NHS

Why can’t firefighters double as paramedics?

12 September 2015 9:00 am

Our firefighters have less and less to do. So why shouldn’t they help overstretched ambulance services?

To defend the NHS, stop health tourism

15 August 2015 9:00 am

Speaking after the Stafford hospital scandal in 2010, the then newly appointed Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, grandly announced plans for…

My local hospital is ‘listening to its staff’ – but not, apparently, the patients

15 August 2015 9:00 am

Surely it can be no coincidence that the road by which one enters St George’s Hospital, Tooting, is called Effort…

Watch your backs, everyone: I haven’t slept for three years

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Insomnia has a lot to answer for. I have not been sleeping well for years but a few months ago…

Customer surveys: just say no

27 June 2015 9:00 am

Against the customer service Q&A

The humiliation that turned Andy Burnham from Blairite to union man

20 June 2015 9:00 am

Andy Burnham is the Labour establishment’s choice as the next party leader. So why does he feel like an outsider?

Spectator letters: Allan Massie on the FBI; Christopher Booker on graffiti

13 June 2015 9:00 am

The long arm of the FBI Sir: The White House may be less willing than it was to play the…

Portrait of the week

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, toured Europe trying to gain support for reforms to favour Britain’s position in the…

Treat the NHS as a religion, and you give it the right to run your life

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Don’t drink, don’t smoke, keep fit, die young

The big fat myths of our ‘obesity epidemic’

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Obesity isn’t soaring, and it doesn’t strain the NHS

Portrait of the week

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in…

The importance of selective inefficiency

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Readers of a certain age may remember choosing a cassette player in the 1980s. In theory the process was simple:…

After Miliband’s ‘tablet of stone’ stunt, I may just spend election day in the pub

9 May 2015 9:00 am

You have the advantage over me. You know the result of the general election, whereas I do not — a…

The over-75s are being asked if they would like to sign their own death warrants

9 May 2015 9:00 am

It’s more than four months now since my 75th birthday, but I’m still waiting for a ‘cold call’ from the…

Spectator letters: England’s defining myth, and another forgotten genocide

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Enemies within Sir: I thought Matthew Parris was typically incisive in his last column, but perhaps not quite as much…

Portrait of the week

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…

David Starkey’s diary: Why don’t we celebrate the triumphs of private dentistry?

18 April 2015 9:00 am

To the dentist. And for an extraction. I hadn’t had a tooth out in decades. But the twinges when I…

Call me insane, but I’m voting Labour

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Quite often when I deliver myself of an opinion to a friend or colleague, the reply will come back: ‘Are…

Portrait of the week

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Home Tony Blair, the former prime minister, opposed a referendum on membership of the EU. In a speech at Sedgefield…

The Heckler: down with the actor-commentariat!

4 April 2015 9:00 am

I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…

Andy Burnham interview: 'I wanted a different approach, because I'm mainstream Labour'

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Andy Burnham on the NHS, ‘mainstream Labour’ and his party’s leadership

If you really love the NHS, you know it needs to change

7 March 2015 9:00 am

To adapt Aeschylus’s aphorism on war and truth, the first casualty in a general election campaign is objectivity. Over the…

My life in ailments

7 March 2015 9:00 am

My request to see my medical notes was granted in the end. I honestly don’t know why I wanted to…

Let Greece leave the eurozone

21 February 2015 9:00 am

To listen to Greek government ministers addressing the outside world during their breaks from negotiations with eurozone leaders this week,…

To reform the NHS, use the politics of envy

7 February 2015 9:00 am

‘Let’s make the rich pay more.’ Does that sound so right-wing? To me it has a positively socialist ring. It…