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Emergency pneumonia cases surge to half a million a year in England

The number of people requiring emergency care for pneumonia has risen by a quarter over two years to reach more than half a million cases, new figures show, amid warnings that preventable cases are adding pressure on overstretched A&E departments.

Analysis of the most recent NHS England data from between April 2024 and March 2025 found that there were 579,475 cases of pneumonia requiring emergency hospitalisation, and this was likely to have risen further since, according to the charity Asthma + Lung UK. There were 461,995 cases between April 2022 and March 2023.

Pneumonia is the single biggest cause of emergency admissions and is responsible for more than double the number of cases of the next biggest. It can also be deadly: between April 2022 to March 2025 more than 97,000 people died of pneumonia after ending up in hospital.

Dr Andy Whittamore, the clinical lead at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “These alarming figures are the result of respiratory care being neglected and deprioritised for too long.

“Following recommended basic care guidelines for respiratory conditions can save and transform lives. I’ve seen first-hand with my patients the dramatic effect good basic care has on reducing hospital admissions.

“However, too often we’re not getting the basics right and the result is increasing A&E and hospital pressures, rising healthcare costs and people with lung conditions left to deteriorate without support.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2026

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Mental health hospital paid millions by NHS facing police probe after patient death

A mental health charity that receives £206m a year to care for NHS patients is facing two police probes after the death of a patient and alleged assault of another, The Independent can reveal.

The privately run St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, which provides more than 400 inpatient beds for patients with brain injuries and mental health conditions such as eating disorders and psychosis, was investigated for alleged corporate manslaughter after a man died there in February 2025. Five people were arrested, but four have since been released with no further action. One person remains on bail for alleged wilful neglect by a care worker.

In a separate police probe, eight care workers have been arrested on suspicion of wilful neglect and ill treatment following allegations of assault made on a patient in July 2025.

The latest investigations come after another corporate manslaughter inquiry, following the death of a teenage girl at the hospital in October 2024, which led to one person being arrested.

Northampton Police said the Crown Prosecution Service had since decided no further action would be taken in that case, and the person arrested had been released with no further action. A report on the incident will be prepared for the coroner ahead of an inquest.

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Source: The Independent, 30 January 2026

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Hospitals ‘must be more curious’ to catch rogue surgeons

Rogue surgeons could be harming patients across England because hospital bosses are unwilling to challenge them, the head of the NHS has warned after the Great Ormond Street scandal.

Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, said he was worried hospital trust boards were not “curious enough” about the standards of care in their hospital and too willing to trust unreliable performance data.

He was responding to revelations last week that almost 100 children were harmed by Yaser Jabbar, a paediatric surgeon, at the world-famous Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The scandal has prompted NHS England to write to medical Royal Colleges warning of “emerging evidence” of more widespread harm from surgical negligence.

Asked directly about the GOSH report at a parliamentary event on Thursday, Mackey said: “Nearly everything that’s gone wrong in my career, from a clinical point of view, lots of people have known about it. But the organisation responsible hasn’t been connected with them [surgeons], curious enough, listening enough, or been acting on it.

“It does come back to the board doing its job, individuals being curious, being willing to challenge, being willing to go to places that they don’t want to go.”

He added: “One of the things we want to really try and do in our work is restore the necessity for boards to have good oversight but also deploy curiosity carefully. Because often behind these things you see a very serious lack of curiosity and acceptance at face value of data, which I’ve learnt in my career you can’t ever do. The data’s poorer now than it’s ever been.”

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Source: The Times, 31 January 2026

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Hospital disruption continues after fire

A fire at Southampton's main hospital has led to more than 200 patients being evacuated from wards and operations cancelled.

A major incident was declared after the blaze broke out in the endoscopy unit, in the west wing of Southampton General Hospital, at about 05:30 GMT.

The hospital said the fire had been contained and no-one had been injured, adding that patients in all affected areas were evacuated to safe areas elsewhere on the site.

