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Found 440 results
  1. Content Article
    There are reports of increasing incidence of paediatric diabetes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study by D'Souza et al. compares the incidence rates of paediatric diabetes during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that incidence rates of type 1 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis at diabetes onset in children and adolescents were higher after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic. Increased resources and support may be needed for the growing number of children and adolescents with diabetes. Future studies are needed to assess whether this trend persists and may help elucidate possible underlying mechanisms to explain temporal changes.
  2. Content Article
    The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry’s work is guided by its Terms of Reference. Four Modules have already begun: Resilience and preparedness (Module 1) Core UK decision-making and political governance (Module 2) Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare (Module 3) Vaccines and therapeutics (Module 4) which started on 5 June 2023. Structure of the Inquiry January 2024 newsletter Every Story Matters Every Story Matters is an online form that asks you to choose from a list of topics and then tell us about what happened. By taking part, you help us to understand the effect of Covid-19, the response of the authorities, and any lessons that can be learned. Find out more and take part.
  3. Content Article
    Missed checks, disrupted care and health inequalities have been revealed in a new report from Diabetes UK looking at the state of diabetes care in England. The report reveals that less than half (47%) of people living with diabetes in England received all eight of their required checks in 2021-22, meaning 1.9 million people did not receive the care they need.  It is calling for urgent action to address the routine diabetes care backlog and prevent avoidable deaths of people living with diabetes.  The report sets out a series of recommendations for how this care crisis can be tackled. It is calling for: A focus on diabetes in the government’s Major Conditions Strategy, including plans to tackle the backlog in diabetes care, reduce health inequalities and provide more support to help people lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes A fresh commitment from the government to implement its stalled obesity strategy in full and without further delay, including restrictions on junk food marketing Commitments in the plans of every Integrated Care Board in England to address the backlog in care, inequalities in access to care and to put type 2 diabetes prevention at the heart of their strategies.
  4. Content Article
    The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact heavily on all our lives and one of the long-lasting, but unanticipated, impacts is the emergence of Long Covid. Whilst many people infected by Covid-19 may fully recover, significant numbers will experience varied, ongoing and debilitating symptoms that last weeks, months or years following the initial infection. This prolonged condition has been given the umbrella term Long Covid. Recognition of Long Covid was accelerated by people-led advocacy groups such Long Covid Support. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that, as of 1 August 2021, 970,000 people in the UK were experiencing self-reported Long Covid. The most recent data from 2 January 2023, shows that this has increased to 2 million people This report summarises the findings of a self-selecting survey of 3,097 people with Long Covid in September and October 2022 on their experiences of work. The TUC and Long Covid Support Employment Group are calling for the government to urgently introduce a range of measures including: Ensure everyone with Long Covid is recognised as disabled under the Equality Act. Many people with Long Covid will already get the protections under the Act but extending Equality Act 2010 protections would ensure everyone is protected by law and entitled to reasonable adjustments that remove, reduce or prevent any disadvantages workers with Long Covid face. This would be decisive action from government to protect those facing the long-term health consequences of the pandemic. Recognising Covid-19 as an occupational disease. This would entitle employees and their dependents to protection and compensation if they contracted the virus while working. Greater flexibility in all jobs. There should be a duty on employers to list the possible flexible working options for each job when it is advertised. And all workers should have a day one right to work flexibly – not just the right to ask – unless the employer can properly justify why this is not possible. Workers should have the right to appeal any rejections. And there shouldn’t be a limit on how many times a worker can ask for flexible working arrangements in a single year. Guidance for employers. The Equality and Human Rights Commission should urgently produce detailed guidance for employers on Long Covid and the types of reasonable adjustments people may need.
