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Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests.

Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years.

The measures, which also include plans to raise foreign workers’ skills requirements to degree level and raise the standards of English language required for all types of visa, including dependents, are seen as an attempt to combat the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. A public consultation on the plans is expected imminently, sources said.

A survey conducted by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), seen by the Guardian, found the plans have sparked profound distress among foreign NHS and social care staff.

There are more than 200,000 internationally educated nursing staff, about 25% of the UK’s total workforce of 794,000. The government’s proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) have triggered alarm, with many now considering leaving the UK for good, the survey suggests.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian (20 November 2025)

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Two more deaths raise alarm over mental health in A&E

Two further cases of patients absconding from hospital and taking their own lives have been highlighted at a trust which is being prosecuted for a similar case.

University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust last month admitted a charge brought by the Care Quality Commission in relation to 16-year-old Ellame Ford-Dunn, who died in February 2022 after absconding from a ward at Worthing Hospital.

Now two further similar cases have emerged, resulting in coroners issuing warnings.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal (20 November 2025)

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PAC warns against digital 'cure-all' for NHS waiting times

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned there is a significant risk that digital solutions are being treated as a “cure-all” in the government’s plans to reduce NHS waiting times.

In its latest report, the PAC said despite spending £2.2bn of capital funding on diagnostic transformation and a further £1.0bn on surgical transformation, NHS England (NHSE) has missed its recovery targets by significant margins and too many people are still waiting too long for tests and treatment.

The PAC warned that this need for change comes at a time of major structural reform in the NHS, including NHSE being abolished and a 50% headcount cut across integrated care boards (ICBs). It says that these unfunded reforms, which will result in the loss of c. 18,000 administrative posts, could have a significant negative impact on patients and the NHS workforce and will lead to wasted effort.

It says the integration and sharing of digital records across the NHS remains a key weakness in the system. It also raises concerns about access to and interoperability between digital resources, as well as issues of hardware availability and connectivity.

The PAC calls on NHSE and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to set out:

  • how the elective care transformation programmes are practically affected by the ‘analogue to digital’ shift in the 10 Year Plan;
  • how it will solve the problem of legacy IT equipment and ensure that the IT systems used in different parts of the NHS are properly connected; and
  • whether the 10 Year Plan itself has sufficient funding to deliver the digital transformation required by the plan.

During an oral evidence session in September 2025, Sir Jim Mackey (CEO of NHSE) admitted that record sharing across the system remained a key issue. He said digital foundations have been laid through the electronic patient records (EPR) programme but warned that the landscape is evolving rapidly.

Mackey said they needed to work out what role the centre (DHSC) should play in managing the proliferation of health technology being made available to and interacting with the NHS, such as consumer-led health devices. This includes developing a healthy market and moving away from big capital, central bidding processes and into more agile and rapid processes.

The PAC also states that it is “sceptical that digital change can satisfactorily reach all patients as there is likely to always be a part of the population who find digital technology and tools too difficult to use”. As TechMarketView commented when the 10 Year Plan was published, with digital platforms like the NHS App becoming increasingly important routes to NHS services and information. Much stronger attention needs to be paid to accessibility and user capability, with a focus on digital inclusion and equity.

Although the NHS backlog numbers are showing signs of improvement in some areas, they are still far too high. The structural reforms currently underway risk derailing this progress and disrupting digital transformation efforts. Too often digital solutions, particularly AI, are being seen as a panacea for an effective NHS – these technologies will be transformative, but their true potential will not be achieved without a balanced approach to securing the digital foundations. 

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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 

Read full article.

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

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Coroners’ advice on maternal deaths in England and Wales routinely ignored, study finds

The advice given by coroners in England and Wales to help prevent maternal deaths is not being acted upon, research suggests.

A study by academics at King’s College London looked at prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports issued by coroners in cases of pregnant women and new mothers who died between 2013 and 2023. They found these reports were not being “systematically used nationally”.

NHS organisations, like other professional bodies, are legally required to reply to the coroner within 56 days, but the study found only 38% of PFDs had published responses from the organisations they were sent to.

Two-thirds of deaths occurred in hospitals, with more than half of the women dying after giving birth. The most common causes of death were haemorrhage, complications during early pregnancy and suicide.

Concerns raised by coroners most frequently included failing to provide appropriate treatment or to escalate cases, and lack of training.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian (19 November 2025)

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Major UK project launched to tackle drug-resistant superbugs with AI

The UK is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle the rising numbers of infections that have become resistant to treatment.

The project - a collaboration between the Fleming Initiative and the pharmaceutical company GSK - is a battle between superbugs and supercomputers. The collaboration will spend £45m on six fields of research.

It aims to speed up the discovery of fresh antibiotics and deliver new ways of killing other threats, including deadly fungal infections. Overusing antibiotics drives bacteria to evolve resistance to infections, which means new drugs are a priority.

Read full article.

Source: BBC News, 18 November 2025

 

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Warning NHS could become ‘overwhelmed’ amid rise in emergency cases

Hospitals are at risk of becoming overwhelmed due to a significant rise in people needing urgent help with lung conditions, a charity has warned.

Asthma and Lung UK said that over the last two years alone, there has been a 23 per cent increase in emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions – such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The charity said patients are not getting “consistent” care throughout the year and warned of a spike in people needing emergency help during the winter. It said there are now “regular” winter crises due to “dismal” delivery of routine care for patients with these conditions.

