COVID-19

 

Interview: James Tugendhat, CEO, HC-One

James Tughenhadt, CEO at UK nursing home group HC-One, joined it in the eye of the Covid storm. As the UK wrestles with the largest healthcare workforce strike in recent history, he sat down with HBI to discuss the importance of investing in staff, and his group's  ongoing response to the staffing crisis. 

What’s behind Europe’s variation in excess death rates in 2022?

In this week's infographics we look at monthly excess death rates across EU countries (plus Switzerland) throughout 2022. Surprisingly, the huge variation in excess death rates between countries is not explained by variations in the number of physicians or nurses per capita, nor in variations in health expenditure per capita, nor in variations in the proportion of private expenditure between countries.

German labs accused of lobbying to profiteer from Covid

A group of journalists from German broadcasting companies Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has accused Germany’s private labs groups of lobbying the government in order to protect their Covid testing profits. 

Interview: Richard Storah, CFO, mydentist

HBI chats with mydentist CFO Richard Storah about the UK-based dental group’s history, its plans for 2023 and beyond, and how he sees the post-pandemic market.

Top 10 EMEA labs groups made almost €8bn extra revenue in 2021

It's no secret that the diagnostic labs sector benefitted immensely from testing during the Covid pandemic. But now that 2021 revenue figures are available for many of the largest groups, it is clear that the scale of the testing windfall has been larger than anyone in the sector imagined.

HBI 2022: Panel sees a rosy future for ophthalmology

Ophthalmology continues to be a big area of investor interest, with considerable scope for consolidation in both healthcare services and also medical devices. As governments in the UK, Finland and parts of Eastern Europe in particular continue to increase outsourcing, the potential to unlock additional private pay services is increasing, and upselling of more complex lenses is on the rise. An expert panel convened at HBI 2022 to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the post-pandemic landscape.

FREE BLOG Did we get Covid vaccination wrong?

There will be many aspects of the world’s response to Covid-19 that will be debated for years to come. Were governments too rash and draconian in their imposition of lockdowns? Or were they too slow and hesitant, costing thousands of lives? Was it appropriate to more or less completely halt elective care for months on end? Or was this unavoidable to prevent hospitals overflowing? Was it right to ban relatives from saying goodbye to their quarantined loved ones, or to effectively put mental health patients in solitary confinement (as happened in many NHS trusts in the UK)? How effective were mandates to wear masks in public places? 

RNA Covid vaccines could have adverse non-specific effects

A new meta-analysis study examining the results from Covid vaccine trials suggests a worrying possibility: that mRNA Covid vaccines, despite protecting against Covid, could reduce the immune system's overall ability to fight infections. On the other hand, the study’s findings also suggest the adenovirus Covid vaccines could have the opposite effect. To many this will sound far-fetched, or even the stuff of conspiracy theory, but University of Southern Denmark’s Professor Christine Stabell-Benn, who led the research, explains to HBI that epidemiologists have known for decades that vaccines can have such ‘nonspecific’ effects and emphasises that regulatory frameworks are in dire need of being updated to reflect this.

Interview: Tim Clover, Rayner

HBI catches up with Tim Clover, CEO of UK-based ophthalmic medical products specialist Rayner, ahead of his appearance as a panellist at HBI 2022. He is excited about the Covid bounceback and hot new tech, but warns new regulations will impact heavily on everyone's costs.

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