  5. Event
    The pandemic struck just over a year after the Long Term plan was published, a year which was designed to lay the groundwork for many of the plan’s commitments. Some of this had progressed, for example new Primary Care Networks were created, but work on delivering many of the plan’s goals had only just begun when COVID-19 arrived. It’s clear that no part of the NHS Long Term Plan has been unaffected by the pandemic. The conference will build on collaboration during the pandemic across government departments, health and care organisations, local government, and voluntary, community and private sector organisations to prevent and mitigate some of the most pressing impacts of COVID-19 on the nation’s mental health and wellbeing and support people who are struggling. Register
  6. Event
    The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted nearly all countries’ health systems and diminished their capability to provide safe health care, specifically due to errors, harm and delays in diagnosis, treatment and care management. “Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for patient safety: a rapid review” emphasises the high risk of avoidable harm to patients, health workers, and the general public, and exposes a range of safety gaps across all core components of health systems at all levels. The disruptive and transformative impacts of the pandemic have confirmed patient safety as a critical health system issue and a global public health concern. The objectives of the WHO event are : provide an overview of implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for patients, health workers, and the general public highlight importance of managing risks and addressing avoidable harm in a pandemic situation discuss implications of the pandemic for patient safety within broader context of preparedness, response and recovery lay the foundation for follow-up work around generating more robust evidence and supporting countries in their efforts to build resilient and safer health care systems. Register
  7. Event
    until
    The Healthier Nation Index (HNI) is Nuffield Health’s annual survey of the nation’s physical and mental health. The HNI aims to understand how people are feeling, how they are managing their own physical and mental health, and explore some of the factors that are impacting the health of the nation. This session run by Public Policy Projects will explore the findings of the HNI and provide useful insights into the issues policymakers and stakeholders within the health sector should be focusing on as we move on from the pandemic and into the ‘levelling up’ landscape.  The findings of this year’s HNI survey show the long-term impact of the pandemic on the nation’s physical and mental health, including how waiting times and the elective care backlog are having a detrimental effect on people’s wellbeing, as well as changing traditional models of healthcare. As we emerge from the pandemic, what lessons can be learned? How can we rebuild the nation’s health? Discussion points 1. What role can prevention and interventions outside the hospital setting play in relieving pressure? The HNI adds to a growing body of evidence which demonstrates that people are finding it difficult to access health services. What role can prevention and interventions outside the hospital setting play in relieving pressure on an overburdened NHS and tackle the elective care backlog?  2. What is the effect of the pandemic on how people use the NHS? What impact are long NHS waiting lists having on mental and physical health? Has the pandemic changed the way that people seek health advice and access healthcare?  3. How can we address health inequalities? How can we widen access to healthcare? Are the ‘Levelling Up’ health missions the right ones to improve the health of under-served populations?  4. What are the opportunities of Integrated Care Systems and Partnerships? As the fledgling bodies are brought into statutory footing in July 2022, what should the new structures be focusing on? Register for this webinar
  8. Event
    In November 2021, the Chancellor announced £5.9 billion in funding to help the UK's health and social care system address the backlog and provide much-needed support to NHS staff and patients. But how are healthcare professionals addressing the NHS backlog for 2022/23? Whilst the future pattern of COVID-19 transmission and the resulting demands on the NHS are unknown, there is an urgent need to increase NHS capacity and resilience to deliver safe, high-quality services that meet the full range of people's health and care needs. Here at National Health Executive, we will be hosting our first online event of the year, NHE365 NHS backlog, on February 17th, 2022. This event will investigate how the NHS will continue to rise to the challenges of restoring services, meeting new care demands, and reducing care backlogs caused by the pandemic. Register
  9. News Article
    The pandemic has had a deep impact on children, who are arriving in A&E in greater numbers and at younger ages after self-harming or taking overdoses, writes Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary. Children are a lost tribe in the pandemic. While they remain (for the most part) perplexingly immune to the health consequences of COVID-19, their lives and daily routines have been turned upside down. From surveys and interviews carried out for the Born in Bradford study, we know that they are anxious, isolated and bored, and we see the tip of this iceberg of mental ill health in the hospital. Children in mental health crisis used to be brought to A&E about twice a week. Since the summer it's been more like once or twice a day. Some as young as 10 have cut themselves, taken overdoses, or tried to asphyxiate themselves. There was even one child aged eight. Lockdown "massively exacerbates any pre-existing mental health issues - fears, anxieties, feelings of disconnection and isolation," says A&E consultant Dave Greenhorn. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 February 2021
