Category Archives: NHS

All The January 2023 Strikes Set To Hit As Industrial Action Continues

Posted on by
Reply

With Christmas done and dusted, many of us are now looking forward to New Year and the fresh start it brings.

However, strike action has only just begun, with more dates planned across different industries into January.

Bus drivers, ambulance drivers, rail staff and more are all set to take action in the coming week, with disruption expected as a result.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the strikes in January 2023.

Rail strikes

Strikes by the RMT and ASLEF trade unions will bring rail services to a halt across the UK from Tuesday January 3 to Saturday January 7.

RMT union members at Network Rail are striking once more over pay and conditions.

The train strikes will affect the following train operators:

  • LNER
  • Northern trains
  • Avanti West Coast
  • Southeastern
  • Cross Country
  • Chiltern Railways
  • Greater Anglia
  • Govia Thameslink (plus Gatwick Express)
  • London Underground
  • West Midlands Trains (plus London Northwestern Railway)
  • Great Western Railway
  • Transpennine Express

Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, explained the reasoning for the strike action: “We don’t want to go on strike but the companies have pushed us into this place. They have not offered our members at these companies a penny – and these are people who have not had an increase since April 2019.”

People are being advised to avoid travelling between January 3 – 7 if possible.

Highway workers strikes

If your plan to get around the railway strikes was to take to the roads, we’ve got some bad news.

National Highways traffic officers in the PCS union across the UK will strike on January 3 and 4.

The strike action will see control centre staff walk out and officers will normally deal with the aftermath of road accidents will also stop work on the two dates.

The PCS union says the walkout could cause delays to reopening carriageways and motorways affected by any accidents on the strike action dates.

Nurses

The Royal College of Nurses (RCN) has announced strike action on January 18 and 19 in England following previous action on December 15 and 20.

The RCN wants members to see a pay rise of 19%.

RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “The government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.

“I do not wish to prolong this dispute, but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice.”

Ambulance drivers

Some ambulance staff in England will take part in two strikes next month, on January 11 and 23.

Services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will be affected as union members campaign for pay rises that are above inflation rates.

The strikes will affect non-life threatening calls only but is likely to put even more pressure on emergency care.

Bus drivers

Meanwhile in London, Abellio bus drivers in south and west London will take action over eight days throughout January.

The strikes will take place on January 4, 5, 10, 12, 16, 19, 25 and 26.

Transport for London has urged Unite and the Abellio bus company to work together to avoid disruption, with some of the proposed strike dates clashing with RMT train strikes.

Teachers in Scotland

Two teachers’ strike days will take place in Scotland in January 2023.

Teachers will walkout on both January 10 and 11 after a 6.85% increase for the lowest paid was rejected.

Although the action is currently exclusive to Scotland, teaching unions in both England and Wales are balloting members over pay, which could mean strikes further south in the coming weeks.

RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “The government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.

“I do not wish to prolong this dispute, but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice.”

Ambulance drivers

Some ambulance staff in England will take part in two strikes next month, on January 11 and 23.

Services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will be affected as union members campaign for pay rises that are above inflation rates.

The strikes will affect non-life threatening calls only but is likely to put even more pressure on emergency care.

Bus drivers

Meanwhile in London, Abellio bus drivers in south and west London will take action over eight days throughout January.

The strikes will take place on January 4, 5, 10, 12, 16, 19, 25 and 26.

Transport for London has urged Unite and the Abellio bus company to work together to avoid disruption, with some of the proposed strike dates clashing with RMT train strikes.

Teachers in Scotland

Two teachers’ strike days will take place in Scotland in January 2023.

Teachers will walkout on both January 10 and 11 after a 6.85% increase for the lowest paid was rejected.

Although the action is currently exclusive to Scotland, teaching unions in both England and Wales are balloting members over pay, which could mean strikes further south in the coming weeks.

Share Button

Will Rishi Sunak Perform Yet Another U-Turn To End The Nurses’ Strike?

Posted on by
Reply

Rishi Sunak this week stopped being Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.

After managing to survive 50 days in Number 10, he has surpassed Liz Truss’s ill-starred tenure as PM.

