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Government welcomes MHRA review into vaccine candidates

News that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will review the data from trials of one of the most promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates, to see whether it meets the agency’s robust standards of quality, safety and effectiveness, has been welcomed by the UK Government.

Initial data had shown the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 94% effective in protecting people over 65 years of age from coronavirus, with no serious safety concerns having been raised during the clinical trials.

Already the UK Government has pre-ordered 40 million vaccine doses – enough to provide vaccinations for up to a third of the population – and is expected to receive the total amount by the end of 2021.

The majority of doses are anticipated to be received in the first half of next year. As well as successfully protecting those over the age of 65, trial data also showed that the vaccine candidate also performed equally well in people of all ages, races and ethnicities.

Approval from the MHRA, as the UK’s independent regulator, is required for the COVID-19 vaccine to be authorised for consistent manufacture and supply. To achieve this approval, it must demonstrate that it meets strict quality, safety and effectiveness standards set by the MHRA.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma added: “Today, we have renewed hope that we are on the brink of one of the most significant scientific discoveries of our time, as we reach the crucial last stage to finding a COVID-19 vaccine.

“While this news is a cause for celebration, we must make sure that this vaccine, like all new medicines, meets standards of quality, safety, and effectiveness."

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Source: National Health Executive, 24 November 2020

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Government watchdog: 1 in 4 older Americans on Medicare harmed during hospital stays

One in four older Americans covered by Medicare had some type of temporary or lasting harm during hospital stays before the COVID-19 pandemic, government investigators said in an oversight report published Thursday. 

The report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said 12% of patients had “adverse events” that mainly led to longer hospital stays but also permanent harm, death or required life-saving intervention. Another 13% had temporary issues that could have caused further complications had hospital staff not acted.

Investigators reviewed the medical records of 770 Medicare patients discharged from 629 hospitals in 2018 to formulate a national rate on how often patients were harmed, whether preventable or not. An earlier Inspector General review found 27% of patients experienced some type of harm – an investigation that led to new patient safety efforts and incentives. 

The incremental improvement follows intense focus on patient safety since at least 1999 when the then-Institute of Medicine published To Err is Human, a landmark report that estimated up to 98,000 deaths per year could be due to medical errors. Initiatives have since sought to improve patient safety by limiting medical errors, reducing medication mix-ups and holding hospitals with a poor record of patient safety accountable through Medicare's program to dock the pay of the worst performers on a list of safety measures. 

While Inspector General investigators noted improvements in certain safety measures, officials said the 25% harm rate is concerning and deserves renewed attention from hospitals and two federal agencies that oversee patient safety: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

"We still have a significant way to go in terms of improving patient safety," said Amy Ashcraft, a deputy regional inspector general. 

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Source: USA Today News, 12 May 2022

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Government warned against 10-Year Plan ‘restructure’

One of the central ideas in the 10-Year Health Plan is “not novel” and could be damaging if it imposes a “one size fits all” model, a community health leader has told HSJ.

Steph Lawrence was, until last year chief nurse at Leeds Community Healthcare Trust, which has been celebrated by Labour leaders for its development of integrated care and out-of-hospital working.

Next month, she becomes chief executive of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing, representing staff who will need to be central to a “neighbourhood health service” – a proposal due to feature heavily in the government’s 10-Year Health Plan. 

She spoke to HSJ before taking up the post. Asked about neighbourhood health (NH), she warned: “I don’t think this is a new idea. I don’t think this is anything novel. In Leeds, we have had integrated neighbourhood teams since about 2012 or 2013…

“It’s the right thing to do. But [what] worries me is that every neighbourhood will be different, and therefore one size is never going to fit all…

“Sometimes we get this impression that if we put teams together in one place, they’ll naturally get on and work together. That isn’t how it works. It works by developing relationships and making sure you focus on the person, not what the service needs”.

The nurse leader’s comments come amid fears the plan, expected next month, may encourage a takeover of community and other services by acute providers.

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Source: HSJ, 17 June 2025

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Government wants new NHS cyber security chief

The Government is looking to hire a new cyber security chief for the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), at a time of heightened risk of cyber attacks against the health service. 

The DHSC last month issued a job advert for a “national chief information security officer”, who will sit within the digital policy unit of NHS England’s transformation directorate.

It comes at a time when the risk of cyber attacks against the NHS is increasing. Earlier this summer, an attack on an NHS electronic patient record supplier impacted several providers, including a dozen mental health trusts, with some trusts still not having recovered their service fully.

