by Helen Rainbow, Senior Health Researcher The NHS performed badly in another international comparison last week when the Health Consumer Powerhouse Index 2008 placed the UK 13th in a list of the best European health systems. Media reaction focused on...

Our mental health legislation is very similar to that in the UK, the only difference being that it doesn't take half as long to execute. Most police officers in the UK will be familiar with Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, under which you can detain someone who presents a danger to themselves or others, but has not yet comitted a criminal offence. For example, if someone's about to jump off a...

Commenting on today’s World Health Organisation (WHO) report that reveals the shocking health inequalities across the UK, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said: "The stark truth is that after 11 years in government, Labour has failed to tackle the deep disadvantage that scars much of our country and results in growing inequalities in health. "The WHO makes it clear that ...

The only decision to be made about health-care rationing is how we want to control it. Health care has always been rationed. In the UK by waiting lists; by post-code; by luck and by wealth, or, more correctly, lack of wealth. It is different in the USA where health care has been rationed primarily by wealth. Some USA citizens get virtually no health care at all. More recently it has been rationed ...

Over at Wales Online, Lib Dem Welsh assembly member Peter Black, the party’s health spokesman, explains why an holistic approach to health-care is sovital. Here’s an excerpt: Mental health and wellbeing services have historically been under-resourced in Wales and throughout the UK. Such a position is surprising given the incidence of debilitating mental health problems among

The risk was always that compromises would undermine the main goals of the health service reform – and, sadly, that seems to have happened

Americans deserve universal health care like my ailing friend has received in the UK. Yes, really.

Intellect, the trade association for the UK technology sector, welcomes the Department of Health 'Hhealth informatics report' which underlines the vital role that informatics plays in the delivery of health and social care services, both now and in the future.

The support for a Twitter campaign backing the UK health service has little to do with the merits of state-run medicine.

Seven new cases of swine flu were confirmed today in the UK, health officials said. Three adults and four children in England were affected, bringing the total in the UK to 55. Tonight, a school in Middlesex announced that it was to close for a week after one of its pupils was suspected of having swine flu. The Health Protection Agency said Hampton school was planning to reopen on 18 May. The Depa...