Britiain’s National Health Service
Privatisation of UK’s National Health Service escalates
By Ben Trent, 23 April 2019
An investigation found that over 1 million patients were forced to seek alternative treatment in the preceding five years due to the closure of nearly 450 GP surgeries.
UK cancer patients’ lives imperilled, suffering deepened by treatment delays
By Ajanta Silva, 10 April 2019
In England alone, more than 127,000 cancer patients have been left waiting more than two months to start their treatment over the last five years.
NHS 10-year plan: Recipe for further attacks on services and privatisation in UK
By Ajanta Silva, 7 February 2019
Under the banner of providing more choices, the government is ready to send more and more patients to private hospitals with the NHS footing the bill.
General practitioners abandoning Britain’s National Health Service
By Ben Trent, 19 December 2018
A poll by the General Medical Council’s regulating body concluded there was a high risk of doctors leaving the profession “in unprecedented numbers.”
Britain's NHS denies life-saving treatment to migrants
By Kelly Taylor, 14 December 2018
A 71-year-old Jamaican woman, Elfreda Spencer, died of sepsis this year after being denied chemotherapy because she could not afford to pay the upfront cost of her treatment.
National Health Service workers among increasing users of food banks in Britain
By Ben Trent, 7 December 2018
A survey of 21,000 health workers found that 49 percent had to seek financial help from friends and family the previous year.
Royal College of Nursing leadership in UK seeks re-election in defiance of no confidence vote
By Ajanta Silva, 7 November 2018
These are the same people who deliberately sold a rotten pay offer and were the subject of members’ outrage when the real details of the deal came to light.
UK: NHS subsidiary companies—tools for tax exemption and privatisation
By Ben Trent, 31 October 2018
Large swathes of NHS provision have been sold off to the private sector, driving down the pay, terms and conditions of workers and hugely reducing the quality of services.
“National crisis” facing UK National Health Service as deficits grow
By Ben Trent, 16 October 2018
The budget deficits are the outcome of a systemic attack on a public health service provider with the intent of bringing the 70-year-old institution into private hands.
UK nurses vote to remove Royal College of Nursing leadership after pay deal sellout
By Ajanta Silva, 3 October 2018
There is growing opposition among nurses and health care workers to a deal that includes an effective cut in real wages following years of attacks on wages and conditions.
Vote “yes” on resolution to force out Royal College of Nursing leadership! Build rank-and-file committees!
By NHS FightBack, 28 September 2018
The resolution gives voice to the growing rebellion among nurses and health workers against the RCN executive’s collusion with the Conservative government.
Royal College of Nursing union chief resigns amid mounting anger over NHS pay deal
By our reporters, 1 September 2018
National Health Service workers have spoken to NHS FightBack reporting teams about the pay deal, with many angered at the unions for accepting it.
UK Court of Appeal reinstates Dr. Hadiza Bawa-Garba
By Ajanta Silva, 29 August 2018
Despite only being a trainee paediatrician at the time of Jack Adcock's death, the responsibilities heaped on Bawa-Garba as a junior doctor that day were extraordinary.
UK National Health Service pay deal fuels growing rebellion against unions
By Ajanta Silva, 13 August 2018
More than 1,000 health workers signed a petition calling for the current leadership of the Royal College of Nursing to stand down.
NHS trade unions’ “best deal in eight years” revealed as a fraud
By Ajanta Silva, 4 August 2018
Health workers are expressing outrage as the truth about the latest union sellout comes to light.
UK minister lies to parliament as debt rises and welfare claimants go unpaid
By Paul Bond, 24 July 2018
By 2022, more than 7 million households are due to move onto Universal Credit, which has a built-in delay period and is paid in arrears after assessment of income.
The NHS 70th anniversary rally in London: A vote of no confidence in Labour and the trade unions
By Paul Mitchell and Robert Stevens, 2 July 2018
Despite their occasional holiday speeches pledging to defend the NHS, neither the Labour Party nor the trade unions have lifted a finger to prevent its evisceration.
“I believe the NHS is the greatest thing about British society”
British workers speak out in defence of public healthcare
By our reporters, 2 July 2018
Socialist Equality Party members and supporters spoke to people attending Saturday’s demonstration marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of the UK’s National Health Service.
