Despite significant progress over time, we still know very little about what works to improve people’s health in some areas of healthcare – but we suspect that some things need to be very tailored to the…
NHS 111, the non-emergency helpline set up to ease pressure on the emergency services, actually increased the use of ambulances and emergency care services during its first year of operation, a study has…
The “crisis in A&E” has dominated headlines for months, with attention focused mainly on inexorably rising demand, ageing populations, and increased waiting times. In his much anticipated report into…
Diet and a little bit of sun can give us vitamin D.
Julian Colton
For most people, our standard diet provides all the necessary vitamins we need. However, childhood vitamin D deficiency in the UK – something that should be a headline from the distant past – has made…
When the movement to promote evidence-based healthcare began in the late 1980s, it started in the field of child birth. So it might be expected that by now, nearly a quarter of a century later, there would…
Is it him? Or her? We don’t really know.
Garry Knight
A new report into so-called “health tourism” makes for a shocking read. Not because the costs of migrants deemed to have travelled to Britain primarily to enjoy free NHS services on British taxpayers has…
Doctors’ leader Clare Gerada made a few waves on her exit.
NHS Confederation
The call for more funding for general practice by Clare Gerada, the outgoing chair of the Royal College of GPs, attracted much attention. But within the profession, an interview in which she gave cautious…
NHS clouds gather over the north.
David Wilson Clarke
The north-south divide is a powerful trope within popular English culture and it’s also evident within the country’s health. A recent report by Public Health England showed that between 2009 and 2011…
Computer says “not on your nelly, mate”.
quinn.anya
Leslie Willcocks, London School of Economics and Political Science
A report from the Public Accounts Committee has revealed that the National Programme for IT in the NHS has cost the taxpayer close to £10 billion, despite having been abandoned. The committee’s chairman…
Patients are more likely to complain about food than treatment.
A hobo dancing barefoot
The NHS in the UK has come in for a lot of bashing of late, especially from politicians and the media. The former do so for largely ideological reasons, while I fear the latter often report the exceptions…
The government has announced an extra £1 billion is being channelled into efforts to make the NHS “paperless” by 2018. Central to this aim are plans to make patient health records digital. The goal is…
Mind the gap: health services in trouble if we continue to expect too much.
PA/Carl Court
Health services are under constant scrutiny and rarely out of the news. But discussions about how and even whether they can continue are likely to exercise the whole developed world in the near future…
A person with learning difficulties is more likely to die early compared to the general populace.
Beeny87
People with learning disabilities die significantly younger in England and Wales than people without learning disabilities. Men with learning disabilities die 13 years earlier on average and 20 years earlier…
Being sectioned in a mental hospital may not mean the best care.
Truester
Claims that doctors are sectioning mental health patients in order to get them access to beds on psychiatric wards amount to “more than anecdotal evidence”, according to a committee of MPs who have just…
The point of surgical procedures is to save or improve the quality of our lives, but things can and do go wrong because of system or human errors. In too many cases patients are failed because of so called…
Our man from Boston: Don Berwick (left) has had some things to say about the NHS.
Wikimedia Commons/HHSgov
One of US President Barack Obama’s key health advisers has just published a review in the aftermath of the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal. Don Berwick’s review is both thoughtful and reflective but…
Paying the price for jumping the gun.
PA/Rebecca Naden
The NHS 111 telephone service was designed to direct people to the right help for urgent medical problems but has faced a barrage of criticism since it was implemented in April. The most recent blow was…
Hooray! But Lewisham was a special case.
PA/Stefan Rousseau
A campaign to prevent a downgrade of Lewisham Hospital in south-east London was given a significant boost after a high court judge ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and others were acting beyond…
The idea that mental health services are getting better is just smoke and mirrors.
Flickr/Erika Linds
Foundation essay: This article on the state of mental health services is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the UK. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis…
Glasses, check. Passport, check. Cheque for £200?
Flickr/Justin Vidamo
Another argument has broken out between the government and doctors over a proposal to charge immigrants to use the NHS. The government claims a levy will make the NHS more fair and sustainable and stop…
Deputy Director, Intellectual Forum at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge, and Researcher for the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University, University of Cambridge