Around 1,500 NHS Direct jobs are likely to be cut as Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced plans to close down many of its call centres, after NHS Direct won contracts to deliver NHS 111 in one-third of the country, which would require only 850 full time staff to provide the service. NHS 111 is the new service for people who need fast medical assistance but it’s not a 999 emergency….

Researchers associated with the University College Hospital have revealed that hundreds of young girls are undergoing ‘designer vagina’ surgery on the NHS. The researchers, led by Dr Sarah Creighton, have expressed their apprehension over this trend as there isn’t a ‘lower age limit’ for the surgery. The researchers have asserted that the demand for ‘designer vagina’ surgery may be increasing on account of misleading information on the Internet, usually provided…

The NHS will make available two breakthrough drugs for skin cancer treatment Ipilimumab and vemurafenib, after a reduction in the drug prices by their makers led to the approval by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the health watchdog. To deal with skin cancer melanoma which kills 2,200 a year in Britain, NHS is making available the two life-extending drugs. Skin cancer melanoma is malignant, and if not…

Breast cancer screening in the UK conducted by NHS, for which more than 2 million females are invited every year, is going to be reformed as the invited females are to be provided with more data now about the possible troubles of being tested. Professor Sir Mike Richards, the national cancer director, has remarked that screening had become a zone of contentiousness. An autonomous review, established to ascertain whether the…

Sir Richard Branson’s foray into the NHS via his Virgin Care Ltd could be halted next week as his bid to administer children’s health and social care services in Devon is challenged at the High Court. Lawyers representing a mother, whose handicapped kids utilise the health and social care services in Devon, are requesting a judicial review of the decision, adopted in July this year, to name Virgin Care Ltd…

The Labour Conference 2012 has witnessed Andy Burnham pledging to overturn the quick privatisation of NHS hospitals in England if Labour wins the 2015 UK elections. The Shadow Health Secretary has accused the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition of risking the decimation of the NHS character that PM David Cameron had initially vowed to safeguard. The Andy Burnham speech to the Labour Party Conference in Manchester consisted of a warning that some…

A four-star hotel constructed specially for hospital patients, built and funded by University College London Hospital’s charity, has opened in London. Cotton Rooms, as it has been christened, is the first of its kind in the NHS located near Tottenham Court Road. The 35-bed hotel includes all the comforts of a good hotel with complimentary services such as fluffy towels, slippers and internet access.

More than 60% NHS nurses have to clean toilets and mop hospital floors over and above their patient care duties reveals a survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistant conducted by Nursing Times. Over 50% NHS nurses complained about the cleaning services for their ward and 20% said their hospital trusts had made cuts to cleaning services in the last year.

A second man succumbs to Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh last night, report health officials at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. The 41-year-old man from Gorgie was admitted with severe symptoms of the infectious disease and was among the first patients to require hospital care, according to sources. Reportedly, the number of people suffering from the pneumonia-like infection has reached 41 while 48 Brits are suspected to have contracted the infection. Ironically,…

The British Social Attitudes Survey reported that patients’ confidence in the NHS has fallen from 70% to 58% last year, recording the biggest slump since the survey began almost 30 years ago. The gloomy figures were unveiled yesterday as Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary, warned the British Medical Association to halt next week’s industrial action over pensions. The King’s Fund, which started funding the survey after the coalition stopped commissioning it in 2011, held the government’s health reforms and the funding squeeze on the…