But during his brief time in charge, Sunak has managed to earn an unenviable reputation for being willing to completely change his position when the pressure’s on.

We’ve already seen two major U-turns – one on housebuilding targets and the other on onshore wind farms – brought on by the prospect of Tory backbench rebellions.

Now, it seems only a matter of time before he is forced into his biggest about-face yet as he tries to end nurses pay dispute which saw members of the Royal College of Nursing walk out on Thursday. A further 24-strike is due next week.

So far, ministers have stuck to the same line on nurses’ pay as they have on other public sector workers taking part in the growing winter of discontent – that the government has accepted the recommendations of the various pay review bodies and won’t be re-visiting the matter.

But with trade unions unwilling to accept the real-terms pay cuts on offer, the pressure is building on the PM – not least from senior Tories – to relent.

Former Conservative chairman Jake Berry – a man with an axe to grind after being sacked by Sunak – spoke for many of his colleagues when he said the current offer on the table to nurses was “too low” and that compromise was needed.

“There is no do-nothing option except continued strikes,” he said yesterday.

“And I just think the cancellation of probably literally hundreds of thousands of non-urgent appointments has huge repercussions for an already-overstretched health service.

“That’s why I think it’s reasonable to say in this regard, it is time for pragmatism and talking between the government and the unions. I don’t see why that is controversial.

“Machismo and sort of chest beating and ‘we’ll take the unions on’ doesn’t work. You only get these things sorted out by talking.”

Dr Dan Poulter – a GP – and former cabinet minister Robert Buckland are also among a growing band of Tory MPs who believe compromise is urgently needed to bring an end to the dispute.

Public support for the nurses’ fight remains strong, meaning the political damage for the government grows whenever they take to the picket line.

Staff Nurse Courtney Watson joins members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on the picket line outside Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast as nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland take industrial action over pay. Picture date: Thursday December 15, 2022.
Staff Nurse Courtney Watson joins members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on the picket line outside Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast as nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland take industrial action over pay. Picture date: Thursday December 15, 2022.

Liam McBurney via PA Wire/PA Images

A veteran Tory MP told HuffPost UK: “I’ve been around long enough to know that there will invariably be a compromise found.”

Labour can hardly believe their luck. A party source told HuffPost UK: “I just don’t understand what they are thinking – do they think ‘crush the nurses’ is a viable strategy for the country or a good look? He’s just going to end up looking weak again.

“It’s notable that the Tories who think strategically can see a mile off this isn’t going to work.

“It’s absolutely bonkers they didn’t get that strike called off and instead let us use PMQs to frame all the strike action around it. It’s not just that Sunak has no vision – there’s no political strategy either.”

For now, though, the prime minister appears to be digging in.

Speaking in Belfast yesterday, he said: “We want to be fair, reasonable and constructive, that’s why we accepted the recommendations of an independent pay body about what fair pay would be.”

But there is a growing sense in Westminster that a government climbdown is inevitable.

And while that may well pave the way for a resolution to the nurses’ dispute, it will be yet another blow to Sunak’s faltering political reputation.

Share Button

Nurses Issue Government With Ultimatum Or Risk Strike Action

Posted on by
Reply

Nurses have called for “detailed negotiations” on pay in the next five days or it will announce strike dates for December.

In a letter to health secretary Steve Barclay following the autumn statement, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen said the chancellor demonstrated that “the government remains unprepared to give my members the support they need at work and at home”.

She said that recent meetings with the minister had been “cordial in tone”, but had not resolved the issues at the heart of proposed strike action.

Last week, the RCN announced that nursing staff at the majority of NHS employers across the UK had voted to take strike action over pay and patient safety.

In the letter, she added: “It is with regret that I write to say that unless our next meeting is formal pay negotiations, beginning within the next five days, we will be announcing the dates and locations of our December strike action.”

The RCN is calling for a pay rise of 5% above inflation, saying that despite a pay rise earlier this year, experienced nurses were worse off by 20% due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.

Cullen said recent meetings with Barclay were welcome, but added: “I must not let my members nor the public confuse these meetings for serious discussions on the issues of NHS pay and patient safety.

