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NHS

  • 22 Jul 2014
    The NHS and the Scottish referendum

    The consequences of a No vote in September’s independence referendum can be envisaged no more sharply than through the lens of the NHS in Scotland, says Dr Willie Wilson, setting out the reasons why a Yes vote in the 18 September 2014 referendum is vital for the sake of its 158,000 workers and for the benefit of everyone in Scotland who needs or will need health services free at the point of need.

  • 18 Jul 2014
    Farewell to the fourth floor and the austerity agenda

    Welfare, education and the NHS are all being hit by the same cuts, driven, not by a desire to improve the national debt (which is now significantly worse than 2010), says Virginia Moffatt, but by a poisonous ideology that private profit must come before common good. "So I decided that the time had come to move somewhere, where I can be in a position to challenge that ideology. I have joined Ekklesia as the new Chief Operating Officer, because I can see what an important role a think-tank linking good quality research and ideas to civic action, political change and a positive role for churches and other NGOs can play in influencing mainstream politics. That is what I want to be part of."

  • 11 Jul 2014
    Giveaway sale as public services struggle to cope

    Low share prices when the UK government privatised Royal Mail cost the taxpayer around £1 billion, a parliamentary committee has reported. Meanwhile the National Health Service and social services are in financial crisis.

  • 7 Jul 2014
    NHS could lose at least £25bn of funding a year by end of decade, say unions

    The government’s decision to end real terms spending increases on the health service could mean that the NHS will be losing out on £25.5 billion a year by the end of the decade, the TUC has warned.

  • 5 Jun 2014
    NHS staff ‘donate’ £1.5bn every year in unpaid overtime

    Health service staff angry that their pay is still being capped despite the economic recovery, are to remind the government today of the millions of hours of unpaid overtime they put in each year.

  • 11 Mar 2014
    Health unions call on MPs to oppose hospital closure clause

    Health unions will join campaigners today in Westminster to raise their concerns about government proposals to fast-track hospital closures.

  • 19 Jan 2014
    Government accused over growing health service privatisation

    The fact that 70 per cent of NHS contracts in England and Wales are being awarded to private contractors is bad news for the health service, says critics.

  • 22 Oct 2013
    The truth behind headlines about ‘health tourism’

    “Health tourism: the TRUE cost”: “Foreigners using NHS cost Britain up to £2 BILLION a year, government reveals – 100 times more than previously claimed” declares a Daily Mail headline. Yet the reality is very different, and there is little evidence that many people visit the UK for the purpose of getting free medical treatment.

  • 18 Oct 2013
    Health tourism and the moral justification for selfishness

    Have we ever had a government with so little regard for truth or accuracy? The tendency for senior Conservatives to routinely ‘misrepresent’ statistics for their own political ends, or make decisions and statements based on ‘feelings’ has developed apace over the past few years. Iain Duncan Smith has been rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority for this habit, as has Grant Shapps, Conservative Party Chairman.

  • 11 Oct 2013
    Would NHS break-up really improve hospital safety?

    The type of problems at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in England – where care failings affected patient safety and dignity – would not have happened in an enterprise part-owned by employees, according to care minister Norman Lamb. Yet the drive to remove more health services from NHS control may seriously harm patients.