In a statement just after 16:30, the hospital said the impact was "significant" with a number of planned operations on Monday being cancelled.

It said: "As part of the emergency response, our staff moved more than 200 patients to other areas of our hospital where they are being cared for.

"Our focus continues to be safe patient care and moving them to other wards and departments across our site."

The statement added: "The impact of the fire has been significant and will limit our ability to fulfil all planned activity tomorrow [Monday]."

Patients were moved to safe areas, including inside the main entrance of the hospital.

Some could be seen in their beds in the hospital's main lobby, which is usually busy with members of the public.

Following the fire, the hospital said its emergency department was diverting patients away unless their condition was life or limb-threatening.

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Source: BBC News, 1 February 2026

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'I get nightmares': Child tells BBC of botched surgery by disgraced GOSH surgeon

A former patient of Yaser Jabbar has spoken to the BBC about his experience with the limb reconstruction surgeon when he was just six years old.

"We saw some mistakes on my leg and we realised something happened wrong", 12-year-old Vivaan Sharma said.

An investigation, published by London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) into Jabbar, found widespread evidence of unacceptable practice in the botched operations he carried out.

Jabbar worked at the hospital between 2017 and 2022, providing care to 789 children – 94 of them came to harm, GOSH's report concluded.

"We had to have even more surgeries and more surgeries... this is stuck for life, I've got so many scars on my leg", Sharma shared.

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Source: BBC News, 31 January 2026

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‘Deadly postcode lottery’ restricting new cancer treatments in England, doctors say

Cancer patients are being denied access to cutting-edge treatments on the NHS because of a “deadly postcode lottery” in access, doctors have warned.

Patients in England are missing out on two innovative forms of radiotherapy that are known to be effective against several forms of the disease and are widely available in other countries, due to “red tape” and lack of funding.

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and Radiotherapy UK want Wes Streeting to use the government’s new cancer plan, being published this week, to make them widely available.

They are urging the health secretary to end what they say are “bureaucratic hurdles” that NHS England imposes, through its complex funding and commissioning policies, on hospitals that want to provide stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and molecular radiotherapy (MRT).

Unlocking the potential of the novel treatments would help improve cancer survival, which is poor in Britain by international standards, both organisations said.

Dr Nicky Thorp, the RCR’s vice-president for clinical oncology, said: “A number of innovative cancer treatments exist and are known by cancer doctors to be effective, but they are in only limited use in the NHS in England.

“This means that some cancer patients are missing out on treatments that cancer specialists know are effective and which could treat their cancer in fewer doses with fewer side effects.

“Doctors want to do our best for our patients, so it is incredibly frustrating for us to be in a situation where some patients aren’t getting access to the full range of treatments that are proven to help tackle cancer.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 February 2026

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NHS patients put at risk by ‘sham investigations’, says ex-CEO of hospital

Patients are being put at risk by NHS bosses launching “sham investigations” into whistleblowers to shut down concerns, a former hospital chief executive who won a £1.4m bullying claim has said.

Dr Susan Gilby took over as chief executive at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2018 after it was rocked by the Lucy Letby case. She was awarded the payout – one of the biggest in NHS history – last month after a tribunal ruled she had been unfairly dismissed after raising concerns about alleged bullying and harassment by the chair of the hospital board.

An employment judge found that board members of the hospital conspired to unfairly exclude her and deleted documents when she launched legal action.

Speaking to the Guardian, Gilby said she had been “traumatised” by the experience and made to feel like a “pariah in the NHS” for refusing to drop her concerns in return for a “non-job”.

“I feel desperately saddened that my NHS career has come to an end in the way it has. It’s had a really deep psychological impact [and] probably taken at least 10 years of working life away from me,” she said.

“It’s been very isolating. People walk away when they realise you’re not willing to play by the NHS playbook and accept the offer to get you out of the situation. Doing that has resulted in being made to feel that I’m a pariah in the NHS.”