“You have again asked to meet in the coming days and for this third occasion I must be clearer in my expectation.

“There is only value in meeting if you wish to discuss – in formal, detailed negotiations – the issues that have caused our members to vote for strike action.

“It is now more than a week since we announced our ballot outcome and your department has dedicated more time to publicly criticising our members’ expectations than finding common ground and a satisfactory conclusion.

“I also point out that this stands in contrast to the approach taken by governments and executives in other parts of the United Kingdom.”

Health secretary Barclay said: “We are all hugely grateful for the hard work and dedication of healthcare staff, including nurses, and we have prioritised the NHS in the autumn statement with an additional £6.6 billion over the next two years, alongside a commitment to publish a comprehensive workforce strategy next year with independently verified forecasts.

“We deeply regret some union members have voted for industrial action.

“These are challenging times, which is why we accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full and have given over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year.

“This is on top of a 3% pay increase last year when public sector pay was frozen, and wider government support with the cost of living.”

Share Button

Keir Starmer Criticised For Saying The NHS Is Recruiting ‘Too Many People From Overseas’

Posted on by
Reply

Keir Starmer has been criticised for saying the NHS is recruiting too many people from overseas.

The Labour leader said “we should be training people in this country” as he set out his plans to control immigration.

But Starmer came under fire for his comments, with SNP MP Stewart McDonald accusing him of “grubby dog-whistling”.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Starmer said: “What I would like to see is the numbers go down in some areas.

“I think we are recruiting too many people from overseas in, for example, the health service, but on the other hand if we need high-skilled people in innovation and tech to set up factories, etc, then I would encourage that, so I don’t think there’s an overall number here, some areas will need to go down, other areas will need to go up.”

At the Labour conference in Liverpool last month, the party leader unveiled plans to recruit 7,500 staff to the NHS across the UK.

Starmer added: “We should be training people in this country, of course we need some immigration but we need to train people in this country.

“What we’ve done – this is absolutely classic of this Tory government – is short-term fixes, plasters over problems, never a long-term solution and we’re going around and around in circles, every year we have a winter crisis.”

Responding to Starmer’s comments on Twitter, McDonald – the SNP’s defence spokesperson – accused the Labour leader of betraying the efforts of foreign NHS workers during the pandemic.

Meanehile, the pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group Momentum said Starmer was “out out of touch with the Labour party and the Labour movement”.

Share Button

Concern Over Covid Boosters And Baby Scans Cancelled For Queen’s Funeral

Posted on by
Reply

Patients are expressing concern that some Covid booster jabs, flu vaccinations, as well as key hospital appointments, are being cancelled ahead of the Queen’s funeral on September 19 since it was made a last-minute Bank Holiday.

Kate Brodie, 62, a retired NHS GP who is about to start a second round of chemotherapy for breast cancer, had specifically timed the date of her Covid booster so it fell before her hospital treatment started.

The vaccine was booked for September 19. However Brodie, who lives in south Devon, says she received a text message on September 12 saying the appointment had been cancelled due to the unexpected bank holiday.

“Having cancer is a huge stress with all the worry about survival, the process of going through gruesome treatment and hoping to continue to avoid Covid 19 while my immune system is down,” she tells HuffPost UK.

“The death of the Queen is very sad, but the reaction by NHSE [NHS England] to cancel delivery of much-needed services at short notice will cause harm and hardship to many.”

Many GP practices across England will be closed for the Bank Holiday, which has been given to allow individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to the Queen on the day of her state funeral.

A letter from Dr Ursula Montgomery, director of primary care at NHS England, said that out-of-hours services will be in place during the day to meet patients’ urgent primary medical care needs.

The funeral has come at a busy time for the NHS, as it implements its Covid booster and flu vaccination programmes ahead of the winter.

A text message from one GP surgery on the outskirts of London, seen by HuffPost UK, said flu vaccine appointments scheduled for this week would need to be rescheduled by a few days because of “the unfortunate news the nation is facing at the moment”.

Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP and medical educator from Oxford, explained on Twitter how a last minute bank holiday can be a “nightmare” for those trying to run health services, especially with lots of patients already booked in.

“What to do?” she tweeted. “Implore staff to work and pay extra? Reschedule and delay all the appointments?”

Other staff working in general practice responded to say that even when they do open on Bank Holidays, they often aren’t busy. Some added that they suspect lots of patients won’t turn up because they’ll be watching the funeral.

Scheduled Covid boosters are still going ahead in care homes, said NHS England, which has also issued guidance urging clinics to stay open to deliver the boosters “where there is a high population need”.

But a report by openDemocracy found thousands of non-urgent hospital appointments – for issues such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, maternity checks and some cancer treatments – are being postponed.

One pregnant woman revealed how her foetal scan had been cancelled, leaving her anxious about her baby’s health.

“I’m really disappointed,” she told openDemocracy. “Yes, it’s a routine scan, but that’s another week or two until I’m seen and wondering whether my baby is healthy – which means quite a lot of anxiety, sitting and waiting.”

Kate Brodie has since tried to rebook her Covid booster for the next cycle, but was told there were no dates free near to where she lives.

“Thankfully I have found a centre 15 miles away that I can attend on Sunday instead,” she says. “I am lucky I am mobile and have transport to reach the further venue.”

Meanwhile, Greg Hadfield, 66, from Brighton, also found out his Covid booster vaccine appointment on September 19 has been cancelled and is now having to travel nearly 40 minutes by car to get another one.

The 66-year-old was originally invited to have the booster at his local Waitrose. However because the store will now be closed for the Bank Holiday – as many supermarkets will be – his appointment won’t go ahead.

“When I tried to re-book for another day at the same centre, the system offered only dates that were 14 days-plus ahead, by which time I will be abroad for a month,” he tells HuffPost UK.

He has managed to book an appointment 40 minutes away for the same date, September 19, which hasn’t been cancelled – so far.

“I am just relieved to get the booster before leaving for Turkey and Greece later this month,” he says.

Share Button

Brutal Hospital Heckle Gives Health Secretary Steve Barclay A Taste Of Public Anger

Posted on by
Reply

Health secretary Steve Barclay has been confronted with public fury over the crumbling NHS – as an angry member of the public heckled the minister upset about ambulance delays.

The cabinet minister was speaking to media outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in Old Street, central London, when a woman suggested the Tory government has done “bugger all” during 12 years in power.

During his interviews, a woman passing by approached Barclay and asked him: “Are you going to do anything about the ambulances waiting, and the people dying out?”

Barclay replied: “Of course we are,” but the woman continued: “Don’t you think 12 years is long enough?

“Twelve years – you’ve done bugger all about it.

“People have died, and all you’ve done is nothing.”

The incident drew comparisons to an infamous scene from BBC comedy The Thick Of It, when fictional minister Hugh Abbot is confronted by an angry worker who asks: “Do you know what it’s like to clean up your own mother’s piss?”

Last week, many were shocked after an 87-year-old man had to wait 15 hours for an ambulance in a makeshift shelter made out of a garden football goal.

A recent report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) showed that patients were facing “frequent and prolonged” waits for ambulances.

The report exposed several cases, such as that of an elderly patient who died after waiting 14 hours for assistance from South Central Ambulance Service.

On Thursday, Barclay was given a tour of an operating theatre by surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital, before speaking to press on the street outside.

Following the heated interaction, Barclay said that reducing ambulance waiting times is an “absolute priority” for the government.

He told the PA news agency: “There’s a range of measures that we’re taking.

“We’re looking at conveyance rates in ambulances, we’re looking at how we address variation in performance, we’re looking at funding – an extra £150 million to the ambulance service, a further £50 million into call centres, for 111 and 999, in terms of call handling, a further £30 million into St John Ambulance around the auxiliary ambulance performance.

“We’re also then looking at what happens with the ambulance handovers, so emergency departments, how we triage those, how we look at the allocation of this within the system.

“Of course, that is all connected to delayed discharge and people being ready to leave hospital who are not doing so, and that’s about the integration of care between social care and hospitals.

