prescription.
Pharmacies will now be able to treat seven common conditions without patients needing to see a doctor.
From today, thousands of pharmacists across England will be able to assess and treat patients without the need for a GP appointment or prescription for:
• Sinusitis
• Sore throat
• Earache
• Infected insect bites
• Impetigo
• Shingles
• Uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women under 65NHS England said more than nine in 10 community pharmacies in England - 10,265 in total - will be offering the checks under the Pharmacy First scheme.
The move is intended to give people more places to get the care they need and to free up 10 million GP appointments a year.
Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: "GPs are already treating millions more people every month than before the pandemic, but with an ageing population and growing demand, we know the NHS needs to give people more choice and make accessing care as easy as possible.
"People across England rightly value the support they receive from their high street pharmacist, and with eight in 10 living within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in areas of deprivation, they are the perfect spot to offer people convenient care for common conditions."
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, welcomed the move but warned pharmacies are "severely underfunded to the tune of £1.2bn now and as a direct result of that are reducing opening hours and even closing completely".
She added: "This nonsense cannot go on and this stranglehold of chronic underfunding must be relieved now to ensure our community pharmacies continue to exist and can deliver to the potential the government is expecting."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Community pharmacies already do a tremendous job at treating minor conditions and with the Pharmacy First service - backed by £645m - we're determined to go further and unlock their full potential to deliver routine care.
"Patients who need treatment or prescription medication for common conditions like an earache will now be able to get it directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment.
"This is about ensuring people get the treatment they need closer to home, while crucially helping deliver on our plan to cut waiting lists, by freeing up 10 million GP appointments a year, so people get the care they need more quickly."
Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said the scheme would "play to the strengths of pharmacists as medicines experts" and free up GPs for other work.
"Patients will get convenient clinical advice, close to where they live, work and shop," he added.
"The pharmacy sector is under great pressure but, despite this, pharmacy teams will step up and successfully deliver this highly beneficial service.
"This could be a stepping stone to the development of other NHS clinical services in the future, as patients become familiar with going to their local pharmacy for primary care."
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Dentists to be offered cash incentives to treat NHS patients and work in under-served areas
The government is planning to offer dentists cash incentives to take on new NHS patients and work in areas that are under-served.Details of the NHS "dental recovery plan", which also include sending teams into schools to treat children's teeth, were due to be announced on Wednesday.
However, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) appears to have inadvertently sent an email detailing the new measures to some opposition MPs. This was then passed on to Sky News.
The email, marked with Wednesday's date, says dentists will be offered a "bonus" to take on more NHS patients, creating more than 1.5 million new treatments.
There will also be a "golden hello" cash incentive for dentists to work in areas that are under-served, allowing around one million new patients to access treatment.
This will kick in from later this year and see up to 240 dentists offered £20,000 to stay and deliver NHS care for at least three years in areas where recruitment and retention of dentists is difficult, the email says.
The plan, amounting to a £200m investment in NHS dentistry, also includes a "Smile for Life" initiative which aims to prevent tooth decay in nursery and reception-aged children by encouraging healthy tooth-brushing habits.
In addition, mobile dental teams will go into schools in under-served areas to provide advice and deliver fluoride varnish treatments to more than 165,000 kids.
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A new dental van service will also be available for targeted rural and coastal communities in under-served areas, with the first vans up and running later this year.
It is unclear if the contents of the email will exactly match Wednesday's announcement. Sky News has contacted the DHSC for comment.
The government has been under pressure to publish its NHS dentistry plan amid reports that people in the UK have had to resort to pulling out their own teeth because of a crisis in care.
On Monday, the British Dental Association (BDA) warned that police had to break up queues outside a dental practice in Bristol as they hit out at "sticking plaster policies".
The BDA wants the government to reform "discredited dental contracts" which they say are fuelling an exodus and mean NHS treatments are being delivered at a financial loss.
They said claims that the measures being announced would generate "millions" of new appointments appeared to lack credibility.
