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Four in ten who took their lives in prison were denied adequate healthcare

Four in ten prisoners who took their own lives in custody were denied adequate healthcare before their deaths, according to damning new figures exposing the scale of neglect inside Britain’s overcrowded prisons.

Inmates are legally entitled to receive the same standard of healthcare as someone living in the community. However, official findings uncovered by The Independent show in 101 out of 233 self-inflicted deaths investigated by the prisons watchdog between 2020 and 2023, the mental or physical healthcare did not meet this requirement.

In each case a clinical reviewer assessed whether the care was equivalent to what they would expect outside of jail as part of investigations into the deaths by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO). In many of the self-inflicted deaths, failings related to mental healthcare.

The chairman of the justice committee, Andy Slaughter, said “we are failing people in custody” after the figures came to light, while the chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, warned “without any doubt” there will be more potentially preventable deaths if action is not taken to drive up standards.

“We see it frequently in prisons that we inspect that there are people who just aren’t getting the support that they need,” he told The Independent. “If someone needs treatment, they need treatment.”

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Source: The Independent, 14 February 2025

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Four in ten anaesthetists fear for safety of their hospitals, poll finds

More than 4 in 10 anaesthetists are not convinced their hospitals would be able to provide safe services should there be a second wave of COVID-19, a new survey has indicated.

A survey of members of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCOA) showed 44% of respondents were not confident their hospitals would be able to provide safe covid and non-covid services should there be a second surge of infections.

The survey also showed levels of mental distress and morale were worsening among anaesthetists – many of whom were drafted into intensive care units during the first wave. Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) said they had suffered mental distress in the last month due to the pressures faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the college is calling on the NHS to plan intensively for a second covid wave and to identify, train and maintain the skills of cross-specialty “reservists” – including current clinicians, recent retirees and senior trainees — who can support the health service in the event of future surges. 

One anaesthetist told the RCOA they were “exhausted with constantly having to think about covid and protecting yourself” and “struggling with the realisation that PPE is here to stay for some time.” Another said: “We have burned out our human resource. We need a period of rebuilding or patient harm will result.”

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Source: HSJ, 22 July 2020

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Four in five locum GPs in England unable to find work, BMA study finds

More than four in five locum GPs in England are unable to find work with a third forced to leave the NHS because they cannot make ends meet, a survey has found.

A survey of 1,852 locums, conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA), found that 84% cannot find work despite patients across the country waiting weeks for GP appointments.

The study also found that more than half are considering a career change owing to a lack of work, while a third (33%) have made definite plans to work in a different career away from the NHS.

Just under a third (31%) of respondents said that the lack of suitable shifts was leading them to leave the NHS entirely, while 71% said the government funding model was to blame for the levels of unemployment.

More than half of GP appointments are now conducted by non-GP practice staff as they are cheaper, which is leading to locums being unable to find work.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 June 2024

 

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Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England found to use outdated equipment

Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England are using outdated medical equipment including 37-year-old X-ray machines, according to research from the Lib Dems, who are calling for extra funding to replace outdated devices.

NHS hospitals are using hundreds of old X-ray machines, CT scanners and radiotherapy machines, with some dating back to the 1980s, according to research based on freedom of information requests to 69 hospital trusts. Of these, 41 said they had at least one X-ray machine that was more than 20 years old.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said he would call for urgent government investment in medical equipment at the party’s spring conference.

“It beggars belief that NHS staff are having to rely on results from decades-old hospital scanners, machinery that may have been built before they were even born. Understaffed and exhausted NHS staff are being pushed to breaking point, while patients are treated in crumbling hospitals with outdated equipment,” he said.

“The potential for error from poor-quality machines doesn’t bear thinking about. People up and down the country will be worried about whether they will get an accurate reading from these decades-old machines.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 March 2023

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Four deaths prompt ICB to rethink crisis care

An integrated care board is rethinking its approach to crisis mental health care after “confusion” contributed towards the deaths of four people.

Multiple trusts in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB raised concerns about the “Right Care Right Person” (RCRP) policy, a national agreement between police and the NHS, which means that police should not need to attend a mental health-related incident unless there is a risk to life.

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust and Midlands Partnership University Foundation Trust told the ICB that police support was “not forthcoming” on several occasions and that “harm was potentially being caused because of this”.

