Nick Mann

"If you had the hypothesis that the government was seeking to destroy the National Health Service...all the data that we're seeing are consistent with that hypothesis," said Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health) #NHS ucl.ac.uk/news/headlines…

@4TheGreenBelt @overstretcc93 Yep - already seeing patients who have spent their life savings doing precisely this - it's heartbreaking.

@doctor_oxford Tapping the sign x.com/ExMomentum_NHS…

This week the NHS will undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote, electronic “advice and guidance” from hospital ‘clinicians’ (note, not necessarily doctors), making it even harder for patients to see a hospital specialist. Does this sound part of a plan to genuinely ‘fix’ the NHS, as Wes Streeting vowed he would do so effusively when taking up office - or more like a tactic to ration hospital care by overriding GPs in order to massage the waiting list figures? It is, of course, the latter, an extra layer of bureaucracy that at best will delay patients’ access to the specialist treatment they need, at worse sacrifice those patients on the altar of fake news about “falling” waiting lists. You don’t need me to point out the patient safety risks it potentially entails. We all know that time, in medicine, can be everything. The Royal College of GPs has been crystal clear: “The use of advice and guidance should not be mandated in any area… We have heard reports of risks of delays, with tests being required before any referral, lost messages and staff without appropriate senior clinical oversight handling requests.” The aim, says the Times, is to reduce the number of hospital outpatient appointments by 30 million annually. And the government, in a really quite breathtaking example of political spin, is presenting this as “good” for patients - as though all those people who’ve been waiting years months or even years for the first Rheumatology, Neurology or Orthopaedics appointment they so desperately need are just, you know, malingering. (I recently spoke to a patient with a new diagnosis of multiple sclerosis who’d been waiting over six months to see a neurologist for the first time – simply scandalous.) I believe this is a national health scandal from a government that apparently cares more about good spin than it does about good patient care. If you feel the same, please – please – write to your MP or the Secretary of State and tell them why. Please shout about this online, in the press, anywhere you can. Don’t let this slide. Thank you.

For a glimpse of government policy #NHS 'transformation', I urge you to read this: pulsetoday.co.uk/views/copperfi…

Study shows COVID vaccines decreased heart attacks and strokes. A sweeping analysis of nearly 46 million adult health records has delivered a clear verdict: COVID-19 vaccination sharply lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes, directly refuting persistent claims to the contrary. Published in Nature Communications, the study followed people across England from December 2020 through January 2022. It documented a 10% drop in serious arterial blood clots (including heart attacks and strokes) after the first dose alone. Protection strengthened further with subsequent doses: a 20% reduction among those fully vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech and a striking 27% reduction for AstraZeneca recipients. The researchers were upfront about rare side effects—myocarditis and certain clotting disorders—that can occur shortly after vaccination, but stressed these remain exceptionally uncommon. By comparison, catching COVID-19 itself dramatically raised the odds of major cardiovascular events. Lead co-author Dr. Samantha Ip described the results as some of the strongest evidence yet that the vaccines do more than prevent severe infection: they also confer lasting protection against two of the world’s leading killers. [Ip, S., North, TL., Torabi, F. et al. Cohort study of cardiovascular safety of different COVID-19 vaccination doses among 46 million adults in England. Nat Commun 15, 6085 (2024). doi. org /10.1038/s41467-024-49634-x]

ft.com/content/2d2b1a… Ministers consider triggering the break clause in Palantir's NHS contract. They should. Palantir has no place in the NHS. @JustTreatment @labourlewis

tACP in cardiology writting discharge letters. This is not even funny anymore. U need one of the best portfolios for ST cardiology. but why bother. I dont know how is this not a national scandal. @wesstreeting @MedRegoncall1 @TheBMA @DrNickDalmon @iDrSunny @parthaskar

There is a huge reform coming to medical training In the face of a policy move from many concerned regards doctor-substitution There is also @RCPhysicians elections Voting closes MONDAY @DrLKVaughan is running for Vice President for Education and Training. Will be a vital role going forward Fellows and Collegiate Members, exercise your franchise and cast your vote Don't complain when the opportunity to change things is past. It's YOUR future. Vote for Louella. And of course -the legend that is @DrAsifQasim for Council The RCP becomes a silent observer in the degrading of medicine in the UK Or we have people to change it. YOU choose.

