Tag archives for NHS
Demonstration To Challenge Palantir Tie-Up With NHS
HUGH SULLIVAN A group demonstration outside the Conquest Hospital next Thursday (1 October) will demand that the NHS terminate their data processing contract with US tech company Palantir. The demo…
EXCLUSIVE: Local NHS Numbers in Recovery?
JAMES PRENTICE An exclusive investigation by the Hastings Independent has revealed sustained improvements in figures for the local NHS trust. These enhancements in service delivery are spread across a broad…
Are Local NHS Services Improving?
A Freedom of Information request by the Hastings Independent reveals some statistical signs of improvement in local NHS health care. Waiting times and the backlog are coming down. Patient to…
New Mental Health Support in Sussex
Christmas and New Year can be a difficult time for many people, so it’s good to know that new resources to help people get the right mental health support have…
Counselling Minus
HUGH SULLIVAN reports on how NHS cuts are set to deplete another mental health service In HIP 263 we reported on the withdrawal of NHS funding from the Eggtooth Project,…
A New GP Service: Private and Remote
HUGH SULLIVAN GPs have been the gatekeepers of the British medical system since the advent of the NHS 75 years ago. Access to medical help should come initially, save in…
Free at the Point of Delivery
Where should we stand on the creeping privatisation of the NHS? The question is topical because the Hastings Independent recently received a request to run an advertisement for a private…
Community Healthcare
MERLIN BETTS considers the advent of social prescribing (part one) Healthcare can be pretty esoteric for the average patient or service user. Even in the age of the internet, hospitality…
Letters: HIP Issue 218
Extraordinary Dear HIP, Thank you for the article An extraordinary life in HIP 214. So lovely to read and keep as a record. I have known Peter D’Arcy Champney for…
Best of Us
By Rosie Brocklehurst I wanted to let local people know about the extremely positive experiences I have had with members of the RMT, ASLEF and RCN nurses. I am a…
Swimming Against the Tide
By Paul McLaughin The Government decision to slash the funding of its Energy Bill Relief Scheme (ERBS), designed to help businesses with spiralling energy costs, is going to cause severe…
Pickets at the Conquest
By Paul McLaughlin Nurses from the Conquest Hospital in Hastings joined with their colleagues in 55 NHS trusts across England last Wednesday (18 January) to strike as part of the…
Hastings Says “Enough is Enough!”
Simon Hester, Chair of Hastings & District Trades Union Council sums up what’s happening in Hastings and nationally. Hastings marches, 19 November 2022. Photo: Paulo Figurelli When multi-millionaire Nadhim Zahawi,…
Heart Surgery Stitch-Up?
Conquest Hospital Loses Out to Eastbourne on Future Despite an outcry by Hastings Borough councillors and more muted objections from within the local medical community, the Conquest Hospital is to…
From Anger to Action
Local nurses vote to join nationwide walkouts By Paul McLaughlin Nurses employed by East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust last week backed their leaders across the country in voting to take…
Council Aims to Tackle Health Inequalities
By Merlin Betts Just last week, Kay Green and Lorraine Murphy started a petition titled – plain and simple – We need help using our NHS. It was addressed…
Ambulance Waiting Times Exposed
Leadership in the service provided by local NHS ambulance trust SECAmb (South East Coast Ambulance Service) was last month branded “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission after an inspection earlier…
Hospital Discharges: Should Do Better
A survey undertaken this year in East Sussex amongst NHS hospital patients shows an almost 50% dissatisfaction rating in respect of their discharge experience. The survey was carried out between…
HEAR… HERE!
