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The National Health Service has been praised as the world’s best health-care system by an international panel of experts who said it was superior to those found in countries which spend far more on health. The study, entitled “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall,” also described US healthcare provision as the worst globally. Despite investing the most money in health, the US refuses care to many patients without health insurance and is also the worst at saving the lives of people who fall ill, it found. The Commonwealth Fund, a Washington-based foundation produced the report. The fund is respected around the...

Britain’s obesity crisis is so serious that hospitals are buying specialist equipment to keep bodies cool because they are too large to fit into mortuary fridges. Hospitals are also having to widen corridors, buy reinforced beds and lifting equipment in order to cope with the growing numbers of obese patients coming though their doors. Figures obtained by The Telegraph show that hospitals have spent at least £5.5 million over the past three years to adapt allow them to treat larger patients. Experts now warn the cost of treating overweight and obese patients could rise to at least £10 million a...

NHS bosses have been criticized after they spent £250,000 on a clock—which staff claim is impossible to read. The complicated light sculpture clock hangs inside the new £430 million Southmead Hospital in Bristol, which opened this month. The binary clock shows the time through an unusual display of illuminated rings and bars, which represent specific hours and minutes. …

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland -- President Obama Wednesday replayed a familiar scenario when dealing with scandal, in this case delays for treatment, deaths, alleged cover-ups and other acts of malfeasance reported at Veterans Administration hospitals in the United States: first express outrage, next announce an investigation and then say he won't comment on the scandal until the results of the investigation are in, promising people will be held "accountable," if they violated the law. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, critics are using the VA scandal to indict Obamacare. They believe what is occurring at VA hospitals is a preview of coming...

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which is affiliated with Britain’s state-run healthcare system (the NHS), recently performed what should have been a routine surgery. Instead, however, the doctors performed surgery on the “wrong site” and accidentally gave the man a vasectomy, sterilizing him. According to an article in The Telegraph: A vasectomy is a surgical procedure in which the tubes that carry sperm from a man’s testicles to the penis are cut, blocked or sealed. In most cases, it is more than 99 per cent effective and although it can be reversed, NHS England figures show that the success rate is...

England could lose the traditional family doctor, medics have warned, as new figures lay bare the steep decline in small GP practices. Patients, particularly in rural areas, are traveling further and receiving a less personal service after the disappearance of hundreds of small GP practices over the past decade. Under the last government, polyclinics—or super GP surgeries—with specialist doctors working on one site were seen as the future of the NHS. Single-doctor clinics have becoming increasingly rare as GPs try to save money on premises and administrative staff. …

At least 1,000 hospital patients are dying needlessly each month from dehydration and poor care by doctors and nurses, according to a NHS study. The deaths from acute kidney injury could be prevented by simple steps such as nurses ensuring patients have enough to drink and doctors reviewing their medication, the researchers say. Between 15,000 and 40,000 patients die annually because hospital staff fail to diagnose the treatable kidney problem, a figure that dwarfs the death toll from superbugs like MRSA. The report comes less than a year after the NHS watchdog NICE was forced to issue guidelines on giving...

A pregnant woman with appendicitis died after a trainee surgeon mistakenly removed one of her healthy ovaries, a tribunal heard. Maria De Jesus, 32, underwent the operation at Queen's Hospital, Romford, Essex, after she was admitted with abdominal pains in October 2011. She died 19 days later after suffering a miscarriage. Dr Yahya Al-Abed admitted he made a number of errors during the procedure, including removing her right ovary instead of her appendix. Senior surgical consultant, Dr Babatunde Coker, is accused of failing in his role by not attending theatre to carry out the surgery himself or supervising the registrar....

The British Medical Association (BMA), the trade union representing all National Health Service (NHS) doctors, has said that the sale of cigarettes should be banned "to anyone born after the year 2000". In a new policy position of the organisation which claims to lobby Parliament in its members' interest, the BMA has stated that "humanity has never developed anything more deadly than the cigarette". Dr Crocker-Buqué, a "London research assistant in academic public health" reportedly told last week's BMA annual public health medicine conference that eight in 10 smokers started in their teenage years and that someone who started smoking...