Last year, coroners issued multiple warnings following a series of deaths linked to the controversial national policy, which was introduced despite concerns in the NHS and from patient groups.

The ICB commissioned a joint thematic review of four cases between October 2024 and March 2025, where people were found dead, and the RCRP process may not have been followed.

The review was finished at the end of last year and has only now been released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act.

Findings included that “system challenges” contributed to delays in gaining access to patients’ properties to check on them when there was a concern for their safety.

The review found that while RCRP had been launched by the trusts involved, “there were a number of healthcare staff in the community and in hospitals who were not fully aware or had a full understanding of the process and its needs and requirements”.

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Source: HSJ, 31 March 2026

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Foundation trust to seek merger to avoid ‘patient safety risks’

A mental health trust is preparing to seek a merger or acquisition by another provider in a bid to address its financial challenges, HSJ has learned. 

In a message to staff, North West Boroughs Healthcare Foundation Trust said growing financial pressures were “likely to put the quality and safety of patients at risk”.

It said various options were discussed by governors and the trust board at a meeting yesterday, and it was agreed to pursue a “merger or acquisition of the whole organisation with one or more provider trusts”.

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Source: HSJ, 12 September

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Forty-two areas to pioneer neighbourhood health

The government and NHS England will select 42 places to lead the rollout of neighbourhood health and shape how it will be operationalised.

Officials are writing to integrated care boards (ICBS) and councils today to call for applications to join the first wave of the national neighbourhood health implementation programme.

The first cohort of the programme, which will use an improvement network approach, is expected to be selected by September. A “co-design day” in August will help design implementation.

Applications must be from “places” (which often match a borough, town or district) and will be judged based on promising early evidence of joint working on care for multiple and complex conditions. CEOs of trusts, councils, GPs, primary care network directors, and VCSE organisations must together support and submit applications, rather than ICBs.

There can be multiple applications from several places within a single ICB.

The 42 will include representation from all regions, but there will not necessarily be one NH in each of the 42 current ICBs.

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Source: HSJ, 9 July 2025

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Forty trusts are set elective target less ambitious than last year

NHS trusts have been given targets to increase elective activity that range from 103% of pre-pandemic levels to nearly 130%, internal data seen by HSJ reveals.

The wide gap between the targets, which are based on past performance and reflect the value of activity carried out, indicate the slow pace of recovery at many trusts last year.

Forty trusts have been set the least ambitious target, to deliver 103% of pre-covid activity levels in 2023-24, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Barts Health, and University Hospitals Birmingham.

All providers were supposed to deliver at least 104% of pre-covid activity last year, but few managed to achieve this, with emergency pressures, the impact of covid and flu, and workforce problems hampering efforts to ramp up activity.

Amanda Pritchard has previously admitted the health service would have to “re-profile” the trajectory to achieving 130% of pre-covid activity levels by 2025.

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Source: HSJ, 20 April 2023

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Forty children admitted to hospital for vaping amid rising ‘epidemic’

Forty children were hospitalised for vaping last year, prompting NHS bosses to warn we risk “sleep-walking into a crisis”.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England boss, said it was "right" for paediatricians to call for action on vaping among young people, as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called for an outright ban on disposable vapes.

She said the 40 children admitted to hospital in England in 2022 due to “vaping-related disorders” was up from 11 two years before.

The RCPCH’s call for action comes as NHS data revealed one in five 15-year-olds said they used e-cigarettes in 2021, while charity Action on Smoking (ASH) reported the experimental use of e-cigarettes among 11 to 17-year-olds had risen by 50 per cent compared to last year.

The college warned: “Youth vaping is fast becoming an epidemic among children, and I fear that if action is not taken, we will find ourselves sleep-walking into a crisis.”

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Source: The Independent, 16 June 2023

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Former vaccines tsar describes ‘open warfare’ within UK government during Covid pandemic

There was “open warfare” between UK government departments during the pandemic, the former vaccines tsar has said, adding the failure to prioritise the needs of clinically vulnerable, immunocompromised individuals was ethically and morally wrong.

Dame Kate Bingham led the vaccine taskforce (VTF) – based in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – between May and December 2020, and played a pivotal role in persuading the government to back the development of a portfolio of potential jabs, as well as securing contracts for millions of doses.

But Bingham has told the Covid inquiry that when initially establishing the remit of the VTF she discovered conflict.