"There is nothing in the plan to draw dentists back into NHS dentistry to enhance workforce capacity," a spokesperson said - adding that most of the investment appeared to be drawn "from recycling existing budgets".
Labour claimed the government was "only promising to do something about it now there's an election coming".
Pointing to his party's own plan for supervised toothbrushing for children and thousands of extra appointments, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: "After 14 years of Conservative neglect, patients are desperately queuing around the block to see a dentist, literally pulling their own teeth out, and tooth decay is the number one reason for 6-year-olds being admitted to hospital.
"The Conservatives are only promising to do something about it now there's an election coming.
"By adopting Labour's proposals for recruitment and supervised toothbrushing, they are finally admitting that they are out of ideas of their own."
Lib Dem health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: "This plan comes too little too late for those left waiting in pain for dental care or the children admitted to hospital for tooth decay.
"With over 12 million waiting for help, this pledge to help just 1 million is a drop in the ocean and shows the Government isn't serious."
Source: SKY
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NHS nurses being investigated for ‘industrial-scale’ qualifications fraud
Hundreds of frontline NHS staff are treating patients despite being under investigation for their part in an alleged “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.
More than 700 nurses are caught up in a potential scandal, which a former head of the Royal College of Nursing said could put NHS patients at risk.
The scam allegedly involves proxies impersonating nurses and taking a key test in Nigeria, which must be passed for them to become registered and allowed to work in the UK.
“It’s very, very worrying if … there’s an organisation that’s involving themselves in fraudulent activity, enabling nurses to bypass these tests, or if they are using surrogates to do exams for them because the implication is that we end up in the UK with nurses who aren’t competent,” said Peter Carter, the ex-chief executive of the RCN and ex-chair of three NHS trusts.
He praised the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for taking action against those involved “to protect the quality of care and patient safety and the reputation of nurses”.
Nurses coming to work in the UK must be properly qualified, given nurses’ role in administering drugs and intravenous infusions and responding to emergencies such as a cardiac arrest, Carter added.
Forty-eight of the nurses are already working as nurses in the NHS because the NMC is unable to rescind their admission to its register, which anyone wanting to work as a nurse or midwife in Britain has to be on. It has told them to retake the test to prove their skills are good enough to meet NHS standards but cannot suspend them.
The 48 are due to face individual hearings, starting in March, at which they will be asked to explain how they apparently took and passed the computer-based test (CBT) of numeracy and clinical knowledge taken at the Yunnik test centre in the city of Ibadan. The times recorded raised suspicions because they were among the fastest the nursing regulator had ever seen.
But the NMC is taking more direct action with a 669-strong second batch of Nigerian health staff – again mostly nurses, but also including fewer than five midwives – whose test results it has found were also obtained through fraud. Most of them have also already come to the UK, sources say.
However, they are in a different position to the 48 because they are thought to be mainly working as healthcare assistants in the NHS and care homes. That is because the NMC has not approved their applications to join its register while it continues to investigate widespread impersonation at the Yunnik test centre.
About 80 nurses from the 669 applicants have obtained a new CBT test and applied to join the NMC register, so they can start working in that role. However, the nursing regulator has banned almost all of them because it had “serious concerns” about their honesty and trustworthiness.
“This is because even with a new CBT there remains character concerns given what happened at Yunnik and what the data appeared to show about these individuals,” the NMC said.
Andrea Sutcliffe, the NMC’s chief executive and registrar, said it had taken necessarily robust action after Pearson VUE, which operated the Yunnik test centre, alerted it last year to what she called “widespread fraudulent activity” in which a “proxy tester” posed as a nurse.
“This is the first time we’ve found evidence of widespread fraud at a test centre,” she said. It is the biggest-ever such fraud the NMC has come across, she added.
The deception at Yunnik has led to the NMC declaring the CBT test results apparently obtained by 1,955 Nigerian-trained health professionals to be invalid. All of them, even including the 1,238 about whom the regulator says it cannot prove fraud was involved, have been given three chances to resit the CBT test, or face expulsion or exclusion from the register.