FULL TITLE: Devastated woman suffering fourth miscarriage forced to sit on abortion ward surrounded by people discussing not wanting babies A woman was forced to wait for four hours in hospital without her partner while suffering her fourth miscarriage - and surrounded by women waiting for abortions. Chantelle Skinner had to listen to young girls waiting for a termination, who were saying they did not want their babies, while she was distraught at losing hers. The grieving woman's partner and mother were not able to comfort her while she waited after she was informed that it was a full clinic...

The daily allowance for a person's sugar intake should be halved to six teaspoons, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. Draft guidance published by the international body advises a dramatic reduction in sugar consumption to help avoid mounting health problems including obesity and tooth decay. The WHO is proposing to retain its current formal recommendation that no more than 10 per cent of an individual's calories should come from sugar – the equivalent of 12 "level" teaspoons a day for the average adult. However, its draft guidelines state that a further reduction to 5 per cent "would have additional...

A third of intensive care beds at weekends are taken up by patients critically ill from alcohol, according to the NHS’s head of critical care. Dr. Bob Winter said it had become socially acceptable for people to drink themselves into an “anesthetized state” on Friday and Saturday nights, and he also warned of the trend of “front-loading”—becoming intoxicated before going out. The prices at supermarkets and off-licenses were so cheap it was possible to buy enough alcohol to “die from” with a £10 note, he added. Dr. Winter called for an urgent change in the culture of drinking and said...

More than 34 million patients will fail to get an appointment with their GP this year, according to figures seen by Sky News. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) used official NHS statistics to estimate the number of patients who will be unable to see a GP or practice nurse because surgeries are too busy.

Health bosses have been accused of trying to cover up high death rates and alarming waiting times in the NHS in Wales. The medical director in England, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, urged officials three months ago to launch a series of investigations into six hospitals after being alerted to the figures by a Welsh Labour MP. He also pointed out that waiting times in Wales were “persistently higher” than in England, with up to 80 percent of patients waiting more than six weeks for key diagnostic tests for diseases such as cancer. However, bosses didn’t reply to his email—nor did...

Wait times for cataract surgery in London jumped 50% last year, a disturbing trend officials expect will worsen unless Ontario’s health ministry restores funding. At the start of 2013, 90% of patients had surgery within 153 days. By November, that wait grew to 230 days. “It’s hurting patients,” said ophthalmologist Tim Hillson, chairperson of the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Patients forced to wait are at greater risk for falls, car crashes and depression, preventable calamities that cost our health-care system more in the long run, Hillson said, so making them wait longer is short-sighted.

This is what is going on right now in Great Britain. It is only a matter of time until Obamacare goes the same way. Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday. They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are...

Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday. They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are among the worst in Europe. Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts. But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival. The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse.

Reforms to the formula used to ration expensive medicines will make it harder for NHS patients to get new life-saving drugs, warn campaigners. The rationing body, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), plans to lower the cost threshold for new treatments and end the priority given to patients who are dying. The reforms are a shift to a system which the Government pledged would allow patients to ‘access the drugs and treatments their doctors think they need’. It involves changes to a complex formula, known as quality adjusted life years (QALY). And some drugs approved under ‘end...

British patients should adopt more 'pushy' American attitudes with their doctors to get drugs they are entitled to, the head of the NHS rationing body has said. Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice), said that patients need to see themselves as 'equal partners' with doctors to get the treatment they need. And he explained that after working as a doctor near an American air force base in Cambridgeshire, he noticed that U.S. patients had a less deferential approach than local residents. Earlier this week a Government report found that a third of...