  10. News Article
    Maternity staff are facing extreme burnout during the pandemic as staff shortages and longer, busier shift patterns lead to the workforce becoming increasingly overwhelmed, healthcare leaders warned. Senior figures working in pregnancy services told The Independent healthcare professionals are working longer hours, covering extra shifts around the clock, and spending more time on call to compensate for increasing numbers of employees taking time off work after getting coronavirus. Staff say stress-related absences have reached “worryingly” high levels, with junior doctors and midwives “thrown into the deep end” due to having to fill in for colleagues. Professionals argued the coronavirus crisis will lead to a rise in doctors, nurses and midwives suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues – raising concerns staff exhaustion could curb patient safety and standards of care. Read full story Source: The Independent, 31 January 2021
  11. News Article
    Dozens and potentially hundreds of urgent operations for children have been cancelled during the third wave of the covid pandemic, HSJ can reveal. There are also concerns that national guidance for prioritising surgery “disadvantages” young people. Several well placed sources told HSJ that urgent operations for children have been delayed in recent weeks because of covid pressures. This is because of a combination of staff being diverted to help with adults sick with covid, and space in children’s facilities — including intensive care — being taken over for adult covid care, as well as other staff being absent due to covid. The royal college of surgeons has told HSJ that urgent children’s operations “are increasingly being cancelled around the country”. Dozens and potentially hundreds of children’s operations rated as priority two — those which are urgent and should be carried out within a month — have been cancelled and delayed in recent weeks in the capital, according to several well placed sources. This is alongside potentially thousands of priority three operations being cancelled, which are those needing to be carried out within three months. Read full story Source: HSJ, 31 January 2021
  12. News Article
    Cancer services at large hospital trust have been at ‘catastrophic’ risk of being overwhelmed, after two of its hospital sites had to suspend life-saving cancer surgeries in the last month due to COVID-19. In its latest board papers Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust rated the “cancellation of cancer elective activity” at its highest risk level of 25 – which based on their own risk-scoring key is “catastrophic”. It said the expected consequences at this risk level include “permanent disability or death, serious irreversible health effects” and an “unacceptable… quality of service”. The trust runs three general acute hospitals in the county. Its 2,000 plus beds make it the third largest trust in England after University Hospitals Birmingham FT and Leeds Teaching Hospitals. The same board papers, dated 28 January, said cancer surgery at Southend University Hospital, one of three hospital sites run by the trust, “ceased on 24 December”. At a second hospital site, Mid Essex Hospital covid “hit hard just before Christmas” and elective work was “dramatically impacted with short period of life and limb only carried out on site”. This meant all P2 cancer surgery — which requires treatment in less than four weeks — did not take place. Both hospital sites said they hoped the independent sector could help them restart cancer surgeries this month with a focus on “long waiting and clinical urgent patients”. It is not clear how much capacity the sector has to work through waiting lists and the board papers said “some of this capacity may be reduced” because of recent changes to a new national contract for the independent sector. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 January 2021
  13. News Article
    There were 800 fewer cancer surgeries in the first two weeks of January than usually take place during the period, according to provisional data seen by HSJ. The bulk of this reduction came in London and the surrounding counties such as Essex, Bedfordshire, and Surrey. London and the south east have been severely hit by coronavirus pressures, causing widely reported mass cancellations of non-urgent elective surgery. However, the impact on cancer cases has, so far, been less clear. NHS England has insisted in the last week that urgent cancer cases should be given the same priority as coronavirus patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 January 2021
  14. News Article
