The desperate hunt for some good news to cheer up private health bosses continues, with the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) getting rather over-excited at the industry’s most recent quar...

You couldn’t make it up: an NHS England press release on September 10 really did say “people will be able to walk into their participating high street pharmacy and get on-the-spot treatment for acne.”...

In August the Unite branch at East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) heard that Mark Dunne, one of their leading reps, who had been included in a list of posts to be made redundant, had been effectively ...

Bridlington, Barnstaple and Canterbury, and more? … One reason it has become so hard to find detailed information on planned cuts to local NHS services is that, as soon as any such information becomes...

GP records put private equity ownership in the spotlight The acquisition of Optum UK, the owner of EMIS, a major supplier of GP IT systems, for a reported $400 million (£293.5 million) by the US priva...

One of the bits of business for the reconvened Commons left-over from the shambolic Starmer period of government is the Health Bill (aka NHS Modernisation Bill 2026). Lowdown readers can be excused fo...

The call to shift services out of hospitals and build new centres in the community is not new: it dates back at least 34 years. JOHN LISTER has been looking back at the archives of earlier campaigns. ...

The press releases and planning guidance from the government on establishing Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs) make it seem that the new centres are a solution in search of a problem. The claim that...

Andy Burnham has made it clear in his first couple of weeks in office that his main focus is not on fixing the problems in the NHS created by 16 years of underfunding and underinvestment, but on the r...

Over the past decade new health secretary Yvette Cooper has taken almost half a million pounds from a donor linked to healthcare recruitment, or from companies ultimately owned and controlled by him, ...

They are at it again. Almost two years after The Lowdown reported East London Foundation Trust (ELFT), one of the capital’s largest and wealthiest mental health trusts, was attempting to cut spending ...

How can Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper make a difference to the NHS in their first few months?

They are at it again. Almost two years after The Lowdown reported East London Foundation Trust (ELFT), one of the capital’s largest and wealthiest mental health trusts, was attempting to cut spending ...

John Lister looks at the concrete proposals in Labour’s 10-year Capital Plan for the NHS After two years’ consideration, the reality of the Labour plan to deal with crumbling buildings and the growing...

As the Parliamentary Labour Party’s choice of Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and whoever he appoints as Health and Social Care Secretary, face a stiff challenge if they want Labour to regain any of the...

In the Commons debate on the chronic problem of “corridor care” in the NHS, there was no shortage of words on what the problem is, and how unacceptable it is from the points of view of patients, staff...

Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’

Wes Streeting may have jumped too soon to pose a challenge to Keir Starmer (which polls suggest is futile), but he got out of the hot seat as Health and Social Care Secretary at just the right time, a...

Lowdown investigators have continued their quest to establish how cash savings are being sought, and the implications for services across England’s NHS, and one conclusion is clear: few at Integrated ...

On June 1 patient-led campaign group Just Treatment, and social justice organisation, Global Justice Now (GJN) issued a legal challenge to the government implementing its toxic deal on pharmaceuticals...

ICB Watch · NW NHS workforce evidence EXPLAINER How can an NHS region be £500m in deficit only for it to disappear in a puff of smoke towards the end of the year? This is the NHS annual financial merr...

(Updated version 14/7) The NHS Alliance whose report has revealed the threat of brutal cuts to come in the current financial year (2026/27) is the result of a merger. The NHS Confederation, representi...

The Lowdown has, for some time, been asking questions about how plans to make savings have affected staff and services during 2025/6. Now, according to a recent report from the NHS Alliance, it seems ...

By former RUH Bath Hospital governor NICOLA JAMES (This article is an update and a follow-up on our May 12 Lowdown article More NHS outsourcing as management of bank staff contracted out.) If you want...

The Government is planning to scale back NHS recruitment and replace vital healthcare roles with AI technology to cut costs. This could leave patients facing fewer trained staff, unsafe care, and long...

At the end of last month the Health Service Journal revealed that the Department of Health and Social Care has been paying a management consultancy since last year to help it “create and drive the rig...

As Wes Streeting enters the murky waters of a leadership challenge, he jumps ship as the NHS heads turn towards another messy reorganisation that will squeeze out scrutiny and the public voice in the ...

Wes Streeting’s widely-expected letter of resignation to Keir Starmer begins with a predictable ritual breast-beating on the achievements during his 32 months as Secretary of State for Health and Soci...

Thanks to observant local readers of Lowdown in Protect Our NHS Bath and North East Somerset for drawing our attention to plans by the Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire Hospitals Group to outsource manageme...

Thanks to observant local readers of Lowdown in Protect Our NHS Bath and North East Somerset for drawing our attention to plans by the Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire Hospitals Group to outsource manageme...

Wes Streeting’s widely-expected letter of resignation to Keir Starmer begins with a predictable ritual breast-beating on the achievements during his 32 months as Secretary of State for Health and Soci...

As Wes Streeting enters the murky waters of a leadership challenge, he jumps ship as the NHS heads turn towards another messy reorganisation that will squeeze out scrutiny and the public voice in the ...

It’s hard to know how NHS management and staff are supposed to interpret the hugely confusing barrage of statements and policy announcements from Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting and NHS...

Consultant psychiatrists are being pushed to ‘breaking point’ by unmanageable workloads, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, whose latest census reveals one in seven consultant posts are ...

The drive to remove the US company Palantir from the NHS in the UK ramped up in the last few weeks, with the release of a briefing by the health justice charity Medact. The report, backed by doctors, ...

By Brenda Allan, Keep Our NHS Public  In late November, Keep Our NHS Public (KONP)’s primary care conference brought together patients, GPs, academics and campaigners to prioritise the key changes nee...

by Dr Steve Taylor, GP co-lead, Doctors Association UK I’ve been a GP since 1993 and most of that time have been a partner in a suburban practice in north Manchester. There have been many Governments,...

Government claims last December that they were on track to save a colossal £17 billion from NHS “efficiencies” over the next three years seem to be more than slightly over-optimistic, according to the...

It’s quietly reshaping Main Street medicine. Your wallet—and health—might suffer as a result.

Matthew Swindells was joint chair of four major London hospital trusts while also advising the US tech group