Meanwhile, in February, NHSE wrote to trusts to tell them to strengthen their cyber defences in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

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Source: HSJ, 18 November 2022

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Government urged to take action over NHS pressures

The crisis engulfing the NHS will continue until Easter, health leaders have warned, as senior doctors accused ministers of letting patients die needlessly through inaction.

More than a dozen trusts and ambulance services have declared critical incidents in recent days, with soaring demand, rising flu and Covid cases and an overstretched workforce piling pressure on the health service.

But amid warnings that up to 500 people a week may be dying due to delays in emergency care alone, and of oxygen for seriously ill patients running out in parts of England, NHS leaders warned more chaos was expected until April.

“It seems likely that the next three months will be defined by further critical incidents needing to be declared and the quality of care being compromised,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ministers face growing pressure to grip the crisis. The British Medical Association (BMA) said the government’s “deafening” silence and failure to act was a “political choice” that was leading to patients “dying unnecessarily”.

The Liberal Democrats urged the government to recall parliament, while Labour blamed government “mismanagement” for creating a sense of “jeopardy” around the NHS.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 January 2022

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Government urged to address the shortage of specialist nursing staff

A new report by the Royal College of Nursing shows the number of learning disability nurses working in NHS Hospitals, NHS hospital and community services in England has risen by only 22 in three years.

Worryingly, there is estimated to be only 17,000 learning disability specialist nurses on the NMC register in the UK. 

The Royal College of Nursing is urging the government to address the shortage of specialist nurses for learning disabilities. 

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Source: Royal College of Nursing, 22 June 2021

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Government unveils plan to cut NHS waiting list backlog

The government has unveiled a new pledge to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.

The plan will expand access to Community Diagnostic Centres and surgical hubs, alongside reforms designed to enhance patient choice and tackle inefficiencies.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would create millions more appointments and "deliver on our promise to end the backlogs".

A key Labour election pledge, now included in the government's six main priorities, is for 92% of patients to begin treatment or be given the all-clear within 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament.

This has been an official NHS target for some time, but has not been met since 2015. Currently, only 59% of patients meet the 18-week target, with three million people waiting longer.

The latest promise is to reach 65% by March 2026, which, according to the government, would reduce the backlog by more than 450,000.

A network of Community Diagnostic Centres, which provide appointments such as scans and endoscopies in local neighbourhoods, will extend their opening hours to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

GPs will also be able, where appropriate, to refer patients directly to these centres without requiring a prior consultation with a specialist doctor.

More surgical hubs will be created to focus on common, less complex procedures, such as cataract surgeries and some orthopaedic work. These hubs are ring-fenced from other parts of the hospital to ensure operating theatre time is not lost if there are emergency cases.

The new plan says that one million unnecessary appointments per year will be freed up for patients who need them. This will be made possible by abolishing automatic review appointments after treatment and only offering them to patients who request them.

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Source: BBC News, 5 January 2025

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Government unveils England's first ever Men's Health Strategy

Launched on International Men’s Day, the first Men’s Health Strategy for England is being published today. The plan sets out comprehensive action to tackle the physical and mental health challenges men and boys face every day.

Suicide is one of the biggest killers of men under 50 and three quarters of all suicides are men. As part of this plan, the Government will invest £3.6 million over the next three years in suicide prevention projects for middle-aged men in local communities across areas of England where men are at most risk of taking their own lives, including some of the most deprived areas in the country. This comes on top of expanding mental health teams in schools to ensure an additional 900,000 pupils have access to support by April 2026.

The focus on suicide prevention includes a partnership on the Premier League’s Together Against Suicide initiative with the Samaritans, which looks to help tackle the stigma around men’s mental health and embed health messaging into the matchday experience. 

Men with prostate cancer will also benefit from improved care through the strategy, including the development of home prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for those being monitored for the disease. From 2027, subject to clinical approval, men diagnosed with prostate cancer which is being actively monitored or treated – will be able to order and complete PSA blood tests at home, or book an in-person blood test, locally, via the NHS App.  