I have spent much of my career as a doctor working with disadvantaged patient groups — the mentally ill, in paediatric palliative care, geriatrics, in outreach programs, in drug clinics and with the homeless. Many of these people are desperately in need. Only a few weeks ago, a patient spat and then threw a chair at me because I had the audacity to suggest that if he continued to inject himself with heroin every day, despite being in treatment for more than two years, he should be discharged from my care and that this might affect his benefits. ‘They can’t...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- While the Obama administration offers life support to its Affordable Care Act, in the UK a growing number of people are asking whether it's time to pull the plug on the National Health Service (NHS), which is in critical condition. For many years the UK media have carried stories that not only bode ill for the future of government-run health care, but also continue to serve as a "code blue" warning to the U.S. as to what might be in our future if we decide to go down that road. Writing in The Daily Telegraph under...

New drugs would only be licensed for the NHS if they help those judged to be a benefit to wider society under proposals from the health watchdog. Pharmaceutical firms on Thursday night warned that the move could lead to new medicines being denied to the elderly. A senior professor also said that the plans could threaten the well-being of older people and were “deeply suspect”, while charities questioned the ethics of the policy.

A third of GPs say patients should be charged for going to A&E, according to a poll. They want to impose a basic fee of up to £10 a time to deter the public from turning up with “trivial” complaints. A survey of 800 family doctors found that many believe patients are going to A&E at the “drop of the hat” because they can’t be bothered to wait for an appointment. But the findings will prompt anger among members of the public who feel they have no choice but to go to casualty because they can’t see their GP—especially at...

One child had a BMI measurement of 35, which for a six-foot man would mean weighing 19st. Britain's obesity epidemic, which sees NHS hospitals dealing with 1,000 cases every day, is a reversal of the traditional problem when children were undernourished. Increasingly social workers find youngsters being fed a high-fat, sugary diet, which can be just as bad for their health. The phenomenon is known as "killing with kindness" because the child craves the unhealthy food and a loving parent feels unable to say no. Professionals say they have to make complex decisions in care proceedings and a family's gross...

THE NHS should not be treated as a “national religion” while millions of patients receive a “wholly unsatisfactory” service from GPs and hospitals, the official regulator has warned. David Prior, the chairman of the Care Quality Commission, said the health service had been allowed to reach the brink of crisis because it was “too powerful” to be criticised. He said parts of the NHS were “out of control” because honest debate about the weaknesses of the health service was not tolerated. Mr Prior said priority must be given to reform of an “out of control” system of emergency care, overloaded...

First published on FrontPage Magazine. By Enza Ferreri In light of the ongoing ObamaCare debacle, it can be interesting to see how a state-run national health system free for all, like Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) – Obama’s favourite model -, has failed to deliver. The UK is one of the few countries in the world – mostly concentrated in Europe - to have completely free universal health provision. It sounds cuddly and comfy, but, like in all utopias and fairy tales, reality is a different matter. The NHS is Britain's sacred cow. No party, if it wants to be...

A quarter of new mothers said they were abandoned by their NHS midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors Three damning reports last night laid bare the crisis in NHS hospitals, maternity units and GP surgeries. One investigation revealed that a quarter of new mothers were abandoned by their midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors. The second found that mistakes deemed so serious they should never happen are being made in hospitals five times a week. And the third survey said thousands of...

Thousands of people who go on to be diagnosed with cancer are not being referred to specialists quickly enough by GPs, NHS England figures suggest. Under NHS targets, 95% of people with suspected cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks. But the data indicates that this target was missed in more than half of the 4,000 GP surgeries sampled. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government was tackling the "unacceptable variation". NHS England said the figures were not a clear measure of performance, as some patients did not have obvious symptoms. National performance data allows patients to...

Have you seen Question Time on BBC1 tonight? Among the panelists was Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. They talked about the NHS (National Health Service), welfare, pensions, youth unemployment, housing crisis. If you haven’t seen it you can watch it on BBC iPlayer online. Interesting points have been: the idea of forcing owners to sell or develop property on unused land seems popular (although some people would probably forcibly impose developing, which seems to me communist-style; the idea of a tax on unused land or brownfield sites to make owners sell or develop is better). the average age of people...