    The chief executive of a small acute trust has described the “terrifying situation” faced by ambulance crews and hospital staff in trying to provide adequate emergency care as coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the local NHS services. Susan Gilby, of Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust, told HSJ staff are seeing “tragic and potentially avoidable” instances where patients with COVID-19 have reached the emergency department too late. She suggested this is due to a combination of patients waiting too long to call 999, and then having to wait long periods for an ambulance to arrive. Cheshire has been among the hardest hit areas in England during this third wave of coronavirus, with all four of its acute hospitals having very high covid occupancy rates. Dr Gilby, a former critical care consultant, said her trust has been at around 60 per cent covid occupancy for the last fortnight, which has made her increasingly fearful of the difficulties in admitting patients through the emergency department due to a lack of beds. This can then cause knock-on delays for patients arriving in ambulances, and ties those ambulance crews up for long periods, preventing them from responding to further 999 calls. She said ambulance turnaround times had been relatively good at the Countess of Chester, but she had spoken to paramedics handing over patients who were “really struggling” to get to people quickly enough. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 January 2021
  15. News Article
    Smear-test delays during lockdown have prompted calls for home-screening kits. Cervical cancer screening has restarted across the UK - but some women say they will not attend their appointments for fear of catching Covid. Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust is urging "faster action" on home tests for HPV, which causes 99% of cervical cancers. An NHS official said GP practices should continue screening throughout lockdown, and "anyone invited for a cervical smear test should attend". Cancer Research UK said it was not yet known how effective and accurate self-sampling could be in cervical screening. A survey by gynaecological cancer charity the Eve Appeal indicates nearly one in three missed smear tests are the result of people being "put off" by coronavirus. And a Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust survey during the pandemic suggests the same proportion would prefer to take their own human-papillomavirus (HPV) test rather than go to a GP. Acting chief executive Rebecca Shoosmith said coronavirus had added "more barriers" to going for a smear test. "Sadly those who found it difficult before are likely to be no closer to getting tested," she said. "Self-sampling would be a game-changer." Both charities emphasise smear tests are for "women and anyone with a cervix" and transgender and non-binary people may have additional barriers to going. Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust said DIY tests could also help people who had been sexually assaulted and those with disabilities or from backgrounds where smear tests were taboo. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 January 2021
  16. News Article
    There has been a sharp drop in the number of patients admitted to hospitals in England with heart attacks or heart failure in recent months, research reveals. Experts are worried that people who need urgent medical help are not seeking it. This was also the case during the first wave of the pandemic. The researchers included 66 hospitals in the study and compared daily admission rates in the year before the pandemic with those during the first and second waves in England, up to 17 November. During the first lockdown, daily admissions for heart attacks or heart failure decreased by more than 50%. They went up again in the summer, as coronavirus rates decreased in the UK and the NHS became less busy with the virus. From October, when coronavirus cases were rising again, heart admissions began to drop - by between 35% and 41% compared with pre-pandemic data, according to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researcher Prof Chris Gale, from Leeds University, said: "Medical emergencies do not stop in a pandemic. I am afraid that we are seeing a re-run of one of the preventable tragedies of the first wave - people were either too afraid to go to hospital for fear of contracting COVIDd-19 or were not referred for treatment." "The message to patients needs to be clear. If they experience symptoms of a heart attack or acute heart failure, they need to attend hospital." Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 January 2021
  17. News Article
    NHS bosses have instructed hospitals to keep performing urgent cancer surgery despite Covid pressures, after a growing number cancelled procedures because they did not have enough intensive care beds or available staff. They have told England’s regional directors of cancer to ensure treatment of people who need cancer surgery within four weeks gets the same priority as care of patients who have Covid. The move was unveiled in a letter, obtained by HSJ, sent last Friday by Amanda Pritchard, the chief operating officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement. It was also signed by Cally Palmer, the NHS’s national cancer director, and Prof Peter Johnson, a highly respected specialist who is the NHS’s national clinical director for cancer. They have acted after unease among cancer specialists that growing numbers of hospitals, including all those in London, had cancelled urgent operations. Hospitals have felt obliged to do so either because they did not have enough intensive care beds for patients who might need one after their cancer procedure or because surgical staff had been repurposed to help care for Covid patients. Doctors voiced alarm at the scale of recent postponements of what the NHS classes as “priority two” operations. That means they should be done within 28 days to ensure that someone with cancer does not see their disease spread or become inoperable because it was delayed. More than 1,000 cancer patients in London are now waiting to have “priority two” or “P2” urgent surgery, but none have been given a new date for when it will happen, HSJ reported last week. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2021
