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The number of people waiting more than a year to start hospital treatment in England in October was higher than any month since 2008, figures show. There were 162,888 patients still yet to start treatment in October 2020, the highest number since 2008. A year earlier, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,321. The latest figures from NHS England also show A&E admissions down 31% on the previous year. A total of 1.5 million people went to A&E in November this year - down from 2.1 million in November 2019. NHS...

Allergic Reactions In UK Healthcare Staff Prompt New COVID Vaccine WarningsBritish health regulators have issued a warning that people with a history of “significant” allergic reactions should not receive its newly launch Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.The warning comes in response to two National Health Service (NHS) workers who received the COVID-19 vaccine on December 8th experiencing allergic reactions. The two individuals, who developed “anaphylactoid reaction” shortly after injection, are now recovering. The precautions come from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and note that anyone who has a history of “significant” allergic reactions to medicines, food, or vaccines should refuse...

NHS waiting times have spiralled to their highest level in 12 years, official statistics revealed today. The number of people in England forced to wait at least a year for routine treatment rocketed to almost 140,000 in September — the largest backlog since 2008. It marks a 100-fold surge in the waiting list compared to the same month last year, when 1,300 patients were put on hold for more than 12 months. NHS figures today also revealed cancer referrals hit a record low, with almost 30,000 suspected to be waiting more than two weeks between an urgent GP referral and...

National Health Service patients in England waiting more than one year for non-coronavirus treatment is at its highest since 2008, with an NHS report admitting it was likely a result of the UK’s response to the pandemic. Figures released on Thursday revealed that in September the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks for the start of treatment was 139,545 — compared to 1,305 the same month last year.

Patients will need to be seen by non-doctors including “social care navigators”, “physician associates” and “nurse practitioners” to clear the lockdown backlog, a medical leader warns. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard predicted the waiting lists of the past five months will continue to rise unless the NHS radically alters how it delivers care. The chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said patients will need to get used to having appointments with physician associates, who do just two years’ medical training, and care navigators, who are often receptionists. Nurses will also have to take on doctors’ roles. There are nearly four...

NHS staff are being given hydroxychloroquine to see if the anti-malaria drug stops coronavirus. Healthcare workers from Brighton and Oxford, who are all in contact with Covid-19 patients, will be part of a global trial to test the effects of the drug. It comes after US President Donald Trump faced a backlash this week after revealing he had been taking hydroxychloroquine, despite warnings it might be unsafe. The first UK participants in the global trial are being enrolled today at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. They will be given either hydroxychloroquine or...

The government is using the coronavirus pandemic to transfer key public health duties from the NHS and other state bodies to the private sector without proper scrutiny, critics have warned. Doctors, campaign groups, academics and MPs raised the concerns about a “power grab” after it emerged on Monday that Serco was in pole position to win a deal to supply 15,000 call-handlers for the government’s tracking and tracing operation.

On Wednesday, the Royal Papworth Hospital in the city of Cambridge in the UK received a unique donation — the personal ventilator of world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking’s family made the donation to help the hospital fight COVID-19. “After our father passed away, we returned all the medical equipment he used that belonged to the NHS but there were some items which he bought for himself. We are now passing them to the NHS in the hope they will help in the fight against COVID-19,” said Lucy Hawking, the daughter of Stephen Hawking. […] Lucy Hawking said that the care...

A medical ventilator to help Covid-19 patients breathe has been granted regulatory approval, meaning hundreds could be rolled out to hospitals from next week. Penlon’s ESO2 device, developed under the codename Project Oyster, will become the first model to get the green light from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with an announcement expected as soon as Thursday. Formal approval comes amid mounting concern that tens of thousands of ventilators ordered by the government are still awaiting regulatory clearance. The length of the process has stoked fears about the readiness of the NHS for a surge in patients...

Most of the field of candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination at one point signed on to the idea of Medicare for All, a compromise proposal by Bernie Sanders for universal health care coverage. In a pandemic, people panic, and seek security. Many may think that this event proves the need for universal, government-run coverage. What would that look like in reality? How would Medicare for All handle the coronavirus pandemic?Luckily, we have a real world example that is dealing with coronavirus today: Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS). NHS has long been known for its tradeoff between...