“Therapeutics is obviously my background, so that is the natural area for me to have included in the remit,” she said. “What I did is what I would always do, which is to go and talk to the people involved, including in industry. And it was quite clear there was open warfare between BEIS and the Department of Health.”

The government did not make an advance purchase of Evusheld and it was never supplied, much to the consternation of charities who warned of the impact on immunocompromised individuals, although it was available privately.

Bingham said the direction of travel on Evusheld was clear to her before she left her post in December 2020, adding she vehemently disagreed with it.

“I felt very strongly that we were conducting a strategy that was not following the prime minister’s goals,” she said. “So the government was following a very clear two-tier strategy where the clinically vulnerable, immunocompromised patients were being deprioritised in favour of those who were able to receive vaccines. And I felt that was manifestly wrong, both ethically and morally, but also did not follow the goals that we’d been set, which was to protect the entire population.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2025

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Former vaccines chief sounds warning about UK pandemic readiness

The UK is not in a significantly better place to deal with a new pandemic, the former vaccine taskforce chief has said, as a leading public health expert suggested Covid infections may be on the rise again.

Dame Kate Bingham, the managing partner at the life sciences venture capital firm SV Health Investors, headed the UK’s vaccine taskforce between May and December 2020. 

Speaking to a joint session of the Commons health and social care committee and the science and technology committee, about lessons learned during the pandemic, Bingham said many of the initiatives set up by the taskforce had been dismantled, while key recommendations it had provided had not been acted upon.

“To begin with, I thought it was lack of experience of officials since we don’t have a lot of people within Whitehall who understand vaccines, relationships with industry, all of that, but actually, I’m beginning to think this is deliberate government policy, just not to invest or not to support the sector,” she said.

Among her concerns, Bingham cited the failure to create bulk antibody-manufacturing capabilities in the UK and the proposed termination of the NHS Covid vaccine research registry through which the public could indicate their willingness to participate in clinical trials for Covid vaccines.

The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Research to close the registry was eventually reversed after Robert Jenrick, then a health minister, stepped in.

“I am baffled as to the decisions that are being made,” she said.

Bingham also raised concerns about the length of time it is taking to agree a contract with Moderna – a US-based company that produces mRNA Covid vaccines – to create a research and development, and manufacturing, facility in the UK.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 November 2022

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Former trust leader arrested for perverting the course of justice

A former senior leader of the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Cheshire Constabulary has said it will not give details, including the age or gender, of the individual.

However, they are understood to be one of three former members of the senior leadership team at CoCH FT between 2015 and 2016 who were arrested last June on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. They were later bailed pending further enquiries. 

The force said the latest arrest had taken place as part of an ongoing investigation into potential corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter at the hospital where convicted murderer Lucy Letby used to work.

A statement from Cheshire Constabulary said officers executed a search warrant at a property on Wednesday.

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Source: HSJ, 23 April 2026

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Former trust CEO and medical director cleared over surgery scandal

A major trust’s former chief executive and medical director have been cleared, after being accused of failing to protect breast patients from a rogue surgeon.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has ruled neither Mark Goldman nor Ian Cunliffe’s fitness to practise was impaired, in a case brought by the General Medical Council. 

Mr Goldman was chief executive of the Heart of England Foundation Trust from 2001 until 2010, while Dr Cunliffe served as HEFT medical director between 2006 and 2010. Both held roles at HEFT while Ian Paterson was there.

Mr Paterson was jailed for 20 years in 2017 after being convicted of 17 offences of wounding with intent while being employed at HEFT, while a later inquiry concluded he may have conducted up to 1,000 botched and unnecessary operations over a 14-year period.

Mr Goldman and Dr Cunliffe are now pursuing the GMC for the costs of the case, which is expected to be heard over five days in January 2023.

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Source: HSJ, 18 October 2022

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Former surgeon wants NHS MeToo movement for sexual harassment

A former breast cancer surgeon has said the NHS needs a MeToo movement because of sexual harassment in hospitals.

Dr Liz O'Riordan said she experienced sexual harassment from colleagues on a weekly to monthly basis in some of her jobs as a junior doctor.

In her first week as a junior doctor, she recalled a colleague asking if she "got an erection" after removing an 11-year-old boy's appendix.