Stop the NHS sell-off: Build rank-and-file committees
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (UK)
30 June 2018
No confidence can be placed in the trade unions or the Labour Party to reverse NHS underfunding and privatisation, much less defend the principle of socialised health care.
UK Conservative government proposes tax increases on workers to fund National Health Service
By Ajanta Silva, 22 June 2018
Millions of workers will face large tax increases to pay for any increased funding for the NHS.
UK: Students protest cuts to mental health services and increase in youth suicide rate
By Thomas Scripps, 6 June 2018
As of 2017, one in four adults in the UK each year could expect to suffer some form of mental illness; three quarters of these begin before a person reaches his or her 18th birthday.
NHS FightBack: Reject health trade unions’ sellout NHS pay deal!
Statement by the Socialist Equality Party, 23 March 2018
The agreement between the 12 unions covering workers in the National Health Service was finalised behind the membership’s backs with the Guardian reporting negotiations were carried out “in conditions of strict secrecy.”
UK National Health Service “haemorrhaging nurses” as 33,000 leave in one year
By Benjamin Trent, 12 February 2018
Such is the crisis that the Royal College of Nursing estimates there are now 40,000 vacant nursing positions in the health service.
As thousands demonstrate in London in defence of health care
UK unions and Labour suppress struggle to defend National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, 5 February 2018
Corbyn and his pseudo-left backers are using the prospect of a Labour government reversing the attacks on the NHS to suppress any mobilisation of the working class.
London protesters speak out in defence of the National Health Service
“The Conservatives don’t care how many people die so long as they line their pockets”
By our reporters, 5 February 2018
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to some of those attending Saturday’s demonstration in London to defend the NHS.
The human cost of the destruction of the National Health Service
By NHS FightBack, 3 February 2018
The following statement by NHS FightBack is being distributed today at marches and rallies in defence of the National Health Service in London and other towns and cities.
UK NHS faces further attacks with introduction of “accountable care organisations”
By Jean Shaoul, 30 January 2018
The government’s proposals, introduced at the behest of the private sector, are an import from the American public-private healthcare system.
Virgin Care and other private companies seize another £3.1 billion of NHS contracts
By Ajanta Silva, 15 January 2018
By running down National Health Service-run provision across the country, the Tories have opened up new avenues for private companies to cherry pick lucrative areas.
Britain’s National Health Service is being deliberately brought to the brink of collapse
By Robert Stevens, 6 January 2018
NHS employees now often refer to the conditions they face at work as a “battlefield” or “war zone.”
British National Health Service faces escalating crisis due to chronic underfunding
By Dennis Moore, 5 January 2018
The head of the Kings College hospital trust, one of the largest in the UK, resigned citing the inability of hospitals to provide adequate care amidst soaring demand.
Head of Britain’s NHS demands national roll-out of drunk tanks
By Julie Hyland, 3 January 2018
There is a direct relationship between this orgy of financial parasitism and the explosion of self-medication.
Virgin Care: A case study in how private corporations loot the UK’s National Health Service
By Ajanta Silva, 23 December 2017
The Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group accidentally disclosed a backdoor payment of £328,000 to Virgin Care, owned by billionaire business mogul Richard Branson.
UK government accelerates plans to ration and privatise National Health Service
By Ajanta Silva, 9 December 2017
In his budget, Tory Chancellor Hammond allocated a derisory £2.8 billon for the NHS over the next three years, under conditions in which the combined deficit of NHS trusts alone stood at £770 million last financial year.
UK health care cuts will lead to 100 additional deaths each day
By Margot Miller, 28 November 2017
A landmark study reveals the dirty secret of austerity policies being imposed all over the world: the more money is cut, the more people are sent to an early grave.
Survey of UK nurses exposes staff crisis in National Health Service
By Ajanta Silva, 28 October 2017
214 out of 224 acute hospitals operated without an adequate level of nursing staff during day shifts last October, while 85 percent of them did not have proper staff levels on night shifts.
Youth suicides at a record high in the UK
By Alice Summers, 14 October 2017
Economic and academic pressures on young people are exacerbated by a systemic decrease of funding for mental health counselling.
British Clinical Commissioning Group to slash health services in Dorset
By Ajanta Silva, 11 October 2017
More than 75,000 people signed petitions against the Clinical Service Review, with many thousands across the county participating in protest marches, meetings and gatherings in Dorchester, Poole and Bournemouth.