Paramedics will be told to take fewer patients to hospital as part of radical reforms of the NHS to be unveiled this week. A review led by the NHS medical director will call for sweeping changes to ease pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units, and is expected to conclude that up to half of 999 calls should result in patients receiving care at home. Amid a growing NHS crisis, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will say that the total number of A&E departments should not be reduced — and may need to be expanded. However, his report is understood to...

Cancer surgery for legitimate patients is being canceled every week to make way for health tourists scamming the NHS. One of Britain’s most senior surgeons has condemned having to put bogus patients before those entitled to cancer care in a creaking health service. Professor J. Meirion Thomas has called on ministers to introduce a “NHS passport” to combat the abuse. “It is so easy to breach the system. It is awful for me as a doctor to have to treat someone I know is ineligible,” he said. Under NHS rules, any patient urgently referred by a GP for cancer surgery...

For more than 65 years the National Health Service has occupied a sainted position in British life. Even the most radical, right-leaning Governments have hesitated before embarking on reforms which could be characterized by opponents as “cuts”. In recent years, however, the halo has slipped dramatically. … Now, details from a secret report on Wexham Park Hospital have provided devastating confirmation. … The report highlights huge structural problems, with a top-heavy cadre of bureaucrats spending their time—and our money—feuding with each other, against a backdrop of deepening financial problems and a chronic bed shortage. Shockingly, we have also established that...

The family of a pensioner who spent four days begging for food and water after he was placed on a controversial end-of-life programme have accused a hospital of treating him "like a dog". The family of Ron Jee claim the 80-year-old was put on a programme similar to the Liverpool Care Pathway. This involves the withdrawal of food, fluids and medication for terminally ill patients who often die within hours of being put on it. But they say he was treated like a dog after he spent four days on the end of life pathway when doctors said his condition...

Two junior clerical workers say they told NHS managers that they were being ordered to falsify data, so that it seemed that patients were being treated far more quickly than was the case. Police are considering whether to launch a criminal investigation after regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found evidence that staff were put under pressure to falsify data, leaving some patients waiting up to four months for urgent treatment. The chief inspector of hospitals has said lives may have been risked by “shocking” decisions taken at Colchester Hospital University Foundation trust to delay crucial treatment for cancer patients,...

A mother has demanded "justice" for her son who died at a hospital which could face a police investigation after allegedy falsifying data about cancer patients. Danielle Uren believes four-year-old Mackenzie Cackett, who suffered a brain tumour, could have still been alive had it not been for mistakes in his diagnosis and treatment at Colchester General Hospital, Essex. He allegedly endured a series of lengthy delays and blunders before dying in May last year. Miss Uren, from Halstead in Essex, said: "It has been such a difficult time. We knew there was something wrong but we were ignored and that...

Soaring demand, a shortage of doctors and "toxic" overcrowding on hospital warns could make this the "worst winter yet" for NHS accident and emergency departments, a senior consultant has warned. Bernadette Garrihy, a member of the board of the College of Emergency Medicine, said doctors were concerned about their ability to provide "a safe and quality service" this winter and advised patients to only attend casualty departments "as a last resort." She said Government measures to ease the pressure on A&E amounted to "a drop in the ocean" and called for all parts of the NHS and social services to...

The Obamacare website has more than annoying bugs. A cybersecurity expert has found a way to hack into users' accounts. Until the Department of Health fixed the security hole last week, anyone could easily reset your Healthcare.gov password without your knowledge and potentially hijack your account. The glitch was discovered last week by Ben Simo, a software tester in Arizona. Simo found that gaining access to people's accounts was frighteningly simple:

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's highest court has ruled in favor of a hospital that withheld treatment from a terminally ill man despite the family's opposition.

The NHS could become an American-style service paid for through insurance contributions following the appointment of a new chief executive, the head of health at the country's largest union has suggested. Christina McAnea, Unison's head of health, made the comments after Simon Stevens - a former advisor to Tony Blair who is currently an executive for a US private healthcare firm - was announced as the next head of the organisation. She said she was “concerned” about what the move could mean. “Is this the Tory and Lib Dem Government hoping to import America-type values into the NHS, a sort...