“We have concerns that 48 people already on the register obtained their test result fraudulently. We’ll hold hearings where an independent panel will decide whether those individuals gained fraudulent entry to our register. If so, they’re likely to be removed from the register,” said Sutcliffe.
“There are 669 applicants to the register about whom we have the same fraud concerns. We’re reviewing each application carefully in line with our guidance on health and character. We’ve refused entry to the register for the vast majority of the 80 applications we’ve considered so far, and those individuals can appeal.”
The future of the 717 nurses remains unclear. The GMB union fears that those refused on to the NMC register will be sent back to Nigeria. It said nurses had been “exploited” in Nigeria, urged the NMC to let all those with suspect test results to be allowed to retake the test in the UK and said the health service needed their skills to help address the UK-wide shortage of nurses.
The GMB said two Nigerian women who are members had had their applications for NMC registration refused, despite insisting that their test results from Yunnik were legitimate. Both had then been dismissed by the private care home where they were working, until their status was established, and they now fear they will be deported to Nigeria with their families.
“Those in charge at this centre have exploited the hope of workers wanting to nurse in the UK and left our members in a desperate situation.
“The profession’s high standards of integrity must be enforced but these aspiring nurses were badly advised, firstly to enrol at this centre and then give questionable accounts of what happened there,” said Louise Gilmour, the GMB’s Scotland secretary.
“They should be given another chance and allowed to work if they pass the necessary tests in the UK.
“These are workers, mostly women, willing to uproot their lives and settle here to work in a health and social care service that is suffering a crisis in staff recruitment and retention.”
The NMC has stopped using 40 of the 800 test centres worldwide it used before the Yunnik fraud came to light, including Yunnik itself.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are aware of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) fraud investigations into nurses who passed their computer-based test in one centre in Nigeria.
“We are advised that the NMC is taking all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of its register and that patient safety is protected.”
Source: The Guardian
www.theguardian.com
Hundreds of frontline NHS staff are treating patients despite being under investigation for their part in an alleged “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.
More than 700 nurses are caught up in a potential scandal, which a former head of the Royal College of Nursing said could put NHS patients at risk.
The scam allegedly involves proxies impersonating nurses and taking a key test in Nigeria, which must be passed for them to become registered and allowed to work in the UK.
“It’s very, very worrying if … there’s an organisation that’s involving themselves in fraudulent activity, enabling nurses to bypass these tests, or if they are using surrogates to do exams for them because the implication is that we end up in the UK with nurses who aren’t competent,” said Peter Carter, the ex-chief executive of the RCN and ex-chair of three NHS trusts.
He praised the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for taking action against those involved “to protect the quality of care and patient safety and the reputation of nurses”.
Nurses coming to work in the UK must be properly qualified, given nurses’ role in administering drugs and intravenous infusions and responding to emergencies such as a cardiac arrest, Carter added.
Forty-eight of the nurses are already working as nurses in the NHS because the NMC is unable to rescind their admission to its register, which anyone wanting to work as a nurse or midwife in Britain has to be on. It has told them to retake the test to prove their skills are good enough to meet NHS standards but cannot suspend them.
The 48 are due to face individual hearings, starting in March, at which they will be asked to explain how they apparently took and passed the computer-based test (CBT) of numeracy and clinical knowledge taken at the Yunnik test centre in the city of Ibadan. The times recorded raised suspicions because they were among the fastest the nursing regulator had ever seen.
But the NMC is taking more direct action with a 669-strong second batch of Nigerian health staff – again mostly nurses, but also including fewer than five midwives – whose test results it has found were also obtained through fraud. Most of them have also already come to the UK, sources say.
However, they are in a different position to the 48 because they are thought to be mainly working as healthcare assistants in the NHS and care homes. That is because the NMC has not approved their applications to join its register while it continues to investigate widespread impersonation at the Yunnik test centre.
About 80 nurses from the 669 applicants have obtained a new CBT test and applied to join the NMC register, so they can start working in that role. However, the nursing regulator has banned almost all of them because it had “serious concerns” about their honesty and trustworthiness.