Britain’s National Health Service being gutted through privatisation
By Jean Shaoul, 1 August 2017
According to the NHS Support Federation, more than one third (£5.5 billion) of £16 billion in contracts awarded by the clinical commissioning groups have gone to the private sector.
UK: More nurses and midwives quit as onslaught against NHS intensifies
By Ajanta Silva, 31 July 2017
The exodus of nurses and midwives takes place amid a broader shortage of 40,000 nurses and 3,500 midwives in England alone.
UK contaminated blood scandal has global dimensions
By Barry Mason, 17 July 2017
The 2,400 who died in the UK are among the tens of thousands impacted worldwide due to profiteering from the sale of infected blood.
UK National Health Service destruction continues with mass land sell-off
By Dennis Moore, 11 July 2017
With NHS trusts being forced to rush through the sale of assets, the only beneficiaries will be those who are buying, including property speculators.
UK: Attack on NHS would continue under Labour government
By Jean Shaoul, 3 June 2017
Labour has made no commitment to reversing £20 billion in NHS cuts imposed by Conservative-led governments so far, or ending them.
The destruction of the National Health Service and the role of NHS FightBack
By Jean Shaoul, 8 May 2017
World Socialist Web Site writer Jean Shaoul responds to a series of questions posed by a student journalist regarding the Socialist Equality Party’s NHS FightBack campaign.
Health workers and residents in Bournemouth speak out against health service cuts
By Ajanta Silva, 1 May 2017
The following are interviews from some of those who have spoken to NHS FightBack during its campaign to oppose redundancies and the slashing of services in Bournemouth and the county of Dorset.
Bournemouth health workers attend NHS FightBack meeting against redundancies and cuts
By our reporters, 27 April 2017
Management has been able to impose the job losses in Bournemouth only due to the treachery of trade unions.
UK adult social care system on verge of collapse
By Dennis Moore, 25 April 2017
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics found that the suicide rate for care workers is now twice the national average.
UK nurses in online vote over strike in protest at low pay
By Margot Miller, 22 April 2017
Registered nurses earn an average of just £23,319 per year and had their pay kept up with inflation they would now earn £26,584.
Private ward opened in UK National Health Service in Bournemouth Hospital
By Eric Gauld, 21 April 2017
While boasting about its new private ward, the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has, since 2010, shut down several wards in Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals.
Attend NHS FightBack meeting in Bournemouth
UK: Oppose health care cuts, redundancies and privatisation of the National Health Service
Statement by NHS FightBack
11 April 2017
Health workers and all those who want to fight in defence of the NHS must build a new leadership, which fights on the basis of a socialist programme.
Occupational therapist and service user condemn attack on Bournemouth Intermediate Care Team
By Ajanta Silva, 11 April 2017
A resident said, “The loss of this team should be of grave concern to everybody in Bournemouth.”
UK: Demonstration in Leeds opposes attacks on the National Health Service
By our reporters, 3 April 2017
Those organising the Leeds protest offered a political amnesty to the unions and Labour.
UK: Protesters at Leeds demonstration denounce attacks on National Health Service
By our reporters, 3 April 2017
The WSWS and the NHS FightBack campaign interviewed some of those protesting in defence of the National Health Service in Leeds Saturday.
UK: Health workers denounce attacks on Bournemouth Intermediate Care Service
By our reporters, 1 April 2017
Many workers in BICS, Bournemouth Council and at Bournemouth and Poole hospitals responded enthusiastically to an article by the NHS FightBack campaign, calling for a struggle against redundancies.
UK: Bournemouth Intermediate Care Services axes staff
By Ajanta Silva, 22 March 2017
The discharging of staff in Bournemouth is a sign that further decimation of services are on the horizon in 44 areas throughout England.
UK: Up to 250,000 protest attacks on National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, 6 March 2017
Speakers on the main stage, including trade union officials and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, offered no strategy to fight the onslaught against the NHS.
NHS protesters ask: “Why have we got money for war? Where is the money for our NHS and schools?”
By our reporters, 6 March 2017
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to a number of those attending Saturday’s protest in defence of the National Health Service.
UK: The fight to defend the NHS means building a new socialist party
Statement by NHS FightBack
4 March 2017
The following statement by NHS FightBack is being distributed at today’s London demonstration in defence of the National Health Service.