Tribunal judges found that Ian Haythornthwaite, the chair of the Countess of Chester hospital NHS foundation trust, worked with three other senior figures to “engineer her dismissal” after Gilby raised a whistleblowing complaint about his “bullying and harassment”.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 February 2026

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My mentally unwell son killed his father. Then the NHS failed us

Tricia Monro places two thick folders on the table with pages of psychiatric evaluations, timelines and dozens of emails asking for help for her son. For years she had been trying to catch him as he fell through the cracks of the mental health system.

She had been warned not to be alone with him, but relented when he asked to have a bath at her house in Hampshire in February last year. What she did not know was that he had just fatally stabbed her ex-husband, Peter, 73.

She said she still “cannot believe” how the tragedy has torn her family apart. “I don’t for a moment excuse what he has done, and I accept that he has to be punished,” she said, adding: “It’s a very lonely place being the parent of a child whose mental health has been deteriorating.”

In December Christopher “Kit” Monro, 30, of Oxford, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 12-year term for the murder of his father.

The family believe it could have been prevented if NHS Oxford mental health services and other authorities had better heeded their pleas for help. Instead, his mother says she was left in the dark about issues concerning her own safety and felt failed by those in charge of his care.

Their intervention comes as a public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks in 2023 by Valdo Calocane continues to expose severe failings in the care of dangerous psychiatric patient.

A report commissioned after the murder depicts Monro’s mother as “reluctant” to become involved in her son’s care. She is appalled by that characterisation, detailing her repeated attempts to warn the NHS about Monro’s mental state. “I was anxious, and a lot of times uncomfortable, but I stepped in because there was no one else,” she said.

Monro's sister Lara described attempts to blame her mother, 70, who works for a charity, as “diabolical”. She said: “There was a series of red flags raised in the lead-up to this tragedy. My brother was let down by those whose job it was to support him.”

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Source: The Times, 29 March 2026

 

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Trust to review claims of multiple cases of patient harm by surgeon

A trust is investigating the work of one of its former consultants amid claims the cases of “significantly more than 50 patients” he treated at its main site and a local private hospital should be reviewed for potential harm, HSJ has learned.

South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation Trust said it had “liaised” with the nearby Spire Washington Hospital to review patients it may need to contact who were operated on by orthopaedic surgeon Leslie Irwin.

Mr Irwin carried out work at both the trust and the local private hospital, where he also treated NHS-funded patients. The emergence of an investigation into Mr Irwin first emerged earlier this month.

And a law firm acting for patients involved has now told HSJ that it believes “significantly more than 50” patients will need to be investigated.

It said the vast majority of the patients involved were NHS-funded. HSJ understands that those cases treated at the private hospital were mostly referred in by STSFT and that a significant number of the relevant procedures were carried out at the trust.

The firm, Slater and Gordon, said it had already received a “significant” number of enquiries, which were “increasing by the day”. In one case, a woman in her 40s underwent 30 procedures over two decades, the firm said.

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Source: HSJ, 29 January 2026

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Streeting: Safety agency will be integrated into ‘failing’ CQC carefully

The health secretary has said the government will approach integrating the NHS’s “successful” safety watchdog into the “failing” Care Quality Commission with “enormous care”.

Speaking at the launch of the Global State of Patient Safety 2025 report in the House of Lords this week, Wes Streeting addressed the recommendations made by NHS England chair Penny Dash in her review of the regulatory bodies involved in patient safety. These included subsuming The Health Services Safety Investigations Branch into the CQC.

Mr Streeting said: “I want to reassure everyone here and beyond that as we proceed with [the Dash review’s recommendations], particularly the integration of HSSIB into the CQC, that we will do so with enormous care.

“The last thing I want to do is to take a successful organisation, merge it with a failing organisation, and to do so would be to the detriment of both.”

HSSIB – originally styled the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch – was established in 2017 while Sir Jeremy Hunt was health secretary to conduct independent investigations into patient safety incidents across the NHS in England.