“This is because even with a new CBT there remains character concerns given what happened at Yunnik and what the data appeared to show about these individuals,” the NMC said.
Andrea Sutcliffe, the NMC’s chief executive and registrar, said it had taken necessarily robust action after Pearson VUE, which operated the Yunnik test centre, alerted it last year to what she called “widespread fraudulent activity” in which a “proxy tester” posed as a nurse.
“This is the first time we’ve found evidence of widespread fraud at a test centre,” she said. It is the biggest-ever such fraud the NMC has come across, she added.
The deception at Yunnik has led to the NMC declaring the CBT test results apparently obtained by 1,955 Nigerian-trained health professionals to be invalid. All of them, even including the 1,238 about whom the regulator says it cannot prove fraud was involved, have been given three chances to resit the CBT test, or face expulsion or exclusion from the register.
“We have concerns that 48 people already on the register obtained their test result fraudulently. We’ll hold hearings where an independent panel will decide whether those individuals gained fraudulent entry to our register. If so, they’re likely to be removed from the register,” said Sutcliffe.
“There are 669 applicants to the register about whom we have the same fraud concerns. We’re reviewing each application carefully in line with our guidance on health and character. We’ve refused entry to the register for the vast majority of the 80 applications we’ve considered so far, and those individuals can appeal.”
The future of the 717 nurses remains unclear. The GMB union fears that those refused on to the NMC register will be sent back to Nigeria. It said nurses had been “exploited” in Nigeria, urged the NMC to let all those with suspect test results to be allowed to retake the test in the UK and said the health service needed their skills to help address the UK-wide shortage of nurses.
The GMB said two Nigerian women who are members had had their applications for NMC registration refused, despite insisting that their test results from Yunnik were legitimate. Both had then been dismissed by the private care home where they were working, until their status was established, and they now fear they will be deported to Nigeria with their families.
“Those in charge at this centre have exploited the hope of workers wanting to nurse in the UK and left our members in a desperate situation.
“The profession’s high standards of integrity must be enforced but these aspiring nurses were badly advised, firstly to enrol at this centre and then give questionable accounts of what happened there,” said Louise Gilmour, the GMB’s Scotland secretary.
“They should be given another chance and allowed to work if they pass the necessary tests in the UK.
“These are workers, mostly women, willing to uproot their lives and settle here to work in a health and social care service that is suffering a crisis in staff recruitment and retention.”
The NMC has stopped using 40 of the 800 test centres worldwide it used before the Yunnik fraud came to light, including Yunnik itself.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are aware of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) fraud investigations into nurses who passed their computer-based test in one centre in Nigeria.
“We are advised that the NMC is taking all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of its register and that patient safety is protected.”
Source: The Guardian
NHS nurses being investigated for ‘industrial-scale’ qualifications fraud
Scam involves more than 700 healthcare workers who used proxies to pass test in Nigeria enabling them to work in the UK
FearlessRoar
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The medical field's carelessness is really bad. A scam with more than 700 healthcare workers using proxies to pass tests in Nigeria to work in the UK is a serious issue. This jeopardizes patient safety and the healthcare system's integrity. It undermines trust in the medical profession and needs a thorough investigation to prevent such incidents in the future.
Kroll
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Wait till they come to the UK and find how much a pack of Lurpak costs amongst other things. They will end regretting of going to all that trouble and expense of trying to get here.
Pakpak
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Our jobs have been cut (doctors) and lots of GPs I know, including relatives have been told they're out of the jobs. Medic exodus already in record numbers to Qatar, Aus and Canada will increase more.
Cpt. Rishwat
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This is what I'm hearing from a young medic in my family as well. Feels like British born doctors will end up in places like Aus or USA and be replaced by their equivalent from India or wherever else there's an abundant supply.
Pakpak
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Not quite it's mainly the avalanche of PAs who are not doctors have no medical degree but are far cheaper
There's already been a lot of incidents where PAs have missed such obvious presentations which not even a medical student would miss and the patient ended up dying. The average Joe doesn't know they're not been seen by doctors.
