NHS pressures

This claim about maternity units closing is misleading

Half of the NHS trusts in England that responded to an FOI were forced to close at least one of their maternity units temporarily in 2017.

Accident and emergency: attendances and performance

In 2017 there were 23.6m A&E attendances in England. Recent years have seen more targets missed and longer waiting times than previous years.

Are there 100,000 vacancies in the NHS?

There are a limited number of working visas available to non-EEA citizens. This means some international doctors have reportedly been denied them.

Could 18 million GP appointments be seen by pharmacists?

GPs think some appointments could be dealt with by pharmacists. We don’t have enough evidence to confidently say how many could be.

NHS: More beds, more doctors, and more flu vaccines?

The number of hospital beds is falling but the number of doctors is going up.

More people, more (NHS) problems?

Both the UK’s population and average life expectancy has increased since the founding of the NHS.

Are 40% of nurses leaving full-time work in their first year?

15% of new full-time nurses left full-time work in the year May 2016 to May 2017.

Is the term 'NHS winter crisis' becoming more common?

What does a crude search for articles containing both NHS and “winter crisis” in a newspaper database tell us about use of the term?

Election 2017: what the parties haven’t told voters

Full Fact factchecks what the parties do say. Often what they haven't said matters even more.

Are there one million people in hospital with nowhere else to go?

We’ve asked for the source of this claim, but it seems to be incorrect.

Cancer care waiting times

An NHS target for the proportion of cancer patients being treated within 62 days of referral is being missed. In January the proportion meeting the target was the lowest since it was introduced in 2009. The rest of the targets were all hit.

Are there more nurses on our wards?

We don’t have figures specifically for the total number of nurses on hospital wards.

Hospitals: safety versus quality

The Prime Minister and leader of the opposition clashed over the number of hospitals which are unsafe and how many are good or outstanding during Prime Minister’s Questions. We factchecked their claims.

Are patients going to A&E instead of GPs?

It was estimated in 2010 that between 10% and 30% of cases attending A&E were of a type that could be seen by a GP.

Has the number of people using mental health services increased?

Changes to the way these figures are gathered means we don’t know for sure how the number of people accessing mental health services has changed between 2010/11 and 2014/15.

Is there a shortage of maternal mental health services?

Figures show that 39% of CCGs have no community mental health provision for pregnant or new mothers.