Doctors warnings ignored as fresh winter crisis looms
As winter approaches, with the days growing shorter, the warnings from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine are growing more … Read more
Underfunded
NHS backlog repair bill soars towards £14 billion
When The Lowdown first started in early 2019, the backlog maintenance bill for England’s NHS was estimated at £6 billion. By 2021, it had risen … Read more
South West investigation shows painful compromises to avoid deficits
According to a Lowdown survey of recent board papers, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) covering the South West of England are … Read more
Management consultancy still booming as NHS faces cuts
In her first speech to the Commons as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves committed to “reining in” consultancy spending in government departments. Both Labour … Read more
Action on social conditions needed to improve health inequalities
Tackling poverty and its negative effects on health should be as high a priority as addressing the NHS waiting lists, … Read more
John Puntis: In defence of the NHS
The NHS is attacked on a variety of spurious grounds. Negative statements often being repeated uncritically and ad nauseam by … Read more
Public health funding “below 2015/16 levels”
With just two weeks to go until the end of the financial year, the government finally announced the Public Health grant … Read more
Harsh financial reality and cuts bite in new NHS organisations
Reality is beginning to bite for the new Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) as their promises of achieving a financial break-even … Read more
Jeremy Hunt ‘accepts picture’ of NHS on brink of collapse
The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt has said he accepts “the picture that the NHS is on the brink of collapse” but warned … Read more
Study finds over 330,000 excess deaths in Great Britain linked to austerity
A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has found there were 334,327 excess deaths beyond the … Read more