Other key commitments in the Men’s Health Strategy include: 

  • Investing £3 million into community-based men’s health programmes, designed to reach those most at risk and least likely to engage with traditional services
  • Men’s health training for healthcare professionals through new e-learning modules and resources
  • Workplace health pilots with EDF Energy through the Keep Britain Working Vanguard Programme to support male workers in male-dominated industries
  • Enhanced lung disease support for former miners, with increased investment in the Respiratory Pathways Transformation Fund in areas with significant former mining communities
  • Funding research to help prevent, diagnose, treat and manage the major male killers and causes of unhealthy life years in men
  • A £200,000 trial of new brief interventions to target the rise in cocaine and alcohol-related CVD deaths, particularly among older men 

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Source: Department of Health and Social Care (19 November 2025)

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Government to review the future of CQC and NHS England

NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and other arm’s length bodies will be subject to an efficiency and performance review led by the Cabinet Office.

The terms of a review into all government arm’s length bodies were set out this week, with minister Jacob Rees-Mogg insisting there is an “urgent need for public service reform”.

The ‘public bodies review’ programme will consider whether ALBs “should be abolished or retained”, should continue to deliver all their functions, and whether they have an “effective relationship” with their relevant departments.

Other ALBs include the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Health Education England, and the UK Health Security Agency.

A guidance document says: “The outcome of this work should see powers returned to accountable ministers, greater efficiency and where appropriate, the state stepping back both financially and from people’s lives…

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Source: HSJ, 29 April 2022

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Government to review number of healthcare regulators

The government has ordered an external review of whether the number of professional healthcare regulators should be reduced to ‘simplify’ the system.

Newly published procurement documents reveal the Department of Health and Social Care has hired KPMG to make recommendations on whether the number of regulators “should be reduced and how this might be achieved”.

The scope of the review covers the eight independent healthcare regulators – which include the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care. It does not cover other healthcare regulators such as the Care Quality Commission, NHS England/Improvement, or the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. 

According to DHSC there is ongoing work to “reform the healthcare regulators’ legislation” which has created an “opportunity to consider” if the regulatory landscape could be “simplified to provide better public protection in a more efficient way”.

A spokeswoman for the DHSC told HSJ that “stakeholders” accepted that having nine separate professional regulatory bodies “can be confusing for the public”.

She said: “We know health regulators play an integral role in our commitment to making sure everyone has access to safe and effective healthcare, and we will continue to identify opportunities to improve the professional regulation system.” 

In 2014, Sir Robert Francis, who chaired the inquiry into failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, said there were too many healthcare regulators in the NHS.

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Source: HSJ, 5 January 2022

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Government to pick ‘integration frontrunners’ to test ‘radical new approaches’

Government will pick five or six ‘integration frontrunner’ areas ‘to lead the way in developing and testing radical new approaches’ to speeding up discharge from acute hospitals.

Along with NHS England, ministers today wrote to local NHS and council directors asking for bids to take part by 30 June.

They said there was “a need to take a more fundamental look at [how the] system currently manages the discharge of patients, their post-acute care, and their access to high-quality social care”.

The “discharge integration frontrunner sites” will focus on exploring “new service models, such as the delivery of a more integrated model for intermediate care across existing health and social care”, and “designing and testing new enabling arrangements, which might include new funding models, more integrated workforce models, or the deployment of new technologies”, their letter said.

They said speeding up hospital discharge was “just one” potential benefit from integration and indicated that “future phases” of frontrunners may focus elsewhere.

But delayed discharge has been a major pressure on the system over the past year, particularly last winter, and the letter says: “Delayed discharges are one very visible signal that the health and care system remains fragmented and too often fails to deliver joined-up services that meet people’s needs.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 June 2022

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Government to make medicines dispensing more efficient

The changes will allow pharmacists to spend more time with patients, levelling the playing field between smaller pharmacies and larger chains.

The government has confirmed plans to make ‘hub and spoke’ dispensing models available to all local pharmacies. The change aims to make local pharmacies more efficient and free up time for more complex elements of dispensing and clinical care. The move is part of government’s drive to make patient access to medicines and treatment more efficient across the NHS. Patients stand to benefit thanks to an efficiency drive that will allow all local pharmacies to dispense medicines more efficiently.

Currently, larger pharmacy chains can take advantage of the efficiencies and cost-savings that come with centralising the dispensing of medicines at a larger ‘hub’. But smaller independent pharmacies are unable to operate the same model due to legal restrictions on dispensing for pharmacies under different ownership, meaning they can face additional costs and workload. 