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman has rejected President Donald Trump's offer to help with Johnson's COVID-19 treatment. Trump on Monday offered to put Johnson's doctors in touch with unnamed companies working on coronavirus treatments. The prime minister's spokesman rejected the offer on Tuesday. "We're confident the prime minister is receiving the best possible care from the National Health Service," he said. "Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors."

Boris Johnson says he is in "good spirits" after spending the night in hospital with coronavirus. The PM was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in London on Sunday evening with "persistent symptoms" - including a temperature and a cough - for routine tests. He remains in charge of government, although Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab chaired Monday's coronavirus meeting. Mr Johnson, 55, tested positive for coronavirus 10 days ago. In a tweet, he said he was "keeping in touch with my team as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe". He also thanked the "brilliant NHS staff"...

French authorities impounded two lorries carrying some 130,000 masks to health workers in Britain’s embattled hospitals, following President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to “requisition” all stocks in his territory. The move followed hot on the heels of French border guards seizing another heavy goods vehicle carrying hand sanitiser to Britain the day before. The incidents triggered a diplomatic spat between the two countries as Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) struggles against the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Sexist and racist patients could be barred from non-emergency care at NHS trusts, under new rules to be enforced from April. Currently, staff can refuse to treat non-critical patients who are verbally aggressive or physically violent towards them. But these protections will extend to any harassment, bullying or discrimination, including homophobic, sexist or racist remarks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock wrote to all NHS staff on Tuesday to announce stronger measures to investigate abuse and harassment towards staff, saying "no act of violence or abuse is minor". "Being assaulted or abused is not part of the job," he said. "Far too...

Americans who want a preview of coming attractions under Medicare for All should take a look at the annual “winter crisis” at Britain’s National Health Service that is starting early this year. Data released Thursday showed the worst waiting times in 15 years in English emergency rooms. Hang onto your warm winter hats. The NHS managed to treat only 83.6% of emergency-room patients within four hours in October, compared to 89.1% a year earlier and well short of the government’s target of 95%. The NHS winter crisis has become a national tradition like Guy Fawkes Day and the Grand National...

What could possibly go wrong? A National Health Service (NHS) trust in the UK has announced that it will deny treatment to patients it deems are ‘racists’ or ‘sexists’. No, this is not the Onion. The North Bristol NHS Trust said that “threatening and offensive language,” as well as “racist or sexist language, gestures or behaviour” and “malicious allegations” would all be punishable offenses. Patients who commit such an infraction will be subject to a “sports-style disciplinary yellow card and then final red card in which treatment would be withdrawn as soon as is safe.” “We have staff from many...

My wife has just been released from the hospital after a 3 week stay. Since most FReepers have never sought health care under a socialist system I thought I would share my experience. As a requirement to emigrating to Spain, which we did in 2016, you have to buy health insurance good for at least one year. After that you can buy into the Spanish health care system for 150 Euros per month if you are under 65 and 165 Euros per month if you are over 65. My wife is a British citizen but wasn't retirement age at the...

Overseas patients have left the NHS with more than £150million in unpaid bills for treatment, a Daily Mail investigation reveals. The cash could pay for 6,000 nurses, 22,000 heart bypasses or nearly 5,500 junior doctors. Two hospitals in London are owed £28million each, including almost £500,000 from one patient alone. The revelation comes amid a new-found reluctance among frontline staff to chase payments, with doctors' leaders saying their obligation to charge overseas patients is 'racist' and deters vulnerable groups from seeking help. But Tory MP Philip Davies said: 'It is the National Health Service, not an international health service and...

Britain’s trade minister Liz Truss has said the National Health Service (NHS) would not be put up for sale, as she prepares to discuss a free-trade deal with the U.S. in the next few weeks. “My main priority now will be agreeing a free-trade deal with the U.S., building on the successful phone call between the Prime Minister and President Trump,” she wrote in a Telegraph column late on Sunday. …

When a dozen of conservatism’s best minds take on Socialism and expose it for the utopian fraud it is, attention must be paid. In a brief foreword to a special issue of National Review, Editor-in-Chief Richard Lowry admitted that many conservatives thought socialism in America had been “vanquished” after the collapse of Soviet Communism 30 years ago. But as T. S. Eliot insisted, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” The experts examine socialism in its many guises, beginning with Charles Cooke’s blunt assessment that socialism is not...