UK: Rising mortality rates and rationing across the National Health Service
By Jean Gibney, 3 March 2017
Many seriously ill patients in the UK are being denied drugs and treatments due to increased drives for cost efficiency.
Behind the UK government attack on “health tourism”
By Richard Tyler, 24 February 2017
The government announced it is seeking to recover £500 million a year from overseas visitors for health treatment.
Patient at Britain’s Newham Acute Day Hospital launches campaign to fight closure
By our reporters, 18 February 2017
The hospital, opened in 2000, has been the lifeline for thousands of people who suffer from mental health problems.
UK: Privatisation and cuts agenda exacerbates NHS staffing crisis
By Ajanta Silva, 13 February 2017
Junior doctors repeatedly stressed the implications of understaffing in hospitals during their industrial action last year.
UK: Spending cuts deepen crisis in NHS mental health services
By Jean Gibney, 9 February 2017
Government cuts to mental health services in Britain have produced a situation where there is enormous demand with little capacity to meet the need.
Millions face dire consequences of rundown of Britain’s National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, 16 January 2017
More than 20 hospitals have raised alerts that they can no longer provide basic services to the public, as the British Red Cross said the NHS faces a “humanitarian crisis.”
Death toll mounts as UK National Health Service deliberately destroyed
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 9 January 2017
Having set the NHS up to fail, the government and the media will inevitably insist that the NHS must be made more efficient through the closure of “failing” services and privatisations.
Britain’s National Health Service being prepared for privatisation
By Barry Mason, 28 December 2016
The Sustainability and Transformation Plans prepared by National Health Service bosses are aimed at ending universal health care.
Huge increase in hospital admissions for malnutrition in Britain
By Jean Gibney, 17 December 2016
Three million people are at risk of malnutrition, with 7,366 of these admitted to hospital with the condition between August 2014 and July 2015.
Dire situation in UK social care for the elderly
By Dennis Moore, 1 December 2016
Local authorities agreed to help just under half of the 6.6 million people who approached them for help.
UK government accelerates privatisation of National Health Service
By Ajanta Silva, 17 November 2016
Since the Health and Social Care Act was introduced in 2013, private firms have won National Health Service clinical contracts worth £5.5 billion.
British Medical Association officially winds up junior doctors dispute
By Robert Stevens, 12 November 2016
Everything was done by the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee to limit the doctors’ struggle and isolate their strike, even as it had widespread popular support.
UK: Dorset NHS management pushes health cuts amid growing opposition
By Ajanta Silva, 1 November 2016
Dorset’s NHS management aims to downsize two major A&E departments, children units, maternity units and more than a half a dozen community hospitals delivering inpatient care.
UK: NHS official suggests GP surgeries “be allowed to fail and wither”
By Ajanta Silva, 22 October 2016
In September, 2,000 patients were left without a doctor after a surgery was closed in Nottingham following an “inadequate” regulatory rating.
The pseudo-left’s role in the defeat of the British junior doctors’ struggle
By Robert Stevens, 3 October 2016
The Socialist Workers Party sowed illusions in the trade unions and the Labour Party at every juncture in the junior doctors' struggle.
British Medical Association sells out struggle of UK junior doctors
By Robert Stevens, 29 September 2016
The isolation and defeat of the doctors' struggle is the result of the collective efforts of the entire labour and trade union bureaucracy.
New offensive against National Health Service after cancellation of junior doctors’ strike
By Ajanta Silva and Paul Mitchell, 20 September 2016
Demands are being made for greater cuts to the National Health Service, including rationing and privatisation.
UK: North Manchester National Health Service Trust struggling to cope
By Dennis Moore, 13 September 2016
A recent health care quality report raised serious concerns over the lack of adequate staffing in a number of different departments.
055 Crisis of NHS in Northwest England
12 September 2016
British Medical Association calls off junior doctors strikes
By Robert Stevens, 8 September 2016
The junior doctors have been isolated by both the trade unions and by the Labour Party, with a key role played by party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
UK doctors struggle escalates with announcement of 20 days of strikes
By Robert Stevens, 3 September 2016
The scale of the industrial action to be taken by junior doctors working in the National Health Service is without precedent in modern times.
UK: Further National Health Service hospital closures and cuts to be imposed
By Liz Smith, 3 September 2016
A recent House of Commons Select Committee report found the National Health Service to be in a state of near collapse and hinted that in the future patients might have to pay for services.