"We need to be able to say this is not good enough," said Dr O'Riordan. "When you are a trainee in a practical field, you are relying on your boss to let you operate to show you how to cut; it is a craft that you learn."

"Basically you are naked in scrubs stood from shoulder, to hip, to knee, next to someone all squeezed in; a lot of body contact; you are relying on them to let you cut, and if you call them out they may say 'I don't like you, you are not coming to theatre today'.

"It's very, very, very hard to stand up for yourself and say 'that is not on' and the minute you let them get away with it, it is accepted and they can carry on getting away with it."

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Source: BBC News, 12 July 2023

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Former prime minister calls contaminated blood scandal 'incredibly bad luck'

Former prime minister Sir John Major has described the contaminated blood scandal as "incredibly bad luck", drawing gasps from families watching him give evidence under oath to the public inquiry into the disaster.

Up to 30,000 people contracted HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 80s after being given blood treatments or transfusions on the NHS. Thousands have since died.

Sir John later apologised for his choice of language.

He said: "I obviously caused offence inadvertently this morning when I referred to the fact that it was awful that people had been fed infected blood and I referred to it as sheer bad luck.

"I can only say to people it wasn't intended to be offensive. I was seeking to express the fact that I was concerned about what happened.

"It was intended simply to say that it was a random matter and I perhaps expressed it injudiciously."

The UK-wide inquiry was launched after years of campaigning by victims, who claim the risks were never explained and that the scandal was covered up.

Campaigners say those infected decades ago are now dying at the rate of one every four days as a result.

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Source: BBC News, 27 June 2022

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Former nursing home manager fined £40,000 after death of two residents

A former nursing home manager has been fined £40,000 after pleading guilty to two offences of failing to provide safe care and treatment to two residents at Rossendale Nursing Home in Lancashire.

Caroline Taylforth, who established her first residential care home in 1997, was prosecuted by the CQC. She was the registered manager at Rossendale Nursing Home at the time of the incidents, and admitted mistakes she had made that meant two residents did not receive safe care and treatment, and resulted in "avoidable harm" while in her care, said a CQC spokesperson.

The first offence was for failures in the care of resident Patricia Sutton, aged 77, who was admitted to the home on 11 October 2018 and had a significant medical history. On 6 November 2019, Patricia Sutton was eating dinner in the dining room and started choking. She was taken to hospital and died later that day. Ms Sutton had previously been involved in three other choking incidents and should have been referred to a speech and language therapist after the second one occurred to properly assess the risks, said the CQC. However, Ms Taylforth "did not safely assess, monitor or manage the risk or make this referral", the CQC concluded.

The CQC also prosecuted Ms Taylforth for another incident concerning Dereck John Chapman, aged 82, who was admitted to the home on 22 October 2019 with multiple health issues and was also prone to having falls. Following admission to the home, Mr Chapman suffered at least 14 falls. Ms Taylforth "failed to mitigate" the risk of falls and "failed to ensure" Mr Chapman was promptly referred to appropriate services, such as the falls team, GP, and local authority following known incidents, particularly those resulting in injuries, criticised the CQC.

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Source: Medscape, 6 April 2023

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Former NHSE chief: ‘Most hospital discharge data is useless’

A former chief executive of the NHS has said most data collected about hospital discharges by NHS England is ‘useless’ and biased against social care.

Sir David Nicholson, who was chief executive of the NHS from 2006 to 2013, and of NHS England until 2014, has said “almost all” of the data around delayed discharges “is designed to show how bad social care is”.

Sir David, who is now chair of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, added that data on the number of patients with the “right to reside” in hospital is “wholly useless” when trying to improve discharge rates.

NHSE publishes figures on the numbers of patients who “no longer meet the criteria to reside” in hospital – and during the winter months will publish this every week. NHSE has said the data collected on discharges helps to improve patient care and flow.

In an interview with HSJ editor, Sir David said: “The problem we have with a lot of the data we collect [is that] it is designed for accountability reasons, not operational reasons.

“And if you want a good example of that, have a look at the debate around discharge at the moment. There is a myriad of data, almost all of it is useless […] and almost all of it is designed to show how bad social care is. It’s extraordinary".

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Source: HSJ, 30 November 2022

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Former ministers to hold 'rapid' inquiry into government's COVID-19 response

A pair of Conservative former ministers have announced they are to lead a rapid, cross-party investigation into the UK’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, amid worries a government inquiry will take too long for lessons to be learned in time.