Maternity investigations were removed from HSSIB’s remit in 2023 and put into the CQC, as the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme.

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Source: HSJ, 30 January 2025

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USA: More than 75 health systems call for stepped-up oversight of patient data sharing

More than 75 health systems sent a letter to federal officials calling for stronger oversight of nationwide data sharing networks, flagging issues with "bad actors" gaining access to patients' medical information.

The health systems, including AdventHealth, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, The MetroHealth System, NYU Langone, UMass Memorial Health, Stanford Health Care and Sutter Health, are calling for more centralized oversight and governance for the nationwide health data exchange frameworks, including the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) and Carequality.

The letter, addressed to The Sequoia Project CEO Mariann Yeager and Steve Posnack, deputy assistant secretary for technology policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), calls for stepped-up safeguards for data sharing include more rigorous oversight and governance of who gets access to patients' medical information, better monitoring for fraud and more transparency into network activity.

The organizations argue that self-attestation and decentralised oversight, which is the current process, is not sufficient to safeguard patient data. Health systems want more established rules of the road and stronger protections to prevent fraud on the networks. 

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 29 January 2026

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AI use in breast cancer screening cuts rate of later diagnosis by 12%, study finds

The use of artificial intelligence in breast cancer screening reduces the rate of a cancer diagnosis by 12% in subsequent years and leads to a higher rate of early detection, according to the first trial of its kind.

Researchers said the study was the largest to date looking at AI use in cancer screening. It involved 100,000 women in Sweden who were part of mammography screening and were randomly assigned to either AI-supported screening or to a standard reading by two radiologists between April 2021 and December 2022.

The AI system worked by analysing the mammograms and assigning low-risk cases to a single reading and high-risk cases to a double one by radiologists, as well as highlighting suspicious findings to support radiologists.

Mammography screening supported by AI reduced cancer diagnoses in the years after a breast screening appointment by 12%, according to the research, published in The Lancet. There were 1.55 cancers per 1,000 women in the AI-supported group compared with 1.76 cancers per 1,000 women in the control group.

More than four in five cancer cases (81%) in the AI-supported mammography group were detected at the screening stage, compared with just under three quarters (74%) in the control group, and there were also almost a third (27%) fewer aggressive sub-type cancers in the AI group compared with the control.

Dr Kristina Lång, from Lund University in Sweden and the lead author of the study, said that AI-supported mammography could help detect cancers at an early stage, but that there were caveats.

“Widely rolling out AI-supported mammography in breast cancer screening programmes could help reduce workload pressures among radiologists, as well as helping to detect more cancers at an early stage, including those with aggressive subtypes,” Lång said.

“However, introducing AI in healthcare must be done cautiously, using tested AI tools and with continuous monitoring in place to ensure we have good data on how AI influences different regional and national screening programmes and how that might vary over time.”

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Source: The Guardian, 29 January 2026

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Small risk of severe acute pancreatitis with weight-loss jabs, UK regulator warns

Patients on weight-loss jabs and diabetes injections should be aware there is a small risk of developing severe acute pancreatitis, the UK medicines regulator has said.

About 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used GLP-1 medication, such as semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), between early 2024 and early 2025 to lose weight, according to recent research.

Patient information leaflets for Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro list pancreatitis as an “uncommon” reaction, affecting about one in 100 patients.

Acute pancreatitis occurs when the pancreas, a gland located behind the stomach that aids in digestion, becomes suddenly inflamed. Symptoms include severe pain in the abdomen, nausea and fever, with patients often ending up in hospital.

While acknowledging that pancreatitis is rare, on Thursday the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) updated its guidance, after an increase in reports of acute pancreatitis to the agency’s yellow card scheme, which monitors any adverse reactions to medications and medical devices in the UK.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 January 2026

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USA: The AI tools actually improving patient safety

Nursing informatics leaders say the most meaningful patient safety improvements tied to AI in nursing workflows so far have come from mature, predictable decision-support tools — while more experimental applications, including generative AI, remain largely unproven at the bedside.

