The Govt. has awarded nurses & other NHS staff a 3.3% pay-rise (well imposed without concluding negotiations with the unions) but Wes Streeting has indicated that the rise will need to be funded (again) within already agreed budgets - so that's more cuts then.
It may also mean less money for a Resident Doctor's award, while other NHS staff are not happy the RD's settlement might actually be negotiated (separately); not imposed.
“McSweeney has often been described as the protégé of Peter Mandelson and by some of Lord Alli. He founded Labour Together — the group whose primary goal appeared to be to end Corbyn as a political force. He and Mandelson arranged for Sir Keir Starmer to visit Palantir in a non-official meeting that we are not allowed to know the details of. Palantir CEO Peter Thiel was an Epstein associate, and so was, apparently, Lord Alli. I told you this went deeper than just Mandelson!”
There is a general acceptance across the NHS that staff shortages are a major element in the current treatment crisis (typified but not limited to waiting list lengths/times), and as a result the issue of the NHS workforce planning has come under scrutiny.
This is all well & good, but while the budget remains consternated, what is actually happening across the health service is widespread but piecemeal ban on hiring doctors due to budget constraints.
'I know that you have had a close relationship with Peter Mandelson & I will be seeking through every means at our disposal to establish whether there have been any personal, formal or informal contacts with Peter Mandelson or his lobbying company between yourself, other ministers and Department of Health or NHS England officials on behalf of Palantir'!
In a sign that Wes Streeting's assessment is Resident Doctors are more popular than he is (or the Labour Party), he has improved the offer to the RD (despite claiming a while before the recent ballot, his previous offer was the best that could be offered).
Whether the RDs will accept this offer may well depend on how they assess the likely prospect(s) for the current Labour Govt. (suggesting an answer may well until after the forthcoming by-election?)
So, the deal on US pharmaceuticals pricing struck with the Tangerine Tyrant (if he keeps to it) will cost the NHS around £1bn over the next three years... which thankfully is a pretty small proportion of the overall NHS budget, as the Treasury has refused to fund the deal, leaving it to be drawn from the health service's day-to-day budget.
Its just one more way central Govt. is ratcheting up the health crisis - holding the budget steady while increasing the NHS's costs.
On a turnout of 53%, 93% of Resident Doctors have voted to continue their campaign of industrial action for another six months.... suggesting the absence of trust in Wes Streeting continues.
The Q. will now be whether the BMA can continue to (broadly) win the public argument on doctors pay - having navigated through the 'winter crisis' they may be able to keep people on side... but equally may have undermined the perception of their importance to the NHS?
As the NHS crisis continues, employers have been further expanding both their use of employee-focussed medical insurance (to access private treatment) and non-insurance occupational health services to get staff back to work where access NHS support services remains subject to long delays.
It'd be better if this financial commitment was directed towards the NHS, but until the NHS crisis is significantly reduced, private health provision will continue to prosper!
it now looks like the Resident Doctors strike actually might not have had the impact they would have perhaps hoped for:
On 'health leader' told the FT; 'the impact of having senior decision makers at all points through the hospital means that actually hospitals went into this Christmas with a lower level of bed occupancy than we’ve seen for years' and thereby avoiding the worse of a winter crisis.
Of course this could be management mischief making, but it has a certain logic?
well there are many reasons, but a key point is that each month there are around 2m new 'pathways' to treatment initiated, but only 1.7mn completed.
Its a clear capacity issue, which can be managed down through administrative means, but in the end requires, more staff which equals more time & treatments. Its a workforce & capacity planning problem!
And that's not going to be solved by AI, Mr Streeting!
The Royal College of Nursing calls corridor care a form of torture with significant negative effects on the well-being of patients whose hospital stay is patterned by out-of-ward care.... in a sense this dossier of cases is no surprise but is further evidence that after a decade & half of Tory engineered crisis, the Labour Govt. has yet to get to grips with how to resolve the crisis.
We Streeting may want more time, but that's the one things he's not got!
You'll be unsurprised that despite claiming they would half the number of maternal deaths during or soon after birth, the record of a decade & half of Tory oversight of the NHS saw the numbers actually rise by 20%.
Of course, this is hardly unrelated to the unrelenting attrition the Tories undertook against the NHS during the austerity years... the only problem is that Labour have hardly shifted the dial on the NHS crisis since!