In a rare set of joint hearings, the Commons health committee, led by ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt, and the science committee, chaired by Greg Clark, who was business secretary, are to hear from witnesses in the hope of producing a report by the spring.

Announcing the plan, Hunt and Clark said the inquiry would aim to produce interim recommendations along the way. It will hold weekly joint sessions, with early witnesses set to include Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, and Patrick Vallance, the government’s top scientific adviser.

Hunt said he would expect the inquiry to cover the need for regular, large-scale coronavirus testing, an issue he has repeatedly raised in parliament, and whether this could help people visit loved ones in care homes.

The hearings begin next Tuesday with a session on social care. Other promised areas of examination include the efficacy of lockdown measures; how well modelling and statistics have been used; the efficacy of government messaging; wider preparedness for a pandemic; and the impact on BAME communities.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 October 2020

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Former minister says government would lose human rights challenge

Sir Norman Lamb, chair of South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust and a former Liberal Democrat MP, has suggested the government would lose a legal challenge over its national programme for patients with learning disabilities and said the national Transforming Care programme was at the “very least a partial failure”.

“I regard this as a human rights issue. We’re locking people up when we don’t need to lock them up. We’re subjecting them to force, when we shouldn’t do so, and this is how I think we need to frame it. If the government were challenged in court on this, I think there’s a very good chance, as an ex-lawyer, that they would lose.”

Transforming Care was launched in 2011 following the Winterborne View scandal and aimed to discharge patients with learning disabilities and autism out of institutional inpatient units into the community. However, the most recent figures, from NHS Digital, show there were still more than 2,000 patients within inpatient units, ahead of the national programme’s expiration this month.

Kevin Cleary, deputy chief inspector for hospitals and lead for learning disability and mental health services for the CQC, said: “We have allowed our patients to be placed within places like Whorlton Hall.  I think the NHS provides very few services of this type, it has withdrawn from providing these services, and has become comfortable with providing that service, within the independent sector, several hundred miles away and that’s not right… absolutely not right."

“We cannot say we are providing patient centred care or say we are placing the patient at the heart of everything we do and have that response from the system. We are all responsible for that.”

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Source: HSJ, 10 March 2020

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Former King's Lynn journalist Kath Sansom's Sling the Mesh campaign raises awareness of mesh implant surgery

Kath Sansom, a former journalist from Lynn is raising awareness about the potential risks associated with vaginal and rectal mesh surgery.

Mesh implant surgery is used to treat prolapse and incontinence in women usually following childbirth, and some men have also had the procedure. But pain and complications after the implants have left hundreds of people in the UK in pain and so a campaign in 2015 was launched which has led to the Government announcing a suspension in the use of vaginal mesh.

Kath initiated the Sling The Mesh campaign in 2015 following her own experience of mesh surgery. She said: "What is most important to women is financial redress. We are all innocent and have had our health and lives compromised. We shouldn't have to wait 40 years, as the victims of contaminated blood have. Some women are in wheelchairs and have lost pensions. I am not the woman that I was. It has taken a financial, physical and emotional toll."

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Source: Lynn News (24 August 2022)

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Former directors call for Letby inquiry to be paused

Lawyers acting for four former executive directors at the Countess of Chester Hospital have called for the Thirlwall inquiry to be paused while the criminal charges against Lucy Letby are reviewed.

Acting for the former hospital leaders - chief executive Tony Chambers, medical director Ian Harvey, director of nursing Alison Kelly and HR director Sue Hodkinson - Kate Blackwell KC asked inquiry chair Lady Thirlwall to consider halting all or part of the proceedings until the Criminal Case Review Commission had made a decision about allowing another appeal or retrial.

She stated there was a risk the real causes of the infants’ deaths could be missed. 

Letby was convicted in 2023 of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more. She was later found guilty of another attempted murder charge at a second trial. The offences happened in 2015 and 2016. The Court of Appeal upheld her convictions last year.

But a new legal team for Letby has referred her convictions to the CCRC, raising concerns about the disclosure of evidence and citing new evidence from senior clinical experts that contradicts what the juries heard.

However, families of the jailed nurse’s victims said the senior managers were attempting to evade responsibility for their “many failures”.