Marc Benoy, BSN, RN, chief nursing information officer at Summa Health in Akron, Ohio, first cautioned that the term “AI” is often applied too broadly, obscuring critical differences between traditional predictive analytics, embedded machine-learning models and generative AI — each with distinct risk profiles, governance needs and levels of clinical maturity.

At his organisation, generative AI is not currently operationalised in bedside nursing workflows. Any measurable safety gains have instead come from established decision-support tools and predictive risk scoring embedded in the electronic health record.

“When implemented well, they can support safer care by reinforcing consistency, reducing variation and nudging standardized actions in safety-sensitive workflows,” Mr. Benoy said, emphasising that such tools remain supplements to, not replacements for, clinical judgment.

Because these systems behave predictably, he said, they can be validated, monitored and governed over time — a key requirement in evidence-based nursing practice. By contrast, he warned that opaque or poorly understood AI tools can unintentionally shift cognitive burden back onto nurses, introducing new safety risks rather than reducing them.

He also pointed to operational constraints, noting that successful implementation requires staffing, informatics capacity, capital investment and sustained governance — resources that many health systems lack, particularly when returns on newer AI initiatives remain uncertain.

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Source: Becker's Health IT, 29 January 2026

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One in four school leavers have higher cancer risk because they skipped this vaccine

One in four UK students leaves high school without the protection of the HPV vaccine, putting them at higher risk of several cancers, experts have warned.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)’s latest data for the 2024/25 academic year shows that although uptake has remained steady since last year, a quarter of students are still missing the jab that can give vital protection against cervical, mouth and throat cancers.

The report found that year 10 students in England had an HPV uptake of 75.5% for girls and 70.5% for boys, well below the pre-pandemic rates of around 90%.

Regionally, the uptake for year 10 students was the lowest in London (with 61% for girls and 56.9% for boys) and the highest in east England (82.8% for girls and 78.2% for boys).

Dr Sharif Ismail, UKHSA consultant epidemiologist, said: “The HPV vaccine is one of the most effective cancer-preventing vaccines available. Now, just a single dose given in school, it protects against cervical cancer and several cancers caused by HPV that affect both boys and girls, helping to save thousands of lives and the terrible stress on families.”

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Every child deserves protection against cancers caused by HPV, and it's concerning that too many young people are leaving school without this vital vaccine.

“I'd urge any parent whose child has missed their HPV vaccine not to wait – speak to your GP or local NHS service today.”

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Source: The Independent, 29 January 2026

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Trust's maternity care 'exemplary', say inspectors

A hospital trust has seen "widespread improvements" in its maternity and emergency care after being told to improve by inspectors.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out unannounced visits to check on improvements it told the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust to make previously.

Inspectors visited maternity services at Furness General Hospital, Westmorland General Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and urgent and emergency services at Furness General Hospital and Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

All maternity services were rated "good" with staff providing "exemplary care", going "above and beyond to ensure women and their babies were well cared for", they said.

In maternity services, inspectors said women were given the opportunity to speak to staff at Royal Lancaster Infirmary about their birthing experience, especially if the experience was not what they had wanted or expected.

Maternity staff at Westmorland General Hospital actively listened to information about women who were most likely to experience inequality in care outcomes and supported their treatment, the CQC said.

People attending A&E at Furness General Hospital scored above average in the national patient survey for how staff communicated with people and how they were treated with dignity and respect.

Chris Storton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-west of England, said: "We were encouraged to see widespread improvements across maternity care.

"We saw staff providing exemplary care who went above and beyond to ensure women and their babies were well cared for.

"Leaders and staff should feel proud of the changes they've made and the positive impact these changes have had on people using services."

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Source: BBC News, 30 January 2026

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MHRA issues warning after seizing illegal fillers worth up to £4m

Illegal fillers worth up to £4m have been seized by the medicines watchdog after dermatologists warned they could cause “disfigurement and infection”.