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So the political point scoring about there not being enough doctors is all just nonsense?
They are actually cutting the numbers themselves.
We really are being led by donkeys honestly.
Growing up in our community being a doctor was seen as quite prestigious but having spent some time as a patient and taking kids in...I don't see why anybody would want to pursue such a career.
Pakpak
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It's a load of crap by the government. I just saw a document on a doctors page showing a proposal by a hospital to cut doctor jobs and hire 3 PAs because they're cheaper. 2 GPs I know were let go for the same reason.
I advise a lot of doctors from abroad on applications and I'd say most of them now apply for months and don't find anything. And end up wasting their savings.
Kroll
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We can also see that pharmacists are even taking on a lot of patients now that doctors would have dealt with in the form of the ones that are prescribers.
Cpt. Rishwat
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It's quite funny, in Pakistan this was a common practice decades ago, the locals used to deride the "compoders" setting themselves up as doctors, now the UK has finally caught up with the subcontinent which was apparently ahead of the game half a century ago.
Pakpak
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Pharmacists are not affecting doctor jobs. They can prescribe but can't refer or request scans which only doctors can. And in hospitals again it's PAs.
Most doctors wouldn't mind pharmacists prescribing as they're an excellent profession and in hospital are a rock for us and a firewall for any mistakes. Total respect to them
Kroll
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Agreed, cousin is one(locum) but he's always got funny tales to tell at the practices he work at.
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People who are racist to NHS staff 'can and should' be refused care, health secretary says
People who are racist to NHS staff "can and should" be turned away, the health secretary has said.
Wes Streeting condemned "mindless thuggery" seen across Britain in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings over the past week.
As far-right violence spread between towns and cities, Filipino nurses were attacked on Friday night as they travelled to work for emergency cover during unrest in Sunderland.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Streeting said the people who attacked them "brought enormous shame on our country".
According to reports, the taxi they were travelling in was pelted with rocks and they were left "terrified", the Mirror reported, though they were physically unharmed.
"I will not tolerate, under any circumstances, NHS or social care staff in any health or care setting being subjected to intimidation, harassment or racist abuse," Mr Streeting said.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy in the NHS and we'll take a zero-tolerance approach in social care too.
"People who are abusing NHS staff can be turned away, and should be turned away, if that is the way that they are treating our staff."
He added the country is "lucky" to have people in the NHS who "come from around the world to provide great, compassionate care".
"I am proud that we have those people in Britain. I think the vast majority of Brits are too," he said.
"And those people that have hijacked our flag for their mindless, racist thuggery - they have no idea about this country's history or heritage, and they have brought enormous shame on our country by attacking NHS staff in this way."
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said guidance on when and how patients can be refused care has been updated.
It comes after GP leaders issued a warning to family doctors amid reports staff had been "targeted" during attacks.
Family doctors and their teams have been urged to "remain vigilant, particularly when travelling to and from work".
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) highlighted "horrific and unacceptable" abuse and violence towards healthcare workers, "especially those from ethnic minorities".
The RCGP urged staff to travel in groups "where possible" and to try to avoid areas where there is known unrest.
Meanwhile, two GP surgeries in northeast London have said they are planning to shut early on Wednesday because of potential unrest in the area.
SKY NEWS
People who are racist to NHS staff "can and should" be turned away, the health secretary has said.
Wes Streeting condemned "mindless thuggery" seen across Britain in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings over the past week.
As far-right violence spread between towns and cities, Filipino nurses were attacked on Friday night as they travelled to work for emergency cover during unrest in Sunderland.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Streeting said the people who attacked them "brought enormous shame on our country".
According to reports, the taxi they were travelling in was pelted with rocks and they were left "terrified", the Mirror reported, though they were physically unharmed.
"I will not tolerate, under any circumstances, NHS or social care staff in any health or care setting being subjected to intimidation, harassment or racist abuse," Mr Streeting said.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy in the NHS and we'll take a zero-tolerance approach in social care too.
