This, as Iran threatens escalation in retaliation for USA blockade, by blocking Red Sea trade route that carries another 10-15% of global trade via the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Fingers in ears, head under pillow, while repeat to self - all is well they will soon fold www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

“The robot will see you now” ‘In the UK more than one in three adults report using AI chatbots to support their mental health or wellbeing, feeling less alone and more able to manage difficult emotions as a result.’ www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

This sounds a progressive initiative. Though a little puzzling when 63% of obstetricians and gynaecologists are actually women. www.gov.uk/government/n...

This seems very odd considering how important GPs should be to the government plan for keeping more patients out of hospital and in the community. www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care...

Imagine how pissed Trump will be when Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on mediating peace in the Iran/ USA /Israel war.

This data set shows emergency admissions are around half, more for some trusts, of all hospital admissions. Kings Fund report last year pointed out that emergency admissions have risen by 27% between 2011 and 2023/24. Preventing these is key to improving NHS performance www.gov.uk/government/s...

Almost unbelievable as NHS Trust offers to rent out its radiotherapy treatment rooms to treat private patients. www.hsj.co.uk/finance-and-...

‘Neighbourhood models will depend on staff with the right skills, training and experience to work across organisational boundaries, and these roles are in short supply- for example the number of district nurses dropped by 43% between 2009 and 2024’. www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/un...

“Cancer services are under sustained pressure: demand continues to rise, the case mix is complex and workforce shortages persist across radiology, cellular pathology and specialist nursing” www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

‘The NHS’s challenges are real but they are a result of a decade of underinvestment and choices on how the money is spent, not the funding model itself’ www.ippr.org/media-office...

Comes over as USA grasping at something ‘to do’. Waiting for a country like Iran, that has laboured under sanctions for years, to collapse economically might take a very,very long time against Trump’s very limited attention span and patience- with looming mid-terms www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Yeah. But it that mighty US military that has usually had its arse handed to it by fighters wearing flip flops and armed with little more than a Kalashnikov and a shoulder launched missile. Meanwhile it’s huge fleet is keeping a long distance between it and Iran www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Bit unfair comparing military spending to that on NHS. After all the NHS is working 24/7 365 days a year adding value by treating around 1.6million patients daily. Military is doing what exactly when there is no actual war? Polishing its guns? Practicing war?

Interesting reading the debate on uk military spending. Yet seems the UK had the seventh largest total military spend in the world in 2024- at least according to these figures. That also just about equates to our position in the world’s largest economies. worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...

Partner got to work yesterday in local hospital to find the corridors crowded with patients on trolleys. Winter sickness is no longer the excuse. But maybe increasing levels of substance misuse and poor mental health are now the real underlying reasons for many hospitals being overwhelmed

Good news but how is supply of radiographers and other staff matching up? CDCs been running into problems due to staff shortages. Are the elective waiting lists keeping up with operating theatre capacity and staffing etc as patients more quickly added to waiting lists? www.gov.uk/government/n...

Possibly because many see this as a distracting waste of time and precious NHS resources, that will produce little, if any, added value or patient benefit? Inevitably to be followed by yet another NHS ‘reform’ with any change in government in 4 yrs time www.hsj.co.uk/integrated-c...

This should be an easy win over closer EU ties for Labour government. Seeking safety and security in a large group of friendly neighbours should make sense to majority of voters alarmed at a raving mad Trump stalking the world while wielding a bloody axe www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Flawed pilot analysis for Palantir’s FDP software became basis for introducing it across NHS. Meanwhile the corrupting musical chairs of NHS personnel working for Palantir continues, no doubt very lucratively rewarded. www.bmj.com/content/393/...

But planned significant cuts to staff jobs forced on NHS Trusts in a struggle to reduce budget deficits in line with gov targets will cause much longer term disruption and low staff morale than a 6 day resident doctor strike www.gov.uk/government/n...

The media obsession with oil will eventually be eclipsed by those of hardship and even deaths caused by crop failures, rising food prices and food shortages resulting from the USA/Israeli war on Iran. www.newsday.com/business/ira...

With government priorities to shift care closer to home this report raises concerns about whether there are sufficient structures and support systems in place in the community to prevent people coming to harm www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/cau...

In the late 1970s average rents in private rental sector were equivalent to 11% of average private renter’s income. This had risen to 34% of income by 2024-25, compared to 19% of income on housing costs for mortgagors and 28% for social renters. www.jrf.org.uk/housing/unde...

A bit of cross referencing finds Trusts on government release on gov.uk naming those participating in this programme also appear in Unison survey as overspent and cutting staff. Square that circle. www.hsj.co.uk/emergency-ca...