Under the changes announced today, the government will progress in making the ‘hub and spoke’ model universally available, allowing pharmacies belonging to different legal entities to use hubs belonging to other companies. This will level the playing field between smaller pharmacies and larger chains.  The changes will enable pharmacists to dispense medicines more efficiently and spend more time dealing face to face with patients.

Primary Care Minister, Andrea Leadsom said, “We’re continuing our drive to make access to medicines and care faster, simpler and fairer for all patients, including at local pharmacies. These proposals will level the playing field and enable our hard-working community pharmacies to benefit from centralised dispensing. It will also free up highly skilled pharmacists from back-office duties to deliver patient-facing services, including Pharmacy First and contraception consultations, supply medicines and provide advice.”

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Source: WiredGov, 13 May 2024

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Government steps towards new A&E targets

Ministers have given the green light for NHS England and Improvement to consult before December on a proposed new basket of metrics to replace the four-hour accident and emergency target.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced the move, a significant step towards ditching the target, while confirming another batch of winter capital funding allocations, and confirming a national “111 first” model.

The announcement does however mean the process of replacing the four-hour target with new A&E standards will move slower than NHSE/I had outlined this summer. It said in July it wanted the new A&E standards in place before winter, a plan also backed by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine as revealed by HSJ.

These moves come amid mounting concern that people unable to get COVID-19 tests are heading to emergency departments; and that some emergency departments are now becoming busy with growing non-covid demand. 

The proposals for the consultation have not yet been finalised. HSJ understands they will consist of work largely drawn up by NHSE’s clinical review of standards group before March but put on hold when the COVID-19 outbreak hit the UK.

Likely choices for the metrics are: time to initial clinical assessment in A&E, time to emergency treatment for critically ill, mean waiting time, and a new 12-hour metric where the clock starts from when the patient arrives at the emergency department rather than at decision to admit as is currently the case.

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Source: HSJ, 17 September 2020

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Government steps in to ‘accelerate’ AI in the NHS

AI regulation will be clarified by a major commission to help the NHS and investors “accelerate uptake”, the government has announced.

Science and technology minister Liz Kendall said the commission aims to make the NHS “the most artifical intelligence-enabled healthcare system in the world”, promising to end “regulatory uncertainty currently holding the tech back”.

The announcement specifically mentioned ambient voice technology, a relatively simple form of AI, that recently reported impressive time savings during a trial at NHS trusts.

The Commission will produce a “new regulatory rulebook for AI in healthcare” next year, superseding the current rules.

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Source: HSJ, 26 September 2025

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Government should declare “national emergency” over NHS crisis, say peers

Pressures on emergency health services are so bad that the UK government should declare a “national emergency” and call a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee (COBRA)—the body summoned periodically to deal with matters of major disruption—peers have said.

The cross party House of Lords Public Services Committee said in a report that the government needed to respond with an emergency approach and steps to remedy the situation in the longer term.

A recurring theme of the report is the substantial delays highlighted by the media in recent months, which peers said were caused by a “broken” model of primary and community care. This was driving unmet need in directing patients to hospitals where many remained longer than clinically necessary because of inadequate social care.

The report recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care should mandate a greater presence of clinical staff in NHS 111 control centres to help boost numbers of clinicians in the 999 and 111 services. This would mean that patients were directed to the right services more quickly thanks to better triaging of calls, which could mean fewer patients being passed to emergency or urgent care services.

Another suggestion was for the government to introduce more incentives for faster safe discharges from hospitals, with more capacity in hospitals and social care to help people move through the health system more quickly.

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Source: BMJ, 19 January 2023

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Government should 'declare national NHS major incident' as service under same strain as first wave of Covid

The government should declare a national NHS major incident to rescue the healthcare system from the current crisis, a senior health official says.

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM), says that the pressures on the NHS seen over the festive period are not new. He added that a number of recommendations had been outlined since the pandemic that offer the “best hope” of a short-term solution.

Declaring a national NHS major incident would mean all four UK nations would co-ordinate their response and allocate resources to help meet the overwhelming demand for care that is enveloping many hospitals around the country. Taking that step would help combat the current situation, Dr Cooksley says, which NHS chiefs believe is having a similar effect on the service to the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The current situation in urgent and emergency care is shocking. It is in a critical state for patients and it is an extremely difficult for healthcare staff who are unable to deliver the care they want to," Dr Cooksley said. “Political leaders across the UK need to listen, meet urgently and accept the need to declare a national NHS major incident.