  18. News Article
    Nearly a quarter of a million people have been waiting more than a year for operations and other hospital procedures, HSJ has learned. Official NHS England data for November, released on Thursday, showed 192,000 patients had been waiting for treatment for more than a year. However, figures leaked to HSJ of weekly data up to 3 January showed a steep increase to 223,000 patients — the highest reported so far throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and before. According to the leak, just under 4.2 million people are waiting for treatment, of which year-long waiters comprise 5.4%. The data also showed 175 patients across England had waited more than two years for treatment. In February, before the pandemic, 1,613 patients were waiting more than a year — meaning there has been a 138-fold increase. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 January 2021
  19. News Article
    Patients are missing out on potentially life-saving organ transplant surgery because hospital intensive care beds are filled by coronavirus patients, The Independent has learnt. Major organ transplant centres in London, as well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, have been forced to close their doors to transplant cases because of a lack of beds, the increased risk to patients, and the need to redeploy doctors and nurses to the coronavirus front line. The impact on organ transplant services follows hundreds of urgent cancer operations being delayed in London and across the country, as NHS trusts run out of spare beds to treat non-Covid patients. Most routine operations have also been stopped in the hardest-hit areas. Teacher Shona McFadyen was diagnosed with liver cancer in December 2018 and needs an urgent liver transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. She has already waited 22 months for her surgery. She told The Independent: “It’s not the hospital’s fault. I get that. But it just adds to the feeling of hopelessness and it feels like as patients we have been forgotten about. It is life and death for us.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 13 January 2021
  20. News Article
    More than 1,000 people needing urgent cancer surgery in London have no date for their treatment, HSJ can reveal. A document leaked to HSJ showed that, at the end of last week, more than 1,000 of London’s cancer surgery patients without an appointment date were defined as P2 (priority two), meaning they needed to be seen within four weeks or risk their condition worsening. The report seen by HSJ also showed more than 300 P2 patients had their surgery postponed in the past week, a statistic NHS England London has so far refused to disclose. Hospitals in the capital are facing their highest-ever COVID-19 occupancy rates, with surgical lists at many trusts being cancelled. Meanwhile, a separate NHSE London document reported in the press this week revealed: “Most NHS Green sites [those cancer surgery sites intended to be covid-free to avoid risk to very frail patients] are now compromised with only a limited number of cases being undertaken in NHS sites this week”. The papers also said the current plans to increase indepedent sector capacity usage were “insufficient to offset the NHS shortfall”, and noted there was a two week lead-in time to move patients into private hospitals “based on clinical rotas, theatre bookings, [and] patient isolation”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 January 2021
  21. News Article
    Thousands of women have had abortions after falling pregnant while having difficulties accessing contraception during the pandemic, healthcare providers have warned. Sexual health clinics have been forced to shut or run reduced services while staff are transferred to work with Covid patients or have to self-isolate – with the profound disruption leaving many women unable to access their usual methods of contraception. Many women are struggling to get the most effective long-acting contraceptive choices of a coil or an implant due to these requiring face-to-face appointments which have largely been suspended as consultations are carried out remotely via phone or video call to curb the spread of COVID-19. British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK's largest abortion provider, told The Independent they provided the progestogen-only contraceptive pill to almost 10,000 women undergoing an abortion between May and October last year. Katherine O’Brien, a spokesperson for the service, said: “Many of these women will have fallen pregnant after struggling to access contraception, so there really is a huge unmet need for contraceptive services which will only worsen as lockdown and Covid continues. “We routinely hear from women during the pandemic who simply can’t access their regular method of contraception because of clinics closing or staff being deployed elsewhere or staff self-isolating.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 January 2021
  22. News Article
