Health care systems

Fact checks related to the infrastructure of health care and potential impacts of privatisation

14 November 2024

NHS waiting lists: what you need to know

Our regularly updated guide to NHS waiting lists and waiting times.

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1 September 2023

A patient did not wait in A&E for 36 days

FOI information obtained by Labour contained errors, which made it appear that a patient had waited continuously in A&E when in fact they left the hospital and returned the following month.

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17 July 2023

It does not cost the public £500,000 to train a doctor

It may cost nearly half a million to train a surgeon, but not any doctor, as the former health minister also said. It also does not look likely that almost half of UK doctors later move to Australia o

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11 July 2023

No clear evidence of a significant fall in average waiting times

The health minister Maria Caulfield said that NHS England waiting times were falling “drastically”. The latest data does not support this.

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23 May 2023

Can pharmacists prescribe medicines?

The Pharmacy First service will mean people in England can get NHS prescription medicines for some conditions from a community pharmacy without seeing a GP. But some pharmacists can prescribe already.

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23 January 2023

How many excess deaths are A&E delays causing?

Earlier this month the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimated delays are causing 300-500 deaths a week - but NHS leaders say they “don’t recognise these numbers”.

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22 June 2022

RMT exaggerates money ‘wasted’ on PPE and NHS Test and Trace

Funding the NHS for years would cost far more than the total amount spent—let alone “wasted”—on PPE and Test and Trace during the pandemic.

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9 May 2022

NHS dentists are still operating in Somerset

A headline suggesting otherwise is not accurate. There is a reported shortage of appointments for new NHS patients, however.

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8 December 2021

Lorraine Kelly and her guests were wrong about Covid-19 patients

The majority of people in hospital with Covid are vaccinated—but early reports suggest that the majority in intensive care are unvaccinated.

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13 October 2021

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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