NHS pay battle falters
More and more staff at Barts Health are seeing the importance of protecting Agenda for Change rates…
Health
Health
Doctors seize the opportunity of Brexit to enhance public safety
The General Medical Council has made a timely move to rectify a dangerous situation which exists while we are in the EU.
Hospital driven deep into debt
9 January 2017
The Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley, south London has accumulated the largest hospital debt in the capital – a staggering £62.3 million.
Contractor seeks cleaning redundancies at hospital hit by norovirus
31 December 2016
A week after private provider ISS secured acontract at a Kent hospital, it proposed making 30 cleaners redundant – despite a history of norovirus outbreaks at the hospital.
Use Brexit to improve patient safety, say surgeons
30 December 2016
The Royal College of Surgeons has called on the government to use Brexit to strengthen language testing for overseas doctors and increase the time allocated to medical training.
Why self-sufficiency in health matters
We cannot care for people without planning, and we should stop robbing other nations of skilled workers…
Junior doctors' dispute: the end of the beginning
In dispute for over a year, junior hospital doctors have had to draw back from their planned series of five-day strikes against an unsafe contract. But it’s a protracted struggle…
Air pollution killing Londoners
5 August 2016
Londoners are falling ill and dying because the capital has levels of nitrogen oxides comparable to those of Shanghai and Beijing, according to a new report published in July.
London's largest borough gears up for health fight
29 June 2016
Recent proposals for the borough’s healthcare include putting all health-related community services out to tender and axing student nurses from primary and secondary schools. Resistance may be on the cards
Cancer unit closure blocked
5 May 2016
Trade union Unison has managed to put the closure of a major cancer unit on hold – keeping, for the time being, a vital treatment centre run which serves over a million people.
Junior doctors (picture caption)
Junior doctors demonstrating in Walthamstow, northeast London, on 6 April. As Workers went to press, they were due to walk out again on 26 and 27 April.
Junior hospital doctors’ action continues
14 March 2016
Hospital doctors were on strike again on 9 and 10 March. Picket lines were well populated and supported by the public as action against imposition of the junior hospital doctors’ contract continued.
Hospital doctors’ dispute continues
13 February 2016
The strike by junior doctors on Wednesday 10 February was met by government bluster as health secretary Jeremy Hunt threatened to impose the new terms. The BMA says this action represents total failure by the government.
Doctors on the picket lines
12 January 2016
As junior doctors embarked on their first day of strike action against the government’s proposed new contract, CPBML News visited picket lines in London and Yorkshire.
Sick of capitalism
New research from the worlds leading authority on health inequalities highlights the links between inequity in society, poverty and ill health.
Student nurses and midwives in bursary protest
2 December 2015
War abroad, war at home. As parliament was debating the bombing of Syria, less than 100 yards up Whitehall student nurses and midwives were standing outside the Department of Health in a loud and lively protest against plans to scrap their bursaries.
Doctors show the way
27 November 2015
Junior doctors have forced health secretary Jeremy Hunt to go to Acas without precondition, which he said could not happen. The threat of industrial action starting on 1 December still stands, although withdrawal of labour is very difficult for junior doctors.
Capitalism: leading to an early grave
23 November 2015
A book by eminent researcher Sir Michael Marmot shows that people at relative social disadvantage suffer worse health and live shorter lives and gives evidence about how that can be prevented.
Hunt misses every target
15 November 2015
The NHS in England continues to miss many key targets, such as those for emergency responses and cancer care. A&E departments face a “perfect storm” this winter.
OECD indicators indict Britain's health spending
9 November 2015
The latest indictment of Britain’s spending on health has come from a formidable source – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the club of leading capitalist countries.
Junior doctors make a stand for the NHS
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that ballot papers would go out to its members in early November. It is a ballot which, should it go ahead, could well result in the first national strike action by junior doctor members since the 1970s.
Junior doctors move to ballot
23 October 2015
After successful demonstrations on 17 October in London, Nottingham and Belfast against the new junior doctors’ contract, the BMA has announced that ballot papers will go out to its members in early November.
Junior doctors in revolt over proposed contracts
29 September 2015
Junior doctors flooded Westminster in their thousands last night (Tuesday) to protest against planned changes to their contracts as the British Medical Association ballots members on industrial action.
Death Rates - Highest for a decade
Britain’s death rates for January to July 2015 were 30,000 up on similar figures for 2014 – the highest for a decade.
NHS contract challenged
The NHS is facing a legal challenge from private provider Care UK, after four GP-led clinical commissioning groups awarded an elective care contract instead to a local NHS Trust in East London.
Get real! Doctors will need to turn 7-day anger into action
16 August 2015
Last month health secretary Jeremy Hunt told doctors to “get real” over the need for “proper seven-day service” in the NHS. Whether those two small words were a deliberate attempt to antagonise, there is no question about the mood of doctors.
Tomorrow's doctors?
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has pledged a “new deal” for GPs, boosting their number by 5,000 over five years, along with 7-day access to GP services. In reality GP numbers are set to decline.
GP shortage - What's needed?
The current 9 to 5 GP service should be properly resourced with timely appointments available to patients
Cuts to shore up PFI
Barts Health, the largest NHS Trust in Britain, has now released its deficit projection for 2016, with massive cuts almost identical to the cost of servicing its PFI debt.
Midwives and radiographers in first N. Ireland walkout
2 May 2015
Hundreds of members of the Royal College of Midwives and the Society of Radiographers struck for the first time ever in hospitals across Northern Ireland on 30 April as part of the public sector pay battle.