More than 27,000 units of unlicensed dermal fillers have been confiscated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) since January 2020.

The MHRA has warned that using these fillers could “put your health at risk” as there are “no safeguards to ensure it meets our quality and safety standards”.

Dermal fillers are injectable substances commonly used to target wrinkles and smooth or “rejuvenate” the skin, but if used incorrectly, they can pose serious health risks.

Dr Emma Wedgeworth, consultant dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesperson, told The Independent: “Counterfeit fillers are potentially incredibly dangerous. They are not subject to regulations which are essential to prevent potentially devastating complications. Using these can put people at risk of disfigurement and infection, which can cause huge health issues.”

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Source: The Independent, 29 January 2026

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NHS medical negligence persisting in England ‘despite 24 years of warnings’

Medical negligence in the NHS keeps harming and killing patients because governments and health service bosses have not acted on 24 years’ worth of warnings, MPs have said.

In a scathing report published on Friday, the public accounts committee (PAC) excoriates the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England for allowing the cost of mistakes to balloon to £3.6bn a year.

Between them, the two bodies have failed to take “any meaningful action” to address the problem in England, despite four PAC reports from as early as 2002 advising them to do so, the committee says.

“It feels impossible to accept that, despite two decades’ worth of warnings, we still appear to be worlds away from government or [the] NHS engaging with the underlying causes of this issue,” said Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the influential cross-party committee.

He cited “unacceptable stasis” surrounding maternity care as an example of inaction that is persistently harming patients and costing ever larger sums of taxpayer funding. Reports have been published since 2015 into maternity scandals in Morecambe Bay, East Kent, and Shrewsbury and Telford. Another inquiry is continuing into childbirth care in Nottingham.

Last year, acute concern about maternity care across the NHS in England prompted Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to order an inquiry, led by Valerie Amos, into maternity care.

“The PAC finds that, as government’s liability for clinical negligence quadrupled over 20 years (£60bn in 2024-25), the [Department of Health and Social Care] is unable to show any meaningful action taken to address this and the NHS has not done enough to tackle the underlying causes of patient harm,” it said.

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The Source: The Guardian, 30 January 2026

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Great Ormond Street doctor who botched surgery harmed nearly 100 children

Nearly 100 children were harmed by a Great Ormond Street Hospital limb reconstruction surgeon, a review has found.

The investigation, published by the world-famous London hospital into Yaser Jabbar, found widespread evidence of unacceptable practice in the botched operations he carried out.

Jabbar worked at the hospital between 2017 and 2022, providing care to 789 children – 94 of them came to harm, GOSH's report concluded.

Most of those – 91 – were patients he did surgery on. He specialised in limb-lengthening and reconstruction for children with complex problems.

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Source: BBC News, 29 January 2026

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NHS cuts use of physician associates over ‘substitute doctor’ fear

The NHS has reduced the use of physician associates after a government review found that they were being used as a “substitute” for doctors, a survey has suggested.

The number of physician associates (PAs) averaging more than 11 patient interactions — including consultations, follow-ups, results and referrals — per shift, has dropped since publication of the Leng review in July. More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of PAs said their scope of practice had been restricted in recent months.

The findings come from a survey of 457 associates by United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs), the physician associates union.

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Source: The Times, 29 January 2026

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MHRA issues guidance for people using mental health apps

As an increasing number of people turn to mental health apps and technologies for support, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published guidance on how to use the tools safely.

Not all digital mental health technologies are regulated as medical devices – some are instead classed as wellbeing or lifestyle products, which means they may not have been through the same checks.

MHRA and NHS England have developed free online resources for the public, parents, carers and professionals which use short animations and real-world examples to show what safe, well-evidenced digital mental health technologies look like, and explain how to report concerns through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.

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Source: Digital Health, 28 January 2026

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How robots are allowing surgeons to safely perform common operations from up to 1,700 miles away

Surgeons can safely perform two common operations from distances of up to 1,700 miles, a new study has found.