"People who are abusing NHS staff can be turned away, and should be turned away, if that is the way that they are treating our staff."
He added the country is "lucky" to have people in the NHS who "come from around the world to provide great, compassionate care".
"I am proud that we have those people in Britain. I think the vast majority of Brits are too," he said.
"And those people that have hijacked our flag for their mindless, racist thuggery - they have no idea about this country's history or heritage, and they have brought enormous shame on our country by attacking NHS staff in this way."
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said guidance on when and how patients can be refused care has been updated.
It comes after GP leaders issued a warning to family doctors amid reports staff had been "targeted" during attacks.
Family doctors and their teams have been urged to "remain vigilant, particularly when travelling to and from work".
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) highlighted "horrific and unacceptable" abuse and violence towards healthcare workers, "especially those from ethnic minorities".
The RCGP urged staff to travel in groups "where possible" and to try to avoid areas where there is known unrest.
Meanwhile, two GP surgeries in northeast London have said they are planning to shut early on Wednesday because of potential unrest in the area.
SKY NEWS
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First gene-editing therapy may cure blood disorder
The first therapy that uses gene-editing is to be offered on the NHS in a “revolutionary breakthrough” for patients.
It will be used as a potential cure for the blood disorder beta thalassaemia.
Stem cells which make blood will be extracted, reprogrammed to correct the condition and returned to the patient's body.
It could spare them needing a blood transfusion, every three-to-five weeks, for life.
People with beta thalassaemia struggle to produce enough haemoglobin, which is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body.
It is a genetic disease that is passed down through families and caused by defects in the body's instructions for manufacturing haemoglobin.
It can leave people severely tired, weak, and short of breath and also cuts life expectancy.
Kirthana Balachandran, 21, was diagnosed when she was only three months old and gets muscle pain and back pain and can have palpitations when walking uphill.
“The idea of depending on transfusions for quite literally the rest of my life is daunting, I constantly worry about the future,” she says.
The idea of gene-editing is you only need to do it once.
How the gene-editing works
It relies on the a tool called Crispr, which won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020. It is essentially a satnav connected to a pair of scissors – one part targets the right section of DNA and the other performs the edit.
You might think this technology is being used to repair the genetic defect, but it is actually cuter than that.
Instead it relies on the fact your body makes different types of haemoglobin before and after birth.
When we are still in the womb, our bodies use "fetal haemoglobin" to pull oxygen out of our mother's bloodstream.
Once we are born, a genetic switch is flipped and we start making "adult haemoglobin".
Crucially, it is only the adult form of haemoglobin that is affected by beta thalassaemia.
So the therapy disables the switch - named BCL11A – so the adult body starts making fetal haemoglobin once again.
In order to do this, the stem cells that manufacture red blood cells in our spongy bone marrow are harvested.
These cells are sent to the lab where the genetic switch is targeted.
The next stage is unpleasant. It takes a course of chemotherapy to kill off the old stem cells that were producing broken haemoglobin, before the new ones can be put in.
He said the treatment was “challenging” and “tough” but since having it, he has been “healthier and more active”.
“ have even taken up boxing, I can travel more freely now, which is fantastic, I’m eager to embrace life to the fullest.”
Data shows that out of 52 patients given the treatment, 49 did not need another blood transfusion for at least a year of monitoring. The approach is so new that the long-term effects are still unknown.
Kirthana says: “With gene therapy, I would potentially have a cure, and not have to have my three-weekly transfusions.
“It would be a life-changing treatment.”
A £1.6m price tag?
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence medicines watchdog has approved the therapy after assessing the costs and benefits of what it calls a “potential cure”.
A deal has been struck which means NHS England is paying less than the official price of £1.6m per patient.
It is estimated that 460 people over the age of 12 would be eligible if they wanted the therapy, and it will be offered at seven specialist centres “within weeks”.
Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, said: “This is a historic moment for people living with beta thalassaemia with a potential cure for those facing this debilitating disorder now available on the NHS.”
Beta thalassemia mainly affects people of Mediterranean, south Asian, south-east Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds.