UK junior doctors defiance of government contract curtailed by BMA
By Tony Robson, 24 August 2016
The Conservative government intends to enforce a revised contract—which has already caused five nationwide strikes and was overwhelmingly rejected in July—on junior doctors.
UK: Dorset health services to be slashed to reduce deficit
By Ajanta Silva, 16 August 2016
Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group claims it is facing a £200 million deficit by 2021.
UK National Health Service forced to the brink of financial collapse
By Margot Miller, 8 August 2016
The NHS has been instructed to make savings of £22 billion by 2021, on pain of fines and takeovers by regulators.
UK: National Health Service cardiac units to be cut
By Margot Miller, 25 July 2016
The cuts will reduce from 13 to 10 the number of units in the country dealing with congenital heart disease—a condition that mainly affects children.
Youth deaths highlight growth of UK private mental health services
By Dennis Moore, 22 July 2016
Nine young people have died since 2009 while being treated in private mental health units across the UK.
UK junior doctors vote to reject contract
By Paul Mitchell, 7 July 2016
Junior doctors rejected a contract supported by the British Medical Association union that slashes overtime pay and extends working hours.
Cuts plunge UK National Health Service further into deficit
By Ben Trent, 9 June 2016
The deficit highlights the growing disparity between what the government is spending and the resources required for the population to remain in good health.
National Health Service bosses report calls for a flexible workforce
By Alice Summers, 30 May 2016
The changes would force nurses, paramedics and others to take on increased workloads and do jobs currently carried out by doctors.
UK government retreats on including NHS in free trade deal
By Robert Stevens, 27 May 2016
An amendment to the Queen’s Speech expressed regret that the government did not include a bill that would protect the NHS from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Minnesota nurses demonstrate against health care cuts
By Anthony Bertolt and Matt Rigel, 23 May 2016
Allina Health has demanded nurses give up their current union health care plans and replace them with the company’s more expensive program.
Many UK accident and emergency units closed or downgraded
By Harvey Thompson and Barry Mason, 7 May 2016
The decision to close the Huddersfield A&E unit is related to the terms of the Calderdale Royal Private Finance Initiative agreement, which prohibits its sale or mothballing for another 42 years.
UK junior doctors denounce attack on wages, working conditions
By our reporters, 29 April 2016
WSWS reporters spoke to junior doctors on picket lines and at rallies during this week’s two one-day strikes without emergency cover.
Public support for UK junior doctors strike grows as government insists they must be “defeated”
By Robert Stevens, 27 April 2016
The strike by 45,000 junior doctors in England is the first stoppage in the history of the National Health Service to be held without emergency care being provided.
More than 50,000 junior doctors begin two-day strike in UK
By Robert Stevens, 26 April 2016
Junior doctors have refused to back down in the face of government threats, but the danger is their isolation at the hands of the health unions and the Labour Party.
UK Leave and Remain campaigns seek to exploit fears over future of National Health Service
By Tony Robson, 21 April 2016
The Remain and Leave campaigns are led by parties that have cut NHS and opened up public health care for privatisation.
UK: Thousands march in Leeds to oppose attacks on National Health Service
By Robert Stevens and our reporters, 21 April 2016
The role of Keep Our NHS Public is to ensure that any fight back remains within the stranglehold of the Labour Party and the trade unions.
UK unions agree to implement pay cuts for NHS workers
By Ajanta Silva, 20 April 2016
After paving the way for years of pay freezes and erosion of conditions, the unions have colluded with the government and accepted the 1 percent cap on pay this year and until 2020.
Cost of elderly care increasing throughout the UK
By Dennis Moore, 16 April 2016
In the period from 2004 to 2014, state funding for care of the elderly plunged by a third.
UK junior doctors speak out during latest strike
By our reporters, 8 April 2016
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to junior doctors on picket lines around the country.
Junior doctors face political fight to save National Health Service
By Paul Mitchell, 7 April 2016
Junior doctors have demanded more effective action after Health Secretary Hunt announced he would impose a new contract by August 1.
UK Junior doctors dispute at a crossroads
Statement by NHS Fightback
29 March 2016
The imposition of a draconian contract on 55,000 junior doctors is a test case for restructuring employment conditions for the entire workforce of the National Health Service.
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