Some bad news to start 2026 if, like me, you have the rare blood #cancer, Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL).
NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) have issued Final Draft Guidance that no longer recommends CAR-T therapy (Brexucabtagene autoleucel / Tecartus) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory #MCL in England and Wales.
This is one of very few instances where a cancer treatment made available on the #NHS is now proposed to be withdrawn. This is not because it is ineffective or no longer works, but due to changes in NICE methodology.
Amazingly, even if CAR-T therapy had no associated cost, it would not meet the new NICE thresholds. This highlights a serious failure in NICE's appraisal framework rather than the treatment itself.
The draft decision sends a deeply worrying message to MCL survivors and other people living with incurable cancers: that access to effective treatment can be removed even after it has been proven, adopted and relied upon.
The other options for relapsed patients are very limited, can be more toxic and cause greater #health problems in the long run. But for some people with MCL who have already been through chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and other drugs there is no meaningful treatment other than CAR-T available. The withdrawal of this treatment will exact a large human toll on patients and their families.
Please boost this post if you feel able and, better still, if you live in England or Wales, please write to or email your MP to ask that this issue is raised urgently with NICE, the NHS, their party spokespeople and the relevant government ministers.
"..one company ..had reported profit margins of 33% over the past two years, mainly from providing NHS services. Another 14 companies delivered NHS-funded ADHD assessments without being registered with the Care Quality Commission.
A further 19 companies that provided £1.9m worth of neurodiversity services over three years had no NHS contract at all, meaning local health bodies cannot properly hold them to account"
It seems GP surgeries are increasingly refusing to adopt 'shared care agreements' where, to avoid the long waits, parents have sought private ADHD diagnosis, leaving parents to pay full treatment costs.
Reflecting a lack of NHS resources & GPs' lack of trust in private diagnosis, its just one more aspect of the care structures around diagnoses of ADHD that is causing further distress to parents.
Of course, we know Wes Streeting thinks its all just 'over-diagnosis'!
Around one in eight beds in NHS hospitals in England are occupied by patients cleared for discharge but delayed from leaving hospital for a range of reasons from a lack of social care (packages) to family members worried about their ability to care for recuperating patients at home.... and, as we know, this presents a problem for the entire health care system.
The solution is investment in the NHS, in social care & in home support! Its not rocket science!
Although to some extent a drop in the ocean of the total budget, in 2024/25 the Dept. of Health (the NHS) has managed to reduce its temporary labour bill by £1bn... which is a reduction of around a third on the previous year's total, which would seem on the face of it good news., provided the savings are going on the recruitment & retention of established medical staff.
A new study, published by the BMJ suggests that the effects of weight-loss drugs last less that two years after cessation of use, with patients (users) regaining weight.
For the pharmaceutical firms this is, of course, good news as it means once people are hooked in to the treatment they'll continue use, but bad news for health sector budgets as it suggests an ongoing financial commitment for many (all) patients prescribed the drugs.
You might expect that the NHS of all organisations would not have accessibility issues for tests & treatments... but its seems that's not the case, as disabled women trying to access (vital) smear tests have found.
Given a significant majority of women surveyed by the Spinal Injuries Association had had problems getting smear tests due to accessibility issues, it looks like once again disabled people's health is going to the back of the queue.
More evidence (should you need it) of the costs of the ongoing crisis in the NHS; between 10-20% of people having a stroke either die unnecessarily or end up with a disability due to shortages of consultants in stroke units or delays in treatment related to staff shortages.
Its not like we don't know how to treat strokes, rather this suggests a failure to coherently manage the NHS workforce (linked to budgetary & political pressures) costs patients dearly.
As the NHS crisis grinds on we can take some relief from the news that for the second week running the number of flu cases in English hospitals has fallen... suggesting the programme of vaccination has worked well, and (perhaps) we're getting better at taking precautions.
The cold snap may change that but for now it looks like the NHS is on top of the current flu outbreak - which is good news (so lets savour that!)
Weight-loss drugs offer a classic conundrum for local Integrated Care Boards;
on one hand, the treatment is cost-effective as despite its high price the reduction in future NHS expenditure on that patient drops even more.
But, long-term savings do not pay for immediate costs, and so many ICBs have set threshold criteria for weight loss drugs higher that recommended by NICE, leading (inevitably) to a 'post-code lottery'...which is what you get in a devolved quasi market!