The BMA has rejected the government’s final offer for the new junior doctors’ contract. Linked with the recommendation from Sir David Dalton, the chief negotiator in the dispute and chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, that the government now does ‘whatever it deems necessary’ to end the uncertainly of the situation to the… [Read More]
Although more people are being diagnosed with cancer in the UK each year, due to an increasing and ageing population, the overall death rate from cancer is reducing. Such is the upbeat conclusion to be drawn from figures published by Cancer Research UK today, to mark world cancer day. In short, cancer is becoming less… [Read More]
One of the main achievements David Cameron is claiming from his renegotiation talks with European heads of state and the EU Council President is a new red card system for national parliaments. It seems that if 55% of parliaments (those of 16 countries) vote against an EU proposal then it will be stopped. At first… [Read More]
In a Better Off Out report this week, Lee Rotherham explains how, in a world of increasingly globalised markets, the source of much of our legislation is no longer national governments or the EU. It is international organisations that bring together officials and representatives from around the world to suggest improvements and design regulations, standards… [Read More]
Antibiotic resistance poses an immediate threat. In the near future developed health systems around the world could well be devastated by such resistance, causing a regression in infection control towards standards similar to those of the late 1800s; before the benefits of penicillin and other antibiotics became taken for granted. The process by which drugs… [Read More]
Following the first of the planned British Medical Association led junior doctors’ strikes, and as talks are resumed with the conciliation service Acas, it seems that junior doctors can claim a victory of sorts. Public opinion will be a key force in determining the government’s response to the strike, and at present, it seems to… [Read More]
Unlike for other professions, where there are far more employment opportunities in London than elsewhere, nurses are almost always in demand regardless of geographical location as people get ill every day across the country. So why choose to work in London if vacancies exist nationwide and living costs in the capital remain astronomical? According to… [Read More]
This question, or variants of it, has already been posed many times in the EU debate. Lord Rose and Sir John Major, both key Remain voices, have said that we could survive Brexit. It is time to define our basic terms. We need parameters to discuss this survival. The most literal reading of the term… [Read More]
The government’s promise of a seven-day NHS is in the difficult process of being realised. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is trying to implement the Conservative party’s manifesto commitment to give more equal service provision throughout the week by focusing almost entirely on doctors’ weekend working hours, largely ignoring the necessary presence of many other professionals who are just as essential in keeping NHS… [Read More]
Today’s EU renegotiations are being touted as one of the biggest challenges of David Cameron’s premiership. Out of his key reform demands, the one meeting the most opposition from other EU leaders is his plan to stop EU migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years. The deal is being compared to the negotiations of… [Read More]