Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Adequate investment needed to rescue NHS: Chaand Nagpaul

The chief of one of UK's leading medical associations has urged prime minister Boris Johnson to ramp up funding for the country's state-run health service, warning that without adequate investment, the crisis-hit National Health Service will not be sustainable and access to quality care will be reduced to an unacceptable level.

Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), has issued a two-page memo for Johnson, who earlier this month was elected as prime minister after a landslide poll win and had made a commitment to invest in the National Health Service (NHS).


According to The Sunday Times, his memo warns that government''s NHS election pledges will not be enough to rescue it from crisis because there will still be a funding black hole of £6.2 billion a year by 2023-24.

The figure is based on an analysis conducted by the BMA that says an extra 4.1 per cent rise annually in health spending is needed if the NHS is to survive.

The government has said it will raise the funding by 3.4 per cent a year.

"Without adequate investment the NHS will not be sustainable, and patient access to quality care will be reduced to an unacceptable level," Nagpaul said.

Johnson had vowed during his election campaign to invest heavily in the health service and set out a more detailed agenda last week with a promise to protect in law a £20.5 billion-pound in annual NHS spending by 2023-24.

He has also pledged to deliver a 50,000 net increase in the number of nurses and promised to create 50 million more general practitioner (GP) appointments every year by recruiting an extra 6,000 family doctors.

"While your pledges to increase workforce numbers reflect the dire situation, they fail to reflect the realities of recruitment and the time it takes to train new clinicians," said Nagpaul, himself a GP based in London.

He warns that a decade of underfunding has resulted in a "dire situation" for the NHS, including hospital bed numbers at a record low and staff working in an "intolerable climate of stress".

The ruling Conservatives have come under criticism for failure to deliver on a previous pledge in 2015 to recruit an extra 5,000 GPs.

A new post-Brexit NHS visa is among some of the measures announced by Johnson in his new government's agenda, which is designed to make it easier and more attractive for qualified overseas doctors and nurses from countries like India to be brought in to address the NHS shortages.

More For You

F-35B jet

The UK has agreed to move the aircraft to the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at the airport.

Indian Air Force

F-35B jet still stranded in Kerala, UK sends engineers for repair

UK AVIATION engineers are arriving in Thiruvananthapuram to carry out repairs on an F-35B Lightning jet belonging to the Royal Navy, which has remained grounded after an emergency landing 12 days ago.

The jet is part of the HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group of the UK's Royal Navy. It made the emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport on June 14. The aircraft, valued at over USD 110 million, is among the most advanced fighter jets in the world.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ahmedabad air crash
Relatives carry the coffin of a victim, who was killed in the Air India Flight 171 crash, during a funeral ceremony in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ahmedabad crash: Grief, denial and trauma haunt families

TWO weeks after the crash of Air India flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad, families of victims are grappling with grief and trauma. Psychiatrists are now working closely with many who continue to oscillate between denial and despair.

The crash occurred on June 12, when the London-bound flight hit the BJ Medical College complex shortly after takeoff, killing 241 people on board and 29 on the ground. Only one passenger survived.

Keep ReadingShow less
Starmer apologises for 'island of strangers' immigration speech

Prime minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at The British Chambers of Commerce Global Annual Conference in London on June 26, 2025. (Photo by EDDIE MULHOLLAND/AFP via Getty Images)

Starmer apologises for 'island of strangers' immigration speech

PRIME MINISTER Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he was wrong to warn that Britain could become an "island of strangers" due to high immigration, saying he "deeply" regrets the controversial phrase.

Speaking to The Observer, Sir Keir said he would not have used those words if he had known they would be seen as echoing the language of Enoch Powell's notorious 1968 "rivers of blood" speech.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sir Sajid Javid leads commission 'tackling social divisions'

Sir Sajid Javid (Photo by Tom Nicholson-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Sir Sajid Javid leads commission 'tackling social divisions'

A cross-party group has been formed to tackle the deep divisions that sparked last summer's riots across England. The new commission will be led by former Tory minister Sir Sajid Javid and ex-Labour MP Jon Cruddas.

The Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion has backing from both prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. It brings together 19 experts from different political parties and walks of life.

Keep ReadingShow less
​Masum

Masum was seen on CCTV trying to steer the pram away and, when she refused to go with him, stabbed her multiple times before walking away and boarding a bus. (Photo: West Yorkshire Police)

West Yorkshire Police

Habibur Masum convicted of murdering estranged wife in front of baby

A MAN who stabbed his estranged wife to death in Bradford in front of their baby has been convicted of murder.

Habibur Masum, 26, attacked 27-year-old Kulsuma Akter in broad daylight on April 6, 2024, stabbing her more than 25 times while she pushed their seven-month-old son in a pram. The baby was not harmed.

Keep ReadingShow less