Tonight: the NHS under pressure. Hospitals close to the brink. Maternity services struggling to cope. And A&E continuing to bear the brunt of an unprecedented demand on hospital services. Tonight: NHS: Crisis on the Frontline, ITV 2017
Too few beds and not enough staff. ibid.
In England alone there are now over 9,000 fewer beds for patients with mental illness than there were a decade ago. ibid.
Tonight: NHS in crisis: hospitals and staff at breaking point. Patients waiting hours for ambulances and treatment. And the demands for a radical reform. Tonight: NHS Winter Crisis: What’s the Truth, ITV 2018
This year has been quite something else … In response to the crisis 55,000 non-essential operations were cancelled although normal service has resumed this week. ibid.
This winter up to 100,000 patients had to wait at least thirty minutes in the back of an ambulance. ibid.
Tonight: the NHS at seventy. In times of need it’s there with world-renowned healthcare. Sometimes shrouded in controversy the NHS remains much loved … The NHS treats two million patients every thirty-six hours. Tonight: The NHS Saved My Life, ITV 2018
This is a story about the forgotten, the invisible and the most vulnerable amongst us. It’s a programme about the people who often struggle on the margins of society, and who use the NHS again and again. It’s also about the people who care for them. And about a model of care that could revolutionise our NHS. Tonight: Frontline Care: Saving the NHS? ITV 2018
Hand in hand with poverty comes a whole range of social and medical issues. ibid.
Violence and aggression towards front-line NHS staff: why are those who care for us facing daily abuse? And what exactly is being done to protect them? Tonight: NHS: Violence on the Front Line, ITV 2019
The number of assaults on NHS hospital workers has gone up by 15% in the last two years in England alone … Over 63 assaults a day are carried out on hospital staff in England alone. ibid.
Is AI about to revolutionise healthcare? Can robots outperform doctors? The new tech that’s already saving lives. And can robots replace carers? Tonight: Can Robots Save the NHS? ITV 2020
With the Coronavirus pandemic still gripping the world, the NHS is facing its biggest crisis in a generation with issues over treatments, funding and care. ibid.
When can I se my GP? Patients battling to see their doctors. Are some GPs at breaking point? Is the NHS fighting to survive? Tonight: When Can I See My GP? ITV 2023
General Practice has been described as being in a state of emergency. Patients have told us that they are furious at the lack of face to face doctor appointments. And senior GPs say patient safety is being put at risk. ibid.
Paying to escape a seven-million-long waiting list. Record numbers buying healthcare here and abroad. A once simple operation now life threatening after years of waiting. And buying treatment whose delay could cost more. Tonight: Buy Back Your Health NHS v Private, ITV 2023
Millions affected by knee and hip pain. The long wait for treatment. An operation can be life-changing. But is replacement surgery the only option? Tonight: Knees & Hips: Britain’s Biggest Queue? ITV 2023
People desperate for medication. Pharmacies struggling to stay afloat. Frustrations boiling over. So what’s going wrong? Tonight: Pharmacies: The New NHS Frontline? ITV 2024
On average eight pharmacies are closing down every week. ibid.
Yet the World Health Organisation ranks Britain as 18th in the world. The US in in 37th place. Daily Mirror article Emily Cook 14th August 2009
Once public servants were set performance targets they could achieve them in any way they wanted; the old bureaucratic rules could be thrown away and they would become heroic entrepreneurs. Adam Curtis, The Trap II: The Lonely Robot, BBC 1997
James Buchanan, economist: He argued that politicians just like civil servants were hypocrites; the idea they promoted that they were serving the public was a fiction. In reality they too followed their self-interests. ibid.
Faced with the bankers’ argument Clinton agreed, and on taking office began to cut back on his reforms. During his first term, he dismantled much of the welfare structure that had been put in place in the 1930s; he abandoned all his healthcare reforms and cut regulation of business. ibid.
And in the management of society New Labour turned to the mathematical systems that John Major had brought in but on a scale never seen before. They believe that people actually behaved in the way described by the simplified economic model. Performance targets and incentives would be set for everything and everyone. ibid.
Hospital managers proved to be particularly devious. When they were set targets to cut waiting lists, they ordered consultants to do the easiest operations first, like bunions and vasectomies. Complicated ones like cancers were no longer prioritised. And they found other clever ways of getting patients off the list. ibid.
But report after report came out which revealed that this inventive gaming of the system was now endemic throughout the public services. What was supposed to be a rational system was instead creating a strange world in which no-one knew whether to believe the numbers or not. ibid.
18th October 2012: across Britain a hundred cameras are filming the NHS on a single day. On this day more than one and a half million of us will be treated. Fifteen hundred of us will die. Two thousand will be born. The NHS is the largest public health care system in the world. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day I, BBC 2013
She’ll become the third member of her family to have weight-loss surgery. ibid.
Ten people under the age of twenty-four will be diagnosed with cancer today. ibid.
One hundred cameras capturing the NHS as you’ve never seen it before. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day II
Guy’s Hospital: Ann: Bringing her to hospital three times a week for life-saving dialysis ... One of nine people in Britain to receive a new kidney today. ibid.
Dementia: with an ageing population it’s one of the fastest growing diseases in Britain. ibid.
There’s more than one and a half million people in Britain who are dependent on alcohol, and each day the NHS spends over eight million pounds treating alcohol-related conditions. ibid.
Almost every day someone dies waiting for a transplant. ibid.
58-year-old Laura was admitted to Intensive Care three days ago after she was admitted for a brain haemorrhage ... Around half of people with a haemorrhage like this will suffer brain damage. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day III
A fleet of four air-ambulances covers the whole of Scotland. ibid.
Over 50% of all deaths in Britain take place in an NHS hospital. ibid.
Demand for cataract surgery has grown with an ageing population. ibid.
Sally is one of more than three thousand people in Britain who are in the process of changing their gender. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day IV
Roger has had thirty-six operations since his crash. ibid.
Like all surgical patients Agnes has been screened for superbugs like MRSA. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day V
Although cancer remains Britain’s biggest killer, survival rates are better than ever. ibid.
One in six of us is living with some kind of mental illness. ibid.
Nearly 40,000 GPs in Britain treating an ever-growing number of patients. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day VI
Don’t be ridiculous. Sit down. Sit down. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day VII, ambulanceman to sectionable patient trying to jump from ambulance
One in three of us struggles with a sleep disorder. ibid.
The demand for sperm has never been higher. ibid.
Around 282 people will have heart attacks in Britain today. 200 will die. Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day VIII
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is one of thirty-five helicopters on stand-by today across the UK. ibid.
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society’ whether they are worthy of health care. Sarah Palin
I’m not in favour of the Canadian system; I’m not in favour of a British system. That is not what [we] are working on. Let’s find a uniquely American solution. Barack Obama, 14th August 2009
We are the only advanced nation without a national system of subsidized healthcare. Elliott Currie, Crime and Punishment in America
At the beginning of the 20th century Britain’s health was in a sorry state. Life expectancy for men was just forty-eight. Professor Winston: Time Shift: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery, BBC 2012
Childbirth could be life-threatening. What treatment there was had to be paid for by the patient. ibid.
More than 150/1000 would die before their first birthday. ibid.
The moment of birth was an obvious place to start. ibid.
Pregnancy and childbirth was still a major threat to their lives. ibid.
Public laundries. Bath houses. And maternity clinics. ibid.