NHS staff faced the busiest week for ambulances so far this winter with more than 93,500 arriving at hospitals to hand over patients, alongside significant performance improvements. New weekly data shows that extensive winter NHS planning is continuing to pay off, with hours lost to ambulance handover delays more than halved compared to last year, […]
Commenting on the latest round of industrial action, NHS National Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “As the longest strike in the history of the NHS begins during one of the busiest and most challenging weeks of the year – the health service is experiencing the winter pressures of flu and Covid combined with […]
Record industrial action this week could see one of the most difficult starts to the year for health services across the country, the NHS has said today. Junior doctors strike from tomorrow (Wednesday 3 January) at 7am, until 7am on Tuesday 9 January – the longest consecutive strike action ever taken in the history of […]
Nurses, doctors and surgeons are among dozens of NHS staff on the 2024 New Year Honour list, released today (Friday 29 December). The head of the NHS, Amanda Pritchard, praised the efforts of those recognised in what has been another challenging year for the health service. This year in the NHS’s 75th year, staff have dealt with […]
Data on the recent industrial action by junior doctors and hospital dental trainees can be found on the NHS England website here: NHS England » Industrial action in the NHS. Since strikes began, the cumulative total of acute inpatient and outpatient appointments rescheduled is now 1,219,422. Junior doctors and hospital dental trainees began their strike […]
The head of the NHS today thanked staff and volunteers working over Christmas to deliver care for millions of patients, and reflected on their achievements in 2023 during an “unprecedented year” of demand and industrial action. In a personal video message, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard thanked staff for their continued hard work during “what […]
The NHS is facing weeks of major disruption at a time when services are already under significant winter pressure, England’s top doctor has warned today. Junior doctors take strike action from tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7.00am until 7.00am on Saturday (23 Dec). The NHS will prioritise urgent and emergency care as consultants step in to cover […]
Hundreds of new staff have joined the emergency care workforce ahead of winter – including as paramedics and call handlers – with warnings of significant pressure due to winter viruses over the next few months. The numbers of both 999 and 111 call handlers are up on last December (8% and 5% respectively), meaning hundreds […]
Frontline doctors are warning winter virus cases are “creeping up” alongside pressure on emergency departments, with new NHS data showing the number of flu patients in hospital is up more than half in a week. Today’s figures show an average of 234 people were in hospital with flu every day last week, up 53% on […]
Thousands fewer staff left the NHS last year, thanks to a major new retention programme which is now being expanded across the country. Up to 42 more NHS trusts are set to benefit from the NHS retention programme, which has seen staff offered extra flexibility with working hours, clinical ‘support squads’ to help menopausal women […]