Again, public needs to understand this. These training places are how you get the specialists that patients require for clinics, operations and cancer care. They should not be anything to do with a scrap between unions and politicians - they're necessary.

The UK health secretary, Wes Streeting, has vowed to withdraw promised extra specialty training places unless resident doctors call off their next strike bmj.com/content/392/bm…

@DHSCgovuk prepares to remove need for medical training for @gmcuk listing as ‘qualified’ thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026… via @skwawkbox

The suggested threat from @wesstreeting that additional speciality training posts for doctors could be withdrawn if doctors strike is extraordinary. Medical Consultants, Surgeons, GPs, anaesthetists, radiologists, and psychiatrists have to go through a speciality training post to finish their training. If you cut training posts, you are directly cutting the number of specialists the NHS will have in the future, that patients rely on. So what is being suggested here is essentially this: if doctors strike, the Government may reduce the number of future NHS specialists. That’s what the Health Secretary is suggesting. Doctors do not control how many training posts exist. The Government does. Workforce planning is a Government responsibility. The current bottlenecks, where tens of thousands of doctors apply for a limited number of training posts, were created by workforce planning decisions over many years. We already have a situation where tens of thousands of doctors apply for a limited number of training posts every year while the NHS says it has workforce shortages and patients face long waiting lists. The solution to that problem is obviously to train more specialists, not fewer. Using training posts as leverage in a dispute is not workforce planning. It is political pressure using the future NHS workforce as a bargaining chip. That should concern the public as much as it concerns doctors. Because fewer training posts today means fewer Consultants and GPs tomorrow. Fewer Consultants and GPs means longer waiting lists, overcrowded A&E departments, and worse access to care. Threatening to reduce training opportunities if doctors strike does not solve any of those problems. It just makes the workforce crisis worse. Training the future NHS workforce should never be used as a negotiating tool. bmj.com/content/392/bm…

The GMC was set up in 1858 to protect the public by creating a medical register to distinguish qualified doctors from unqualified ppl Ironically, THEY now are the ones abolishing this by registering non-medically trained ppl as “qualified”?! Then ⬇️ Now ⬇️

@irrespolong @mattster @Molly2323232323 Der. Charlie Massey was promoted from DG Health at DHSC to Chief Executive of GMC in 2016, both under Jeremy Hunt as SoS. First time I've heard Jeremy Hunt described as a "lefty idiot".

@mattster @Molly2323232323 Lefty idiots like you have allowed this to happen. And will continue to allow this to happen. Medicine is done in the UK because of you. Hang your head in shame

The draft GMC Order 2026 consultation just dropped. Buried in it is a fundamental change to who can be awarded a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT). This matters enormously. Let me explain why.

DAUK will be submitting a detailed response. We urge all our members and supporters to do the same. 🔗 gov.uk/government/con…

10/ Eroding its statutory exclusivity to doctors would be a seismic change. The consultation closes 23rd June 2026. Every doctor – and every patient who cares about who holds a CCT – should respond.

9/ Doctors spend 5–8+ years in specialty training after medical school to earn a CCT. It is the gold standard. It means you are trained to consultant level. It underpins the specialist register and consultant appointments across the NHS.

7/ To be clear: there is no explicit government statement that CCTs will be handed to PAs. The consultation frames this in terms of “flexibility” and “modernisation.” But the legal mechanism to do so would exist once this Order is made. That is the point.

6/ On top of this, the draft Order abolishes the specialist register as a distinct statutory entity. Under the new framework, GMC maintains a single register with separate parts for doctors, PAs and PAAs. The statutory guardrails that limited CCTs to doctors are being removed.