    Some trusts in London and the South East are closing standalone birth centres and warning they cannot support home births because of high levels of demand for ambulance services from covid patients. Women in East Sussex who planned to give birth at Eastbourne District General Hospital and Crowborough Birth Centre have been told they need to go to other units. Both Eastbourne and Crowborough have standalone midwife-led units and women who have a difficult labour would need to be transferred by ambulance to another hospital. Both East Sussex Healthcare Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, which run the services, cited pressure on the ambulance services as the reason for the closures. The trusts, both of which are served by South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, have also suspended support for home births. Services are continuing at a similar birthing unit at Maidstone Hospital, with private ambulances transferring women to Tunbridge Wells Hospital if needed. However, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust has posted on Facebook to warn women the situation may change and it is monitoring ambulance response times to determine “the safety of our out of hospital birthing choices”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 6 January 2021
  23. News Article
    Hundreds of people a day across London are waiting hours for an emergency ambulance to get to them, as paramedics warn that patients are dying as a result of delays. Patients in emergency calls classified as category two, such as those involving a suspected stroke or chest pains, should be seen by paramedics within an average of 18 minutes but are being forced in some cases to wait up to 10 hours. Even life-threatening calls where patients are in cardiac arrest and should be reached within seven minutes have experienced delays, with data suggesting one such call was waiting 20 minutes on Monday. Internal data shared with The Independent shows that London Ambulance Service is holding hundreds of open 999 calls for hours at a time with the service’s boss acknowledging in an email to staff that the service is struggling to maintain standards. Experts warned that the problems in the capital were reflected in ambulance services across the country. One paramedic told The Independent: “Patients desperately requiring ambulances aren’t getting them and, anecdotally, people are deteriorating and dying whilst waiting. Our poor dispatchers have to stare at screens of held calls, working out who gets the next available resource and who waits, suffers or dies.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 5 January 2021
  24. News Article
    Potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients. King's College Hospital Trust has cancelled all "Priority 2" operations - those doctors judge need to be carried out within 28 days. Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country. And surgery has not been stopped on the same scale as during the first wave. Rebecca Thomas, who has had her bowel cancer surgery at King's College Hospital "cancelled indefinitely", told the BBC she felt like she had been left "in limbo". Until she has surgery her tumour cannot be studied to see how aggressive it is, and so she won't know until then how significant this wait will turn out to be. A spokesperson for the Trust, which mainly serves patients in south London, said: "Due to the large increase in patients being admitted with COVID-19, including those requiring intensive care, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone all elective procedures, with the exception of cases where a delay would cause immediate harm. "A small number of cancer patients due to be operated on this week have had their surgery postponed, with patients being kept under close review by senior doctors." Read full story Source: 5 January 2021
  25. News Article
    NHS leaders are holding fresh talks with private healthcare groups to try to secure surgery for urgent cancer patients in London, as the covid-19 second wave causes hospitals in the capital to make widespread cancellations, HSJ understands. In recent weeks, pivotal independent sector providers have declined to do the procedures for the payments on offer. In the spring covid peak, the NHS block-booked private capacity in London, but now only small, spot contracts are in place for this work. Under the previous deal, rules meant low-priority private patients could not be treated ahead of NHS patients who needed surgery urgently. But now providers can prioritise their private patients as they see fit. HSJ understands NHS England, under pressure from the Treasury, was not willing to pay the prices asked by the three private providers. As London NHS hospitals continue to fill with covid patients, particularly in critical care, they are able to do few cancer procedures beyond the most urgent category, P1, and are suspending many procedures in the lower categories, including P2, sources said. P2 is defined as patients who need treatment within four weeks. One senior clinical manager in the city told HSJ on Monday: “Cancellations [are] rife. We have stopped almost all operating in our elective hub apart from P1 [patients assessed as needing surgery within three days]. “The independent sector has not opened up capacity and lifestyle operations [are] still planned [in private hospitals].” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 January 2021

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