“So there’s a range of issues within how we deliver on ambulances, but it’s an absolute priority both for the Government and for NHS England.”

Share Button

A Little Bit Of Good News About The NHS Offers A Glimmer Of Hope About Its Future

Posted on by
Reply

The NHS has managed to address its huge Covid backlog in a significant moment of celebration for the struggling service.

NHS England revealed on Tuesday that it had cut the number of patients waiting more than years for a routine operation from 22,500 – the number from the start of the year – to 168.

This includes scans, checks and surgeries, and the 51,000 people who would have passed the two-year mark by the end of July.

Three NHS regions also had no patients waiting two years or longer for this routine treatment, with another three getting it down to single figures.

The stats show remarkable progress although it does exclude more complex cases and those who deferred treatment.

Still, 220,000 patients with Covid have been treated in the last six months, too.

The NHS has pointed to its elective recovery plan, which aimed to take on Covid backlogs back in February, for its success.

The service has been redirecting patients to other hospitals across the country as well, so they could be treated more quickly, while covering travel and accommodation costs “where appropriate”.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard also claimed this achievement was only possible because the NHS continues to reform how it provides care, including using new tech like robot surgery.

It comes after the health service announced it would eliminate the two-year waiting lists by July earlier this year.

There are still worrying signs though

This statistic is only one small portion out of the whole Covid backlog. Only on Monday, there were fears over declining dentistry care across the whole country.

The BBC reported that 6.6 million people were still waiting for hospital treatment in total.

Meanwhile, ambulance response times for the most urgent incidents climbed to nine minutes and six seconds according to the NHS England in June. This is far from the target of seven minutes.

This is just one example where health care is still struggling, as it was even before the pandemic began.

On top of this, fears over its workforce shortage and long-term underfunding mean the future of the NHS still looks precarious, despite this small bit of good news about cutting waiting times.

Those at the top of the NHS still have grand plans for progress, though.

Pritchard said: “The next phase will focus on patients waiting longer than 18 months, building on the fantastic work already done, and, while it is a significant challenge, our remarkable staff have shown that, when we are given the tools and resources we need, the NHS delivers for our patients.”

Health secretary Steve Barclay said: “This is testament to NHS staff who have worked incredibly hard to get us here – despite the significant challenges.”

The government plans to remove the 18-month waiting list by April 2023.

Share Button

4 Bits Of News You May Have Missed Due To The Tory Civil War

Posted on by
Reply

It’s difficult to stay across all of the news at the best of times, never mind when a Tory civil war is unfolding.

Boris Johnson’s resignation and the battle for his place in No.10 has definitely dominated the news cycle for the last two weeks.

And while the appointment of the new prime minster is important, the government turmoil means other stories may have slipped under the radar.

So here are four other bits of news that you may have missed.

1. Russia makes progress in Ukraine

On Thursday, Russia targeted a densely populated area in Kharkiv, killing at least two people and injuring 21 more. It looks as though the shelling him a market, a bus stop, a gym and a residential building.

It comes after Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia was expanding its military objectives in Ukraine on Wednesday.

This means it is essentially looking to take control of the entire southern regions of Ukraine, and that the Russian Armed Forces are moving beyond the so-called “People’s Republics” of Donestk and Luhansk in the east.

The invasion is now in its fifth month, and continues to take much longer than Russia initially predicted. But, despite the slow start and the strong resistance from Ukrainian forces and the repelling of Russian troops from other corners of the country (including the capital Kyiv), it seems Putin is not giving up.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response to the expansion of the Kremlin’s military aims that “Russians want blood, not talks”, and called for more help from allies.

Lavrov has warned the West that the Kremlin will continue expanding its objectives if Nato allies continue supplying the country with long-range weapons.

Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russian invasion of Ukraine

PA Graphics via PA Graphics/Press Association Images

2. Worker strikes continue

The summer of discontent is still rolling on, with Royal Mail workers voting to go on strike over pay on Tuesday.

More than 115,000 employees who are part of the Communication Workers Union supported the action, which – if it goes ahead – could amount to the largest walkout ever by its members.

