Face-to-face with Javid

It’s sticks and carrots from the Health Secretary as he attempts to boost face-to-face surgery appoinments.

Richard Sloggett: The doctor won’t see you now. Why the Government needs an urgent plan for primary care.

Speaking to a Conservative MP, his view of the biggest issue facing the party was simple: ‘access to a GP’. His mailbox was filling up.

WATCH: Double-vaccinated NHS staff do not have to self-isolate – Zahawi

The vaccines minister says it’s not necessary for NHS workers to self-isolate even if they are pinged by the test and trace app.

After three by-elections and before tomorrow’s Covid announcement, here are five big challenges for Johnson

The further the act of leaving the EU recedes, the more 2019’s Tory voters will move on – as two recent by-elections reminded us.

Cem Kemahli: Vaccination would be even more of a success were it not for problems with data

The borough, GPs and the NHS knows that the figures are wrong. But without someone to clean the information or update the systems, we will struggle.

Adam Holloway: Vaccine queue jumping is happening – and costs lives

End the scandal of the young and healthy getting in ahead of the old and sick because of special favours.

Resham Kotecha: Integrated community care is already here: it’s called the pharmacy

It’s been estimated that they have the capability to vaccinate about 1.3 million Brits each week, and their services go beyond that.

Ryan Bourne: Ministers must speed up the pace of vaccination. Here are some ways of doing so.

Government sometimes treats the constraints fatalistically, rather than seeing them as a problem that prices, incentives, and regulations could affect. 

Desmond Swayne: Same old Assisted Dying plan, same old unresolved problem – that it would put the vulnerable at risk

From medical prognoses through doctors’ assessments to non-existent codes of practice, the proposal lacks reliable safeguards.

Richard Holden: Access to cash. Here in County Durham, it matters to voters. Sunak should help to guarantee it.

For many in my community – particularly those on tight budgets, pensioners, and people trying to manage their way out of debt – cash is what they live by.

Why the obsessive focus on new tax rises when we need proper spending control – in the form of a real zero-based review?

The Treasury should hold one as the year rolls on, along the lines of that undertaken by Canada’s government during the 1990s.

Matt Oakley: Hancock’s tech revolution is key to reducing mental ill health among NHS workers

Digital silos are slowing NHS staff down, causing unnecessary stress, and creating huge inefficiencies and security issues at the heart of the service.

Chandra Kanneganti: The Coronavirus challenges I’ve seen as a doctor and a councillor

Death is not a statistical data point, and the loss of life of a mother, a father, a child, and a key worker can never be filled.

Paul Bristow: The biggest challenge for our NHS may still lie ahead, but it’s also an opportunity

A national effort led by the Government is required to clear the backlog of operations and treatments. We can do this.

Raghib Ali: The harms of lockdown are exceeding the gains – especially when it comes to school closures

Neither the Covid-19 recovery plan nor SAGE’s minutes indicate that a formal “health cost-benefit analysis” has been done. We need one.