A paper published in PLoS One by Dr Min Hua Jen and colleagues (including myself) in PLoS One investigated the commonly held assumption that early August is an unsafe period to be admitted to hospital in England, as newly qualified doctors start work in NHS hospitals on the first Wednesday of August. We found evidence that this might indeed be the case and that patients admitted on this day have a slightly higher death rate in English hospitals compared with patients admitted on the previous Wednesday. This finding needs further investigation to understand why it is present, whether it is real, or somehow an artifact of the data. The article was widely featured in the media, including the BBC and Guardian.
NHS budgets are under considerable pressure. It is therefore unsurprising that many NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) In England will aim to prioritise price in contract awards, But this approach is a significant threat to community-centred healthcare. While competitive tendering is a legally required, an excessive focus on costs in awarding NHS contracts risks overshadowing key factors such as established community trust, local expertise, and the long-term impact on continuity of care. This shift towards cheaper, often external, commercial providers threatens to cut the links between communities and their local health services. The argument that competitive tendering is solely about legal compliance, and not cost, is undermined by the very nature of such tendering, which by design encourages the lowest bid. This approach risks eroding the social fabric of local healthcare provision, where established relationships and understanding of specific community needs are essential. Establishe...
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