When Royal Mail tweeted that it was “disappointed” by the strike action, the CWU replied: “Dry your eyes mate.”

Disputes over pay are affecting industries across the UK, with railway workers and airport employees pushing back against their current salaries due to the cost of living crisis.

CWU is just one of many unions to ballot for strikes recently, as inflation climbs to highest rate in 40 years.

3. Annual grocery bills climb by £454

Shoppers across the UK will soon see their annual grocery bills for the year jump up by £454 due to food and drink inflation.

Grocery price inflation increased to 9.9% in the four weeks leading up to July 10, according to retail research firm Kantar, having been at 8.3% the previous month.

Fuel costs and supply chain issues are being passed onto consumers.

Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, told PA news agency that he expects the record for grocery inflation to be broken “come August”.

4. NHS not coping with Covid

While the worst of the heatwave has passed (for now), the health service is still having to grapple with Covid infections, more than two years on from the first lockdown.

Editor of the British Medical Journal, Dr Kamran Abbasi, and Health Service Journal editor, Alastair McLellan, wrote an alarming editorial on Monday, warning that the NHS might buckle under the ongoing Covid pressures.

This is down a range of factors, including periods of underfunding over the last decade, “lack of an adequate workforce plan” and “a cowardly and short-sighted failure to undertake social care reform”.

Now, it seems the government’s “living with Covid” strategy might be the final straw with yet another wave of infections washing across the UK.

Abbasi and McLellan claimed that the government is “pretending it is not happening or implying it is all under control”, and said the health service was actually “dying” from Covid.

They called for the government to “stop gaslighting the public” and be honest that the pandemic is still very much looming over the NHS.

Share Button

Why You Might Be Asked To Travel Across The Country For Surgery

Posted on by
Reply

People who remain on the waiting list for health treatments are being asked whether they are prepared to travel to receive treatment.

NHS England is set to “virtually eliminate” the list of those who have waited more than two years for treatment, the chief executive has said, as patients are given the option to be treated more quickly at hospitals in different parts of the country.

Of course, this plan will do little to help those without access to transport, those who need to juggle healthcare alongside care responsibilities, and those on zero hours contracts or self-employed, who need to take limited time off work to avoid pay losses.

The number who have waited for two years or more to receive treatment has fallen from a peak of 22,500 in January to 6,700, after the Covid-19 pandemic caused waiting lists to mount.

People who remain on the waiting list are being asked whether they are prepared to travel to receive treatment. More than 400 have agreed, with 140 booked in for surgery at a different hospital.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “As part of the biggest and most ambitious catch-up programme in NHS history, staff are now on track to virtually eliminate two-year waiters by the end of July.

“But the NHS will not stop here, from delivering one million tests and checks through our newly rolled-out community diagnostic centres to new state-of-the-art same-day hip replacements, staff are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to treat patients quicker, especially those who have been waiting a long time.”

The NHS has said it will cover travel and accommodation costs to patients “where appropriate”.

Three patients who had been waiting to receive treatment at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust went on to receive treatment at Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust more than 100 miles away, with a further two booked in.

Meanwhile, South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre has treated 17 patients from the South West of England, and a further 11 are expected to receive treatment in the coming weeks.

Patients who opt to wait longer, or patients in highly-specialised areas that may require a tailored plan, however, will not necessarily have been treated by the end of July, the NHS warns.

The fall in waiting list numbers comes after the busiest ever May for emergency care, with 2.2 million A&E visits and almost 78,000 of the most urgent ambulance call-outs.

Pritchard added: “One of the benefits of the NHS is that hospitals can work together to bring Covid backlogs down together and so if people can and want to be treated quicker elsewhere in the country, NHS staff are ensuring that it can happen.

“Once again, NHS staff are demonstrating the agility, resilience and compassion that shows when they are given the tools and resources they need, they deliver for our patients.”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Innovations like this are helping to tackle waiting lists and speed up access to treatment, backed by record investment, and there are over 90 community diagnostic centres delivering over one million checks and scans in the last year.”

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of the NHS Providers organisation, said the health service is “nearing the target” of clearing the backlog of all people who have been waiting for more than two years for hospital care.