By Mark Dimmock Hastings hearing aid users can look forward to a relaunched service this summer from local charity East Sussex Hearing. The pop-in NHS hearing aid maintenance and battery…
Reasons To Be Cheerful
MP Says Vaccine Take-Up Should Mean Holiday Easing Covid-19 numbers – for positive tests, for hospitalisations and for deaths – have all been reported on a sharply downward trend for…
Vaccination Roll-Out:
“Courageous” and “Talent” The Conquest Hospital started its Covid vaccination programme at the end of December. Eastbourne DGH followed suit from 4th January. In each case, first doses were of…
Join Sir Quentin Blake as part of lockdown history
Arts on Prescription aims to link the appropriate Creative Service with NHS, Health Care and Community Services to provide creative reminiscence and confidence-building activities to enhance wellbeing and reduce social isolation.…
Morrisons Fund Mobile Medical Care for Homeless
The St John Ambulance Hastings Homeless Service aims to be accessible, approachable, and inclusive. It supports marginalised members of the community who find it difficult to access the NHS. The…
“No Dates, No Details, No Consultation”
Protest causes a rethink over location of ‘pop-up’ Covid-19 test centre Alternative sites for the ‘occasional’ mobile testing unit, which appeared in the heart of Hastings Old Town, are now…
MP Says No To Protecting NHS
Hastings and Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart was among 340 MPs – 339 of whom were Conservative – who voted against protecting the NHS in post-Brexit trade ; The ‘clause 17’…
Don’t Trade The NHS
By Lucette Davies East Sussex Save the NHS Campaign, which is backed by Labour and Green parties, Trades Councils and People’s Assemblies across Hastings, Rother and Eastbourne, accuses the Government…
COMMENT: True Religion?
Zenos Metevsky comments on fervour for the NHS in the streets of Hastings Bank holiday sunshine lights up the back streets of Hastings – silent, empty and lined with parked…
COMMENT: Banging The Drum…
In common with most people I applaud the bravery and professionalism of all our NHS workers, and not just during the current crisis. As a child of the early 1950s…
Medical Distancing
Media reports have been concentrating, as they will, on the sharp end of the coronavirus pandemic: on hospitalisations, on death counts, on frontline staff supporting positive-test patients, on individual deaths.…
Artist Spotlight
Sue Tilley Sue Tilley’s made an indelible mark on the local arts scene since relocating to Hastings from London in 2017. Her eclectic litany of job titles have included: benefits…
Seeing Through The Fog
A passionate local GP talks about the impact of the Coronavirus on her and her surgery. I was asked to say a little bit about what it’s been like in…
Covid-19 – The Known Unknowns
Kent Barker asks if UK’s East Sussex ‘patient-zero’ shifts the expected Coronavirus epidemic peak. And considers other confusing ; When should we expect the epidemic to peak? The government suggests…
Coronavirus: The Lessons For Climate Change Policy
By Maya Evans In a week when the Coronavirus crisis sent millions into isolation in their homes, and the NHS was braced for an influx of patients, Planet Earth sent…
Nextdoor – Help in Hastings and St Leonards
Among the online apps that have become important during the pandemic, Nexdoor is at the forefront. Unofficial spokesperson for the Nextdoor in Hastings and St Leonards is Dave Smith, who…
HEART Doesn’t Miss a Beat
As I wrote in my previous article (HIP Issue 48: Hastings’ Response to a Crisis), the Hastings Emergency Action Response Team (HEART) has emerged as a galvanising force for action.…
Sport And The Virus
The National Health Service website currently shows, as you would expect, a constantly updated section on the coronavirus pandemic. On other pages it continues to talk up what it calls…
Coronavirus: The Conquest Is “Prepared”
In line with national planning directed by Public Health England (PHE), the Conquest hospital has established a priority assessment pod near its Accident and Emergency Department for patients suspected of…
Our NHS and Our Community
Graham Pearcy wrote eloquently about his experience of the NHS in Poetic Justice and the NHS (Issue 139). It’s interesting how one good experience can make you ‘almost’ question your…
Poetic Justice And The NHS
By Graham Pearcey Things have a way of coming around with something you might mistake for vengeance or poetic justice. In this case it was my pelvis hitting the pavement…
Walk-In Centre
The medical walk-in centre at Station Plaza in Hastings will be kept open, re-styled as a Primary Care Hub and offering from December an “advanced nurse-practitioner-led service”. That is how…