"The outcome must be a four-nation emergency strategy which results in short-term stabilisation, medium-term improvement and long-term growth – the grave situation we are in means it will be a long journey. Sustainable workforce and capacity plans are required urgently to boost morale among staff and patients – as we have long called for – and we now need to see action.”

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Source: Manchester Evening News, 1 January 2022

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Government sets aside extra £1bn for victims of UK’s infected blood scandal

Compensation payments will rise for people affected by the infected blood scandal, including an extra £35,000 each for former pupils who were experimented on at school without their knowledge, the paymaster general has announced. The government has allocated £1bn for the payments.

The final report of the inquiry into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history was published in May 2024. The compensation scheme that followed has also been blighted by controversy.

People who were infected, and their relatives, had complained about delays, qualifying criteria, the size of payments and the complex application process.

Among those angry at the amount they were offered were former pupils at Treloar’s college, a specialist school in Hampshire for haemophiliacs, where they were infected in experimental trials.

On Tuesday, the paymaster general, Nick Thomas-Symonds, announced the government’s response to the public consultation on proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme. The compensation pot was set at £11.8bn in the 2024 autumn budget, with the announced changes estimated to cost £1bn.

Thomas-Symonds said: “While this government understands no amount of money will make up for the suffering endured by the infected blood community, I hope that these changes to the compensation scheme demonstrate our commitment in ensuring this community receives the compensation they rightly deserve.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 April 2026

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Government set to cut enhanced sick pay for NHS staff off work with Covid

The government is to cut special sick pay for NHS staff off work with Covid from next week – even as cases soar – The Independent has learnt.

The Department of Health and Social Care is set to announce an end to the enhanced pay arrangements provided during the pandemic, meaning that staff who go off sick with either Covid or Long Covid will be subject to normal sick-pay rules.

In response to the pandemic, the government announced special arrangements for staff to be paid if they were isolating because of Covid, and to receive a full 12 months’ pay if they were suffering from Long Covid.

Arrangements will now revert to the normal NHS sick-pay rules, which give workers six months’ full pay and six months’ half pay.

A senior healthcare source said: “They have agreed to end the arrangement for new people from next week, and then have an implementation period where people who are currently off on this sort of scheme revert back to normal sick-pay entitlement from September.”

The Royal College of Nursing’s director for England, Patricia Marquis, speaking about the cut in sick pay, said: “This decision is hugely disappointing, given that Covid-19 clearly hasn’t gone away, and nursing staff continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus as they face a higher risk of exposure."

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Source: The Independent, 2 July 2022

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Government seeks urgent PPE audit amid widespread shortages

The government has ordered an urgent national audit of personal protective equipment (PPE), body bags, swabs and infection control products, HSJ can reveal. 

Local resilience forum planners were earlier this week asked to share stock levels and daily consumption rates of the items at ambulance, acute trusts and in primary care and other services by 9pm on Tuesday.

They were asked to indicate whether each figure represented a “major” or “minor” supply problem, or no problem at all, in an email seen by HSJ.

As well as trusts, resilience forum staff were asked to share stock levels among adult social care services, numbers of mortuary staff, other local authority staff, police, prisons, fire and rescue services and funeral directors.

The email also asked planners if local services had access to PPE supplies above their immediate need and whether local authorities were in discussions with any private PPE suppliers.

The email noted the Department of Health and Social Care wanted to develop a “systematic days of supply picture” for all PPE at all providers.

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Source: HSJ, 1 April 2020

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Government seeks refund for millions of coronavirus antibody tests

The Government will look for a refund for millions of coronavirus tests ordered from China after scientists found they were too unreliable to be used by the public.

Ministers will attempt to recoup taxpayers' money spent on the fingerprick tests after an Oxford University trial found they returned inaccurate results.

The failure is a significant setback because it had been hoped the antibody tests would show who had already built up immunity, therefore offering a swifter route out of lockdown.

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Source: The Telegraph, 6 April 2020

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Government scientist accuses minister of trying to get as many as possible infected with Covid

A Sage scientist has accused ministers of allowing infections to spread through the younger population in the hopes it would increase herd immunity before the NHS experiences winter pressures. The government scientist made ministers aware of their concerns after restrictions were eased on Monday 19th July, allowing nightclubs to open, with all previous restrictions being eased. 

