NHS pressures
Fact checks about waiting lists, unpaid overtime and availability of health care services
Health minister claims contract yet to be awarded has been ‘procured’—then denies she said it
Maria Caulfield told Parliament that an ambulance service support contract was “procured”—not that “we are procuring” it, as she later claimed. NHS England says this contract has not yet been …
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Survey of GPs’ retirement plans is not reliable
The GPs who responded were the ones who knew about the survey and chose to participate—who are not necessarily representative of GPs as a whole.
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Two doctors with same name cause Times letter confusion
A social media post incorrectly claims that a letter written to The Times was from a doctor who died in 2016.
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Daily Mail report on GPs seeing fewer patients on Fridays needs more context
There are some important caveats to figures showing GP appointments drop off later in the week.
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Has the NHS had its budget reduced by £30 billion?
Labour claims that the Budget took £30bn out of day to day health spending, this is true if you include the withdrawal of last year’s Covid money.
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Mirror claims NHS staff work 11 hours unpaid overtime on average but it’s probably more like two hours
NHS staff survey data suggests the average respondent in 2019 worked around two hours unpaid overtime. Even this should be taken with a pinch of salt.
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The Mail’s diabetes front page needs context
Type 2 diabetes sufferers make up one in 10 hospital admissions in England but a small fraction were admitted for type 2 diabetes as the main diagnosis.
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How many migrants have registered with GPs in the last decade?
6.5 million migrants have joined GP surgeries in the decade from 2007, but not all of them are here long-term and some were double counted.
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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.
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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.
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