National Health Service, UK - "One in six A&E departments at risk of closure or downgrade"; NHS

From The Guardian - "As many as 33 casualty departments across the UK could be lost by 2021 in an attempt to save £22bn from the NHS’s budget".


BBC News At One, 6 February 2017, broadcast footage of the problems facing Yeovil District Hospital's Emergency Department


AandE in crisis: the state of our hospitals - Royal Blackburn Hospital,  MailOnline


NHS Health Check: AandE waits for January 'worst ever', BBC News


NHS Health Check: Hunt says NHS problems 'unacceptable', BBC News

'Sir Robert Francis QC, who investigated failings in Mid Staffordshire, said the NHS was facing an "existential crisis". However, in an exclusive interview with the BBC, Mr Hunt said the key was to treat more people "at home and in the community" to ease the burden on hard-pressed hospitals. He said there was already a "big transformation programme" under way, but conceded it would take time'.

Hospitals are in state of 'war', government adviser says, The Guardian

Flawed NHS plan to treat OAPs with long-term conditions at home, MailOnline

The NHS is dying in AandE, Mirror

The NHS faces an "existential crisis", The Times

'The NHS faces an “existential crisis” and a repeat of the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal is inevitable, the man who led the public inquiry into the trust’s failings has warned.
Sir Robert Francis, QC, said the government could no longer pretend that the health service was coping. Pressure to cut costs would again lead to the neglect of patients, he added, and public confidence was at risk of collapse...His inquiry...at Stafford Hospital...concluded that bosses  became obsessed with cost-cutting and government targets at the expense of care, with frail elderly patients left without food or water'.

NHS paying locums up to £4,000 for a day’s work, Stand-in doctors accused of ripping off hospitals, The Times  "Stand-in doctors are ripping off cash-strapped hospitals by demanding fees of up to £4,000 a day, an NHS watchdog has said. Hundreds of locums are paid a quarter of a million pounds a year, according to figures seen by The Times. They reveal the scale at which the NHS is “throwing money” at doctors to plug staff shortages. NHS leaders say that locum doctors are pocketing £300 million a year that should be used for treating patients, in their most outspoken criticism yet of high-paid stand-ins".

Hackers attack NHS websites, The Independent