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NHS cancer patients denied life-saving drugs due to Brexit costs, report finds

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/20/nhs-cancer-patients-denied-life-saving-drugs-due-to-brexit-costs-report-finds

Brexit has ‘damaged the practical ability’ of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international trials, according to the 54-page report. Photograph: Dmitrii Dikushin/Alamy

Guardian Exclusive: Britons found to have ‘lost out’ while rest of Europe benefits from golden age of research and treatments

British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a leaked report warns.

Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential.

But five years after the UK’s exit from the EU, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind concludes that while patients across Europe are benefiting from a golden age of pioneering research and novel treatments, Britons with cancer have “lost out” thanks to rising prices and red tape.

Brexit has “damaged the practical ability” of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international clinical trials, according to the 54-page report obtained by the Guardian.

In some cases, the cost of importing new cancer drugs for Britons has nearly quadrupled as a result of post-Brexit red tape. Some trials have had shipping costs alone increase to 10 times since Brexit.

The extra rules and costs have had a “significant negative impact” on UK cancer research, creating “new barriers” that are “holding back life-saving research” for Britons, the report says.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/20/nhs-cancer-patients-denied-life-saving-drugs-due-to-brexit-costs-report-finds

Continue ReadingNHS cancer patients denied life-saving drugs due to Brexit costs, report finds

Campaigners demand full nationalisation of British Steel after government seizes control of Scunthorpe plant

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-demand-full-nationalisation-british-steel-after-government-seizes-control

A general view of British Steel in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, April 12, 2025

LABOUR has been urged to catch up with public support for nationalising services “just as strategically important” as British Steel.

Campaigners and unions have continued to call for the full nationalisation of the company after the government passed an emergency law on Saturday to seize control of its Scunthorpe plant.

The legislation was passed in a single day, empowering ministers to save the last plant making “virgin steel” direct from raw materials from imminent closure, as well as thousands of jobs.

But Labour’s action was likened to an expensive public bailout today amid growing calls for the government to stop the private sector from running other services into the ground.

We Own It founder and director Cat Hobbs said: “The government has sprung into action to protect British Steel as a strategically important industry, with nationalisation on the table.

“In 2020, Keir Starmer promised public ownership of rail, mail, energy and water — as well as ending outsourcing in our NHS and local government.

“These public services are just as strategically important as steel, as drivers of economic and social development.

“Since Thatcher’s sell off, many of our key public services have been handed over to foreign states, offshore funds and billionaires.

“If Starmer is looking to take back control of our economy, this would be a good place to start.

“The UK public overwhelmingly supports public ownership and it’s high time our government caught up.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-demand-full-nationalisation-british-steel-after-government-seizes-control

Continue ReadingCampaigners demand full nationalisation of British Steel after government seizes control of Scunthorpe plant

Thoughts of the Day 14 April 2025 2/2 UK’s Notional Health Service

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NHS emblem
Notional Health System emblem

I’m ill again with overwhelming fatigue which explains in part why I’ve been neglecting this blog. It could be a symptom of something far more serious of course and I wouldn’t be surprised that it is. The UK’s NHS is reduced to little more than a notion where you have to ring at certain times of the day to be ignored by a health-ignorant de-skilled workforce in an attempt to have a 5-minute telephone conversation with and arrogant, dismissive GP a fortnight later.

Under Wes Streeting’s proposals you will be able to discuss your health with a health-ignorant de-skilled NHS employee at your home. There are already health-ignorant people I can discuss it with – neighbours, delivery drivers, postpeople, refuse workers. I can even tell random people in the street or shopworkers.

Continue ReadingThoughts of the Day 14 April 2025 2/2 UK’s Notional Health Service

‘These cuts will place yet more strain on an NHS already creaking at the seams’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/these-cuts-will-place-yet-more-strain-on-an-nhs-already-creaking-at-the-seams

(left to right) Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Dr James Marsh, Group Deputy CEO for Epsom and St Helier Hospitals, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and NHS CEO Amanda Pritchard during a visit to Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom, Surrey, January 6, 2025

Labour warned that workers expect better as anger mounts over welfare cuts and public-sector pay

WORKERS expect better, Labour has been warned by the country’s biggest trade union as anger mounts over cruel welfare cuts and public-sector pay.

Protests met Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s address to Unison health conference in Liverpool yesterday, following a sharp rebuke to the government from its general secretary Christina McAnea on Tuesday.

Ms McAnea had thanked the government for taking steps to improve workers’ conditions through the upcoming Employment Rights Bill.

But she said that some of Labour’s decisions, such as stopping winter fuel payments and inflicting “heartless” cuts to welfare, had left her “baffled and speechless.”

“These cuts will place yet more strain on an NHS already creaking at the seams,” she warned.

“They’re counter-productive, will cost more in the long run and are morally wrong.

“The best way to turn the NHS around is by focusing on the workforce.

“There’s simply no route to fixing the NHS that doesn’t first involve sorting health workers’ pay,” which declined in real terms for over a decade under the Tories.

She called Labour’s 2.8 per cent pay rise for workers “ludicrous,” adding that it “won’t encourage experienced staff to stay in the NHS, nor will it be enough to persuade new recruits to join.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/these-cuts-will-place-yet-more-strain-on-an-nhs-already-creaking-at-the-seams

Keir Starmer says that his Labour Party is intensely relaxed about assaulting the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer says that his Labour Party is intensely relaxed about assaulting the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Continue Reading‘These cuts will place yet more strain on an NHS already creaking at the seams’

England’s NHS crews ‘watching patients die in back of ambulances’ due to A&E delays

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/06/englands-nhs-crews-watching-patients-die-in-back-of-ambulances-due-to-ae-delays

The gridlock of patients in some of England’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside A&Es. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Paramedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison.

The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.

The survey of nearly 600 ambulance workers reveals the toll of the waits on patients and the crews looking after them. Unison warns that “car park care” is increasingly becoming the norm, with hospital medical staff tending to patients in the back of ambulances.

More than three-quarters (77%) of paramedics and emergency medical technicians said they have had to look after people in the back of ambulances in the past year while stuck outside emergency departments. Two-thirds (68%) have waited in hospital corridors, or in other locations, with one paramedic often caring for several patients to allow colleagues to respond to other calls.

More than two-thirds also reported patients’ health deteriorating during long waits, and one in 20 (5%) said people have died in their care because of long delays in being admitted.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/06/englands-nhs-crews-watching-patients-die-in-back-of-ambulances-due-to-ae-delays

Continue ReadingEngland’s NHS crews ‘watching patients die in back of ambulances’ due to A&E delays