Previously the only alternative to blood transfusions was a stem cell transplant, but this was rare because it required a very close tissue match from a donor.
Casgevy, developed by the company Vertex, is the first approved therapy to use Crispr-technology.
Romaine Maharaj, executive director of the UK Thalassaemia Society, said “we stand on the brink of a revolutionary breakthrough” and “it is a beacon of hope”.
Negotiations are still under way to see if the same therapy can be used on the NHS for another genetic disease affecting haemoglobin - sickle cell anaemia.
BBC
The first therapy that uses gene-editing is to be offered on the NHS in a “revolutionary breakthrough” for patients.
It will be used as a potential cure for the blood disorder beta thalassaemia.
Stem cells which make blood will be extracted, reprogrammed to correct the condition and returned to the patient's body.
It could spare them needing a blood transfusion, every three-to-five weeks, for life.
People with beta thalassaemia struggle to produce enough haemoglobin, which is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body.
It is a genetic disease that is passed down through families and caused by defects in the body's instructions for manufacturing haemoglobin.
It can leave people severely tired, weak, and short of breath and also cuts life expectancy.
Kirthana Balachandran, 21, was diagnosed when she was only three months old and gets muscle pain and back pain and can have palpitations when walking uphill.
“The idea of depending on transfusions for quite literally the rest of my life is daunting, I constantly worry about the future,” she says.
The idea of gene-editing is you only need to do it once.
How the gene-editing works
It relies on the a tool called Crispr, which won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020. It is essentially a satnav connected to a pair of scissors – one part targets the right section of DNA and the other performs the edit.
You might think this technology is being used to repair the genetic defect, but it is actually cuter than that.
Instead it relies on the fact your body makes different types of haemoglobin before and after birth.
When we are still in the womb, our bodies use "fetal haemoglobin" to pull oxygen out of our mother's bloodstream.
Once we are born, a genetic switch is flipped and we start making "adult haemoglobin".
Crucially, it is only the adult form of haemoglobin that is affected by beta thalassaemia.
So the therapy disables the switch - named BCL11A – so the adult body starts making fetal haemoglobin once again.
In order to do this, the stem cells that manufacture red blood cells in our spongy bone marrow are harvested.
These cells are sent to the lab where the genetic switch is targeted.
The next stage is unpleasant. It takes a course of chemotherapy to kill off the old stem cells that were producing broken haemoglobin, before the new ones can be put in.
He said the treatment was “challenging” and “tough” but since having it, he has been “healthier and more active”.
“ have even taken up boxing, I can travel more freely now, which is fantastic, I’m eager to embrace life to the fullest.”
Data shows that out of 52 patients given the treatment, 49 did not need another blood transfusion for at least a year of monitoring. The approach is so new that the long-term effects are still unknown.
Kirthana says: “With gene therapy, I would potentially have a cure, and not have to have my three-weekly transfusions.
“It would be a life-changing treatment.”
A £1.6m price tag?
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence medicines watchdog has approved the therapy after assessing the costs and benefits of what it calls a “potential cure”.
A deal has been struck which means NHS England is paying less than the official price of £1.6m per patient.
It is estimated that 460 people over the age of 12 would be eligible if they wanted the therapy, and it will be offered at seven specialist centres “within weeks”.
Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, said: “This is a historic moment for people living with beta thalassaemia with a potential cure for those facing this debilitating disorder now available on the NHS.”
Beta thalassemia mainly affects people of Mediterranean, south Asian, south-east Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds.
Previously the only alternative to blood transfusions was a stem cell transplant, but this was rare because it required a very close tissue match from a donor.
Casgevy, developed by the company Vertex, is the first approved therapy to use Crispr-technology.
Romaine Maharaj, executive director of the UK Thalassaemia Society, said “we stand on the brink of a revolutionary breakthrough” and “it is a beacon of hope”.
Negotiations are still under way to see if the same therapy can be used on the NHS for another genetic disease affecting haemoglobin - sickle cell anaemia.
BBC
