The link between exercise, diet and ill health has been recognised for a considerable length of time. The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-370BC), wrote: Eating alone will not keep a man well…
“It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.”. So wrote Florence Nightingale in an 1863 publication. Yet litigation against…
The third Francis report on how to build a safe NHS has been published, this time focusing on the problem of how staff can raise their concerns about patient care without fear of victimisation or whistleblowing…
A terminally ill doctor has started a campaign to encourage healthcare staff to introduce themselves to patients. Kate Granger initiated the “Hello my name is …” campaign while she was hospitalised and…
New data published today from NatCen’s British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey reveals an increase in satisfaction with the NHS – up to 65% from 60% in 2013. At the same time, dissatisfaction is at its lowest…
Alan Milburn, Labour health secretary from 1999 to 2003, has caused quite a stir by attacking the party over its plans for the NHS. In an interview with the BBC, Milburn warned that Labour risked repeating…
The cost of treatment is one of the biggest areas of the NHS budget and one of the most sensitive areas of discussion. We would all like to have an infinite amount of money to spend treating diseases and…
Having recently completed a 50-year career in nursing and health research and development I am often asked to talk to newly graduating students. At one such event recently, I shared with them some examples…
The narrative around the NHS today is of angels and demons. We want to praise heroes when life is sweet and find a villain for each failure. Even more confusingly, the same person can be cast as both hero…
Graeme Currie, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
The A&E crisis in the NHS this year seems significantly different to the “normal” winter crisis that happens each year from changes in seasonal demand. Given that the problem – waiting times, ambulance…
It has been widely reported that NHS accident and emergency departments are facing a crisis. Demand for A&E services appears to be soaring at the same time as austerity measures continue to bite. This…
The problems currently crippling the NHS and social care are not happening in a vacuum. The A&E crisis and the critical lack of beds are related to politicians’ love for large-scale, rapid and untested…
Healthcare group Circle has announced that it plans to withdraw from its contract to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, three years into a deal that was supposed to last ten years. The company…
Graeme Currie, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Every year demand for health services – specifically A&E departments – goes up in winter, something that the NHS seems to be unable to plan for. In England, almost 30,000 more people visited A&E…
George Osborne has announced that he would put an extra £2 billion into the NHS. This will be welcomed by many as an acknowledgement of the challenge faced by the health service in closing a significant…
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