Wes Streeting: Progress on NHS delays as private insurance soars January 22, 2026 Employer-provided health insurance coverage has reached a 30-year high, with 4.8m people now covered, as businesses ramped up employment benefits amid the NHS backlog. UK health insurers paid out a record £4bn in 2024, averaging £11m every day, according to new figures by the ABI. Despite NHS data showing that the waiting list fell by [...]
Sack Streeting, cabinet ministers urge Starmer January 17, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has faced calls from cabinet ministers to follow Kemi Badenoch’s playbook and sack health secretary Wes Streeting for disloyalty. Ministers are becoming increasingly frustrated about Streeting’s forthright public criticisms of the Labour party, with some privately accusing him of putting his leadership ambitions first and “attacking No 10”. One cabinet minister told [...]
AI to help NHS tackle super flu and A&E delays December 28, 2025 Hospitals across England are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce waiting times for patients. The tool, part of the government’s AI exemplars programme, is already in use by 50 NHS organisations. The forecasting system analyses hospital admissions, historical data, weekly trends, and Met Office temperature forecasts to identify likely peak periods. This allows hospitals [...]
Physician associates union: BMA pay demands ‘unsustainable’ December 2, 2025 The British Medical Association’s “obsession with unsustainable pay demands” is pushing other areas of the health service to the brink, as resident doctors gear up for a third strike this year in the lead up to Christmas. According to the trade union representing physician associates, a range of more junior medical staff are being effectively [...]
Reeves criticised over lack of action on ballooning clinical negligence costs in Budget November 27, 2025 A leading medical defence organisation has criticised the Chancellor for missing the opportunity to tackle the ‘eye-watering’ NHS clinical negligence bill. In a statement following the Budget, Tom Reynolds, director of policy and communications at Medical Defence Union (MDU), explained that the “current system has led to legal fees ballooning to nearly four times the [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves pledges local NHS care and £300m tech boost November 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves today unveiled a major NHS shake-up in her Autumn Budget, promising faster, local treatment and a tech-driven productivity boost. “We will renew our national health service”, Reeves claimed, highlighting a dual approach aimed at cutting waiting times while modernising frontline services. At the centre of the plan are 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres, [...]
Resident doctor strike turnout is down, NHS chief says November 16, 2025 Strike turnout is down, the chief executive of the NHS has said, as resident doctors continue their five-day action over pay and conditions. Sir James Mackey said there are “some really encouraging early indications” that fewer resident doctors are striking than in any of the previous 12 rounds of industrial action. Medics in England walked [...]
NHS woes fuel private healthcare boom, with lawyers reaping the rewards November 13, 2025 Private healthcare in the UK is experiencing unprecedented growth as NHS waiting lists soar and public services struggle to keep up. This surge in demand is also fueling a flurry of legal activity, keeping lawyers busy. Deals lawyers in the UK are generally the busiest and most important practices for most law firms; however, with [...]
‘We all have to do our bit’ – Reeves primes Brits for tax hikes November 4, 2025 Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out hiking taxes on millions of Brits as she said everybody will have to “contribute” to fix the UK economy. At a speech on Tuesday, the Chancellor said this year’s Budget would look to address the low productivity, curb inflation in order to prompt fresh interest rate cuts and [...]
Productivity crisis deepens as public sector continues to stutter November 3, 2025 Public sector productivity has dropped at its fastest rate in nearly three years, according to fresh official figures that lay bare the government’s multi-year struggle to revive the efficiency of the country’s creaking public services. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed total productivity at state-owned bodies fell by 0.7 per cent year [...]