She told BBC Breakfast: “The NHS is doing incredibly well and we are seeing those figures coming down significantly week by week. I never like to say ‘Yes, it will definitely happen’, but I think it’s testament to the hard work of trust leaders up and down the country that that we are nearing that point.”

Asked abut the call for more nurses, she said: “We’ve known for a very long time that workforce is a significant challenge.

“I think one of the things we have to remember is that the challenges we are facing now, post-pandemic, were there before the pandemic and the pandemic has simply exacerbated them.

“So we’ve got funding challenges that have come from a decade’s worth of a funding squeeze; demand was already going up before the pandemic; we had challenges in terms of social care which we’ve got now and they are increasing significantly.

“But we’ve also got this workforce shortage, which is incredibly serious.

“We’ve called on the Government to establish a fully funded and costed long-term workforce plan so we can sort this out once and for all but we know there are big challenges there across the nursing workforce, across the doctor workforce and other parts of the NHS staffing structure.”

Share Button

NHS Start4Life Slammed For Advising Breastfeeding As A ‘Weight Loss Hack’

Posted on by
Reply

The NHS has been telling new mums to breastfeed in order to lose weight and get back into shape after giving birth. Yes, really.

On its Start4Life website – a programme that supposedly supports pregnant women and new mums – the health service told women about ‘seven things you might not expect when your baby’s born’.

Number seven on the list was the fact that you might look pregnant for a while after giving birth.

“It can take six weeks for your womb to go back to the size it was, and even longer to lose any extra weight,” the site said. “Breastfeeding is a great way to get your body back, as it burns around 300 calories a day, and helps your womb to shrink more quickly. Also try to eat healthily and take gentle exercise.”

The advice sparked outrage online after it was shared by London-based writer Maggy Van Eijk, who has a three-year-old daughter and is 38 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.

“Toxic AF from the NHS’s week by week pregnancy guide,” she tweeted ”[Breastfeeding] is not a weight loss tool. Your body never went anywhere – you don’t need to get it ‘back’, it’s just changing, evolving and growing and it will keep doing so until you’re deceased.”

HuffPost UK contacted the Department of Health and Social Care about the criticism and the wording on the NHS site has now been changed.

Still, it’s worth asking how something like this made it onto the NHS website in the first place.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Van Eijk says she’s found most of the week-by-week guide helpful during pregnancy, but it was “such a shock” to see Start4Life include breastfeeding as a “weight loss hack”.

“It was such outdated language, really steeped in diet culture which new mums especially really don’t need,” she says. “I did breastfeed with my first but it was hard work and I pumped at first because I was so adamant to keep trying. The pumping and feeding became an obsession.

“Instead of letting go and opting for formula I filled my fridge and freezer with milk. Basically equating the amount I could produce with how good of a mother I was being. It wasn’t healthy and there are so many other signifiers of good parenting we should be showing new mums. Not how you feed your baby and especially not what your body looks like.”

Other women share her view, with many on Twitter pointing out that this “tip” only added to the shame some women feel if they can’t breastfeed.

Start4Life was initially a Public Health England initiative, which now falls under the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Start4Life content is published on the NHS website, with NHS-branded leaflets also given to pregnant women.

HuffPost UK contacted each of the bodies, as well as the Department of Health and Social Care, for response to the criticism.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Start4Life website provides guidance and advice for new and expectant families.

“Our insight has shown that some women find this information helpful, however, we keep the wording of public health initiatives under review, and in response to some of the feedback received we have updated the website today.”

The Start4Life advice now reads: “It can take six weeks for your womb to go back to the size it was. Breastfeeding can speed this process up as it makes your womb contract. Find out more about your body after the birth on the NHS website.”

Still, the response from women is clear: new parents are already under enough pressure to be “perfect mums” and “snap back into shape” after giving birth. The language used by a publicly-funded initiative really does matter.

Keeping a tiny human alive is a huge achievement – it doesn’t matter what size you are or how many packets of biscuits you consume in the process.

Update: This article has been updated to reflect that the Start4Life website has amended its advice.

Share Button