New research delved into telesurgery, a cutting-edge technique that allows medical professionals to operate on patients remotely using a surgical robot connected via a secure video-link.

Academics in China initiated the study, highlighting that robust evidence on this method has previously been "scarce". Their primary aim was to ascertain whether telesurgery could achieve results comparable to, or "non-inferior" to, those from robotic-assisted surgery performed locally.

Some 72 patients were randomly assigned to be given telesurgery or local surgery, with the main measure of success the outcome of the surgery.

The researchers found telesurgery “was not inferior to local surgery in terms of the probability of surgical success”.

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Source: The Independent, 29 January 2026

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Black women on the nightmare of seeking healthcare in the US: ‘I have to be my own doctor’

Christina Brown was 18 years old the first time she had to correct a doctor when advocating for health.

Breast cancer runs in her family, so she had been taught early by relatives how to examine her own body – what was normal, what wasn’t and when something warranted attention. When she found a lump in her breast in September 2014, she didn’t hesitate. She went to a doctor.

At each appointment, Brown, a 30-year-old content creator in New York City, said she explained the same concern, pointed to the same spot, and was met with the same response. They told her they couldn’t feel anything. That there was no lump. That she was wrong.

“I literally had to grab their hands and show them where the lump was, and they would be surprised and then just pass me to the next doctor to do the exact same thing,” Brown said. It took four rounds of this before anyone agreed to schedule a biopsy. By then, months had passed.

That experience reshaped how Brown approached medical care: it taught her that knowing her body better than the experts is vital. Additionally, it prompted her to seek out Black doctors whenever possible because she figured a Black physician would be more likely to believe her the first time around. A 2023 survey found that Black patients who have more visits with Black healthcare providers report having more positive medical experiences.

Brown’s story is not unique. Across gynecology, primary care, and reproductive health, many Black women describe navigating medical care as a nightmare. “To be a Black woman in America is to have an adverse experience at the doctor’s office, and with her health,” Brown said. “It’s one where you are constantly feeling dismissed, misunderstood, gaslit, downplayed and straight up lied to.” Whether through relentless self-advocacy, intimate knowledge of their own bodies, or the deliberate choice to seek out Black physicians, many Black women move through medical settings strategically, as a means of survival.

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Source: The Guardian, 27 January 2026

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DHSC-NHSE merger timetable revealed

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have revealed a full timetable for merging their functions.

An update to staff late on Tuesday, seen by HSJ, says the organisations are aiming for the legal abolition of NHSE to be complete by April 2027, although it requires legislation to pass in time.

The prime minister first announced that NHSE would be abolished in March last year.

A new “target operating model” is being developed and is expected to be published by the end of May (see timeline chart left).

The DHSC plans to launch a 45-day consultation from October on the “detailed design proposals for the new DHSC and on any potential future downsizing”.

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Source: HSJ, 27 January 2026

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British medics could ‘turn their backs on NHS’ if not prioritised for training places

British medics will “turn their backs on the NHS” if they are not prioritised for specialty training, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has warned.

Mr Streeting warned the health service must “break our over-reliance on international recruitment”, as he unveiled plans to give UK and Irish medical graduates precedence for these vital training places.

Specialty training marks the final stage of a doctor’s qualification, focusing on a specific medical field or general practice.

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill, due for Commons discussion on Tuesday, would also see British and Irish graduates prioritised for foundation training.

Setting out the bill, the health secretary said: “We’ve known for years that the treatment of resident doctors is often totally unacceptable and the very real fears about their futures are wholly justified.

“Every time I’ve met a resident doctor, either formally or informally, they tell me, without fail, how their careers are blocked because there are far too many applicants for training places.

“Not only do I think they have a legitimate grievance, I agree with them.”

Mr Streeting warned that if they do not deal with the issue, “the resentment it causes will just get worse” and British medics will “turn their backs on the NHS”.

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Source: The Independent, 28 January 2026

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