Rock legend Roger Daltrey has questioned the effectiveness of the NHS claiming it encourages people to lead unhealthy lives because they know they will get free treatment. The Who frontman, who at 69 is still a picture of good health, said offering state-run free healthcare meant people did not bother looking after themselves. He said: “We have this free NHS, which makes us take our health for granted and means we don’t take responsibility for looking after ourselves. “Most illnesses people suffer from are because of their lifestyles.” His comments came just days after Labour peer Lord Warner’s dire warning

Up to £500m could be recovered from overseas visitors' and migrants' use of the NHS every year, ministers believe. The figure represents a quarter of the costs of treating such patients, the Department of Health data suggested. But ministers said it was a realistic target as some of the spending was unavoidable. The savings would come from a levy on foreigners, deterring health tourism and getting the NHS to claw back money it is owed by other countries. The government is currently consulting on the measures it will be taking to tackle this issue. It has already said a £200-a-year...

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital. Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Hundreds of hospital kitchens across the country are dirty, have cockroach and mice infestations or are stocking out-of-date food, a MailOnline investigation has revealed. Inspectors found that three-quarters of kitchens are flouting basic food hygiene rules while nearly a third were not properly cleaned. Six NHS hospitals had mice, two had rats, five had cockroaches and another hospital had an unspecified problem with “pests”. … An analysis of 769 environmental health inspection reports revealed that 581 hospitals across Britain are breaking the rules. …

Andy Mitchell, medical director for National Health Service (NHS) England in London said, “At times, throughout the week, even throughout the day, services aren’t safe”. Mitchell’s admission comes after the NHS Confederation said the service will soon be “unsustainable” if radical reforms are not presented before the next general election. The top health officials said the NHS is currently facing "the most challenging period in its 65-year existence,” and that the service might not be able to provide free health care for all patients any more. “Demand continues to rise, drugs cost more, and NHS inflation is higher than general...

Patients are being denied minor treatments because they smoke, The Mail on Sunday has found. In one case, a healthy middle-aged man was told he could not have a ten-minute operation to cut a small benign growth off the side of his head because of his habit. Paul Merrett thought it would be no problem to get the inch-long fatty lump, called a lipoma, removed. … But when he attended King George Surgery in Stevenage, his GP said he could not have the minor operation—which doctors often do under local anesthetic in their own consulting rooms. Mr. Merrett, 46, said:...

They are among the industrialized world’s worst and (gasp) far inferior to U.S. hospitals, per UK Channel 4 video...

<p>Each visit to the United Kingdom brings new horror stories about the National Health Service.</p> <p>Last month, Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, issued a forensic report, commissioned by the government, which found that 14 underperforming hospitals in England had substandard care, contributing to the needless deaths of nearly 13,000 people since 2005.</p>

Each visit to the U.K. brings new horror stories about the National Health Service (NHS). Last month, Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, issued a forensic report, commissioned by the government, which found that 14 underperforming hospitals in England had substandard care, contributing to the needless deaths of nearly 13,000 people since 2005. Earlier this year, it was reported that a single hospital in Staffordshire recorded 1,400 "excess" deaths. Following the July report, letters from patients and relatives of those who died flooded in to newspapers, Sky News and the BBC. Many confirmed poor treatment, if in fact...

Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs.Female staff who follow the Islamic faith will be allowed to cover their arms to preserve their modesty despite earlier guidance that all staff should be "bare below the elbow". The Department of Health has also relaxed rules prohibiting jewellery so that Sikh members of staff can wear bangles linked with their faith, providing they are pushed up the arm while the medic treats a patient. The Mail on Sunday reported the change had been...

Never did three words, surely, have a more explosive and utterly disproportionate effect. In a Commons debate last week on the deficiencies of the new 111 emergency service, a Tory MP, Anne McIntosh, suggested one reason why there were too few GPs to answer urgent calls. Since some 70 per cent of medical students were now women, she said, the fact that many of them wanted to have children and then go part-time meant a ‘tremendous burden’ on the NHS if it effectively had to train two GPs to do the work of one. In reply the junior Health Minister...