“The applications to stop the inquiry are, on Letby’s part, an attempt to control the narrative, and on the part of the executives to avoid criticism,” said Richard Baker KC, representing the parents of 12 of the babies.

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Source: HSJ, 18 March 2025

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Former chair takes trust to tribunal over whistleblowing claim

The former chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust is taking the trust to an employment tribunal after claiming he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns about investigations into preventable baby deaths.

Max Mclean, a former police detective, left BTH in October 2023 following an “irretrievable breakdown” in his relationship with CEO Mel Pickup after he raised concerns about neonatal incidents in 2021.

The incidents resulted in two newborn baby deaths and another baby being born with a permanent disability.

Mr Mclean, who joined the trust in 2019, said he was forced to choose between immediate resignation or dismissal by an “unlawfully constituted board” after raising concerns to Ms Pickup and NHS regulators.

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Source: Health Service Journal, 11 February 2025

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Former chair ‘sensationalised whistleblowing claim to oust CEO’

An employment tribunal has thrown out a former chair’s whistleblowing claims against a trust CEO, saying he “misrepresented and exaggerated” concerns as part of a campaign to oust her.

Max Mclean, who was chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust from 2019 to 2023, was heavily criticised in the ruling, which said it had “not identified any misconduct or lack of personal performance” by CEO Mel Pickup.

In contrast, it said the former chair had launched a “personal battle” to oust Ms Pickup and “was (and remains) blind to any findings about his own behaviour”.

Mr Mclean told HSJ he was “disappointed” by the tribunal’s conclusions and he did “not accept a number of the characterisations made about my motivations and conduct”. He denied asking NHS England to remove the CEO.

Mr Mclean left the trust that year following an “irretrievable breakdown” in the relationship between him and Ms Pickup.

In February 2025, he announced he would take the trust to an employment tribunal, claiming he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns about baby deaths.

However, according to a summary reasons judgment published by the trust this week, the tribunal ruled these did not represent whistleblowing concerns because of the way that he raised them, in an appraisal with Ms Pickup, and the time he took to raise the concerns. The tribunal said Mr Mclean had been notified of the neonatal incidents in April 2021.

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Source: HSJ, 19 May 2026

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Former CDC official ‘only sees harm’ to public health under RFK Jr’s leadership

The former immunizations director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of the future of American health under the leadership of Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

In an interview on Sunday with ABC, Demetre Daskalakis – who resigned this week in protest over the White House’s firing of CDC director Susan Monarez – said: “From my vantage point as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic Oath, I only see harm coming.”

He went on to add: “I may be wrong, but based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination.”

Daskalakis’s interview comes amid growing chaos across US health agencies and rare bipartisan pushback towards the White House’s firing of Monarez, which came amid steep budget cuts to the CDC’s work as well as growing concerns of political interference.

There have also been growing public calls for Kennedy to resign, particularly as he has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and be lambasted in response by experts and lawmakers alike.

Explaining his resignation, Daskalakis said: “I didn’t think that we were going to be able to present science in a way free of ideology, that the firewall between science and ideology has completely broken down. And not having a scientific leader at CDC meant that we wouldn’t be able to have the necessary diplomacy and connection with HHS to be able to really execute on good public health.”

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Source: The Guardian, 31 August 2025

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Forget the pandemic, NHS decline is ‘to blame for record waiting lists’

Record NHS waiting lists cannot be attributed to the pandemic as the health service has been “steadily declining” for a decade, a report says.

The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England has almost tripled from 2.5 million in April 2012 to 6.78 million, after reaching 4.6 million in February 2020.

While Covid accelerated this trend, analysis suggests that even without the pandemic waiting lists for elective care would stand at 5.3 million.

The Quality Watch report, by the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation think tanks, says the NHS was “already stretched beyond its limits” before Covid struck.

Analysis of performance figures show waiting times for scans, A&E and cancer care have been increasing for many years amid chronic staff shortages.

This deterioration means thousands of cancer patients each month face unacceptably long waits for treatment — damaging their survival chances.

The report found waiting times for 15 key diagnostic tests, such as MRI or CT scans, had also rocketed. In April 2012 632,236 patients were on waiting lists for these tests. This backlog increased to one million by February 2020 before hitting 1.6 million this year.

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Source: The Times, 5 September 2022

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