Report of planned NHS Trusts staffing cuts likely be tip of iceberg as NHS costs rise and budgets come under increased pressure from continuing Middle East war, US/UK pharma deal. Be further fall in NHS staff morale and increased system stress and failure. www.unison.org.uk/news/article...

Good. But a recent report by organisation ‘School Food Matters’ found a critical shortfall between government funding for free school meals and money schools actually need to guarantee nutritious and sustainable school food. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Thousands of carers impacted by unclear government guidance set to have debts reduced, cancelled, or refunded. But it is a ‘review’ process of over 200,000 cases to benefit maybe 25000 carers, so could take a while. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Can see why Trump seems careless of the consequences of this war. When he said “America First” seems he meant his real constituency of investors and Board members on Wall Street ,Hedge Funds, Banks, US arms and oil companies making huge profits from the chaos and misery. www.bbc.com/news/live/cn...

Fourty new and expanded same day emergency care and urgent care centres. Though might ask how they will be provided with long term sustainable staffing and funding in an NHS that is experiencing increasing demand along with chronic workforce shortages and budget deficits www.gov.uk/government/n...

When is a hospital ‘corridor’ not a ‘corridor’? Place temporary partition walls at each end -hey presto!- a new ward. Though still might not have the budget for enough staff to supervise and care for those patients in that new ‘ward’. But can always manipulate the data. www.gov.uk/government/n...

War. Hugely profitable for some www.ft.com/content/7dfb...

Bye bye stupid Tories. Increase arms industry profits at cost of driving up child poverty!? They call that a vote winner?? Not in UK. See war follies of USA - largest and most expensive military on planet. But it is more about huge profits for the arms industry www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Doctors in Beirut hospitals are warning of worsening crisis as supplies run low and Israeli attacks devastate Beirut and surrounding areas reports Al-Jazeera www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

Would that not be the majority of NHS Trusts in England? Would kind of stuff the Palantir project. www.hsj.co.uk/technology-a...

Palantir- creeps deeper and deeper into the NHS and its data www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Affordable and secure energy supply is a top public health and economic issue. Now likely one of the top issues voters will judge this government come election time ( even one in May) Probably why we will just get another short term energy £ giveaway fix- until next crisis

With a UK ‘Energy Security Strategy’ launched in 2024, a similar 2024 Strategy, a ‘British Energy Security Strategy’ launched in 2019 that followed on yet others UK gas storage had reached record low levels in Jan 2026 - on eve of war and even after a 2022 energy crisis! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Increasing numbers of patients attending NHS ED with non-emergency symptoms, like flu. Possibly correlated with poor patient experience in contacting a GP to make an appointment? Easier for many to call NHS 111 then go sit in an ED -or just go straight to their nearest ED?

Health devolution: opportunity or distraction? | Mayoral oversight of NHS ICBs might give cause for concern when consider possibility of some Reform party clown being in charge. But will it reverse the cuts to Public Health budgets over last 10yrs- doubtful www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Might start by banning UK arms exports to Israel that includes parts for F-35 fighters www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

So why does the UK have the highest energy costs in the OECD? Not only holds back economic growth and contributes to inflation but also causes our homes to be outrageously expensive to keep warm. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Not renationalising the energy system? www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-livi...

Emergency Departments are a ‘place of safety’ as defined by the Mental Health Act 1983. But can a mental health patient be kept safe in an ED? This HSSIB report expresses serious doubts www.hssib.org.uk/patient-safe...

Seems the NHS chief data officer is setting out plans to dig Palantir technology deeper into hospitals this coming year. Recall she was the ‘guest of honour’ at the Mandelson founded outfit Global Counsel in 2024. One of their clients was- Palantir. fudzilla.com/nhs-data-chi...

We are in Spring now. Would think corridor care, a standard feature of NHS hospitals nowadays, would disappear with the Winter. But traces, at least, seem to be continuing.

A trial funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and NIHR partnership where lung transplant patients also receive a skin patch from their donor to provide an early warning sign that the lung is being rejected. This could enable early intervention to save lives www.nihr.ac.uk/news/pioneer...

A real story of what the the Public Accounts Committee warned about only last month saying the government and NHS England are not responding to the growing financial crisis in the adult hospice sector with hundreds of beds closing around the country. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Integrating GP and Secondary care is key component of neighbourhood health and 10 yr Plan. But getting primary and secondary care IT to work together be a very difficult job-considering scale of hereditary systems, timescale, lack of funding, IT skills shortage etc www.hsj.co.uk/technology-a...

As expected, Israel scuppers peace talks with their predictable continuation of strikes on Lebanon www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...