“Abandoning all precautions and allowing infections to climb not only risks further restrictions in the future, it condemns thousands to long-term illness and places huge pressure on the NHS. Rising Covid admissions are helping exacerbate a summer NHS crisis, with operations cancelled and increasing waiting times. It means we are heading into another difficult winter and high levels of virus circulating could see a vaccine-evading variant emerge. This is an utterly reckless strategy from Boris Johnson.” Shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, has said. 

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Source: 23 July 2021

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Government reviews whistleblowing laws

A review of the whistleblowing framework – the laws that support workers who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace – has been launched by the Government.

The review will seek views and evidence from whistleblowers, key charities, employers and regulators.

Whistleblowing refers to when a worker makes a disclosure of information which they reasonably believe shows wrongdoing or someone covering up wrongdoing.  Workers who blow the whistle are entitled to protections, which were introduced through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). Successive governments have taken steps to strengthen whistleblowing policy and practice.

It provides a route for employees to report unsafe working conditions and wrongdoing across all sectors.

This was keenly felt during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, when the Care Quality Commission and Health and Safety Executive recorded sharp increases in the number of whistleblowing disclosures they received.

The review will gather evidence on the effectiveness of the current regime in enabling workers to speak up about wrongdoing and protect those who do so. The evidence gathering stage of the review will conclude in Autumn 2023.

Read full press release

Source: Gov.UK, 27 March 2023

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Government reports on 'overdue' major conditions strategy


The Government must provide the health service with more support to fulfil its ambition of extending healthy life expectancy and reducing premature death, an expert has warned.

It comes after the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) published an interim report on its Major Conditions Strategy, a 5-year blueprint to help manage six disease groups more effectively and tackle health inequality.

The groups are cancer, cardiovascular disease – including stroke and diabetes – musculoskeletal conditions, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health conditions and dementia. The Government said the illnesses "account for over 60% of ill health and early death in England", while patients with two or more conditions account for about 50% of hospital admissions, outpatient visits, and primary care consultations. By 2035, two-thirds of adults over 65 are expected to be living with two or more conditions, while 17% could have four or more.

Sally Gainsbury, Nuffield Trust senior policy analyst, said the Government is right to focus on the six conditions, but "will need to shift more of its focus towards primary prevention, early diagnosis, and symptom management". She added: "What's less clear is how Government will support health and care systems to do this in the context of severe pressures on staff and other resources, as well as a political culture that tends to place far more focus on what happens inside hospitals than what happens in community healthcare services, GP practices and pharmacies. This initiative is both long overdue and its emphasis has shifted over time. The Major Conditions Strategy is being developed in place of a White Paper on health inequalities originally promised over 18 months ago."

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Source: Medscape, 16 August 2023

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Government rejects calls to address nurse burnout and shortage

The government has rejected calls for an overhaul of NHS workforce planning amid concerns of staff shortages and a mounting backlog of patients.

It comes after a House of Commons health and social care committee report in 2021 found burnout among nurses and other healthcare professionals had reached an emergency point.

MPs had called for immediate action to support exhausted staff through a plan to cover staffing needs for the next two decades, led by Health Education England.

But in a government response to the report, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) rejected calls for independent annual reports on workforce shortages and future staffing requirements.

Instead, a new duty in the recently introduced Health and Care Bill will require the health and social care secretary to publish reports on workforce planning in England every five years.

The duty is intended to compliment ‘investment on workforce planning and supply already underway’, the government’s response states.

But UNISON national nursing officer Stuart Tuckwood said a lack of an independent view on what is needed to support the NHS workforce risked the government focusing on cost ‘above all else’.

"The urgent focus for this year must be on preventing further gaps from appearing in the workforce, including nursing teams."

"The failure to grade staff properly for the jobs they do, ensure fair pay for additional hours and deliver flexible work patterns are all reasons cited by nurses, healthcare assistants and other staff for leaving."

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Source: Nursing Standard, 17 February 2022

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Government refuses move to force industry to disclose payments

The government has rejected calls for legislation requiring industry to disclose its payments to the healthcare sector, five years after a major review said statutory rules should be introduced.

It will produce guidance for both the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries instead, it has announced in a new consultation outcome document. This will set out which payments should be reported, as well as the format and frequency of the reporting.

This was one of the recommendations from the 2020 Cumberlege Review, which investigated three women’s health scandals. It found transparency of payments in the healthcare sector was needed to guard against both real and perceived conflicts of interest. There was concern that such conflicts could be encouraging the use of unsafe devices and practices.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 19 December 2025

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