Read full article.

Source: The Independent, 18 November 2025

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Woman killed herself after south London hospital neglect, coroner concludes

A woman killed herself after a south London psychiatric unit failed to search her possessions adequately, a coroner has concluded.

Michelle Sparman, a personal trainer and call dispatcher for the Metropolitan police from Battersea, south-west London, died on 28 August 2021 at Kingston hospital, four days after trying to take her own life.

The assistant coroner, Bernard Richmond KC, concluded that Sparman, 48, died of a hypoxic brain injury, determining she had died by “suicide whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed, contributed to by neglect”.

Richmond will subsequently produce a prevention of future deaths report looking at a need for mental health wards to introduce a centralised record of all dangerous items that are on the ward, which he plans to submit to NHS England given its potential national implications.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian, 17 November 2025

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National maternity probe ‘not apportioning blame’

The national maternity safety inquiry launched by the Government in June this year will “not investigate failing trusts or apportion blame”, its leader has said – drawing criticism from campaigning families.

In a private briefing, Baroness Valerie Amos told the 12 trusts involved in the review that “she’s not investigating ‘failing’ trusts and she’s not in the business of apportioning blame”, according to one of the trusts involved.

This is despite Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Steeting Streeting alluding to “failures in the system” when launching the review in June. The terms of reference for the review also make repeated promises of “accountability”, including “help[ing] bereaved and harmed families to receive justice and accountability in the future”.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 17 November 2025

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FT suffering ‘ridiculous’ cash shortage after national support withheld

The former national NHS finance director has declared it “ridiculous” his trust is operating with only enough cash to cover one day, after NHS England withheld deficit support.

Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust has been hit by the withholding of deficit support funding to the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System this financial year, due to concerns over the latter’s financial position.

This contributed to a significant drop in cash balances in September, according to University Hospital of Liverpool Group board papers. The trust finance report said it ended the month with £5.5m in the bank, which was equivalent to “one operating cash days”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ 17 November 2025

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Translation tech tackles health language barriers

A new device is helping to improve communication between patients who do not speak English and healthcare staff in parts of Northern Ireland.

The pocket-sized digital kit can translate up to 108 languages through audio or text, in real time. The handheld technology is about the size of a mobile phone and is part of a pilot project being rolled out in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

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Source: BBC News, 19 October 2025

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Hartlepool woman had 'agonising' hysteroscopy without consent

A 51-year-old woman has said she endured an “agonising” hysteroscopy at University Hospital of Hartlepool after not giving informed consent for the procedure.

Dawn Lord attended the hospital in May 2023 expecting only routine blood tests and a discussion about future investigations. As she was leaving, her doctor abruptly suggested carrying out a biopsy. She said she was given no explanation of what this would involve and was “in shock” as she was asked to change for the procedure.

During the biopsy, a cervical polyp was removed without warning. Mrs Lord said she repeatedly told staff she was in severe pain but was not offered any pain relief. When the biopsy failed, she was told a hysteroscopy — involving a small camera inserted through the cervix — would be “a better method”. She said she was not informed of what was happening and recalled hearing the doctor say “can’t get it” during the attempt.

Despite being given a local anaesthetic, Mrs Lord described the pain as “beyond a scale of one to 10”. She continued to suffer heavy bleeding and intense pain over the following days, even fainting during the night. She complained to the hospital and received an apology five months later, along with £400 compensation.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust admitted it had not met the “high standard of care” it strives for and said her complaint prompted a review leading to service improvements. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said the trust had already apologised and committed to improving how it informs patients about procedures and obtains consent.

A hysteroscopy is considered the gold-standard method for diagnosing gynaecological conditions, though the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says a third of patients report severe pain and should be offered appropriate anaesthesia.

Full article here.

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Quality and performance Thousands waiting 24hrs in A&E with mental illness

One in 10 mental health patients who attended A&E in England last month stayed for more than 24 hours – and this figure rose to more than one in three in some departments, new data suggests. 

For the first time, NHS England has published data on long waits for mental health patients in A&Es.

NHSE labelled the data as “experimental”, because no quality checks were performed after it was received. However, they are the first official figures on the size of this long-standing problem. HSJ has previously reported on internal data.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 14 November 2025

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‘He went to hospital as a physically healthy young man but never came home. Now we want answers’

Adrian Francis walked into hospital in June 2023 as a physically healthy young man. Days later, having been left in an “immobile state”, he was dead.

The 33-year-old, who once represented Britain in sprinting, had been reduced to a catatonic state after health workers at Hallam Street Hospital in West Bromwich apparently pinned him down and forcibly gave him antipsychotic medication.

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Source: Independent

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Wes Streeting accused of ‘chaotic and incoherent approach’ to NHS reform

Wes Streeting has been accused of taking a “chaotic and incoherent approach” to reforming the NHS, which makes it unlikely the government will hit its own targets, according to a damning report by the Institute for Government (IfG).

The report praises elements of how the health secretary has managed the health service in his first year in office, including improving performance and staff retention in hospitals. The pay settlement he reached with resident doctors last year avoided a winter plagued by NHS strikes.

But it also criticises significant aspects of his performance, including the way he handled the abolition of NHS England and his lack of action to stem the exodus of senior GPs.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 15 November 2025

Read the report and the key findings: Public services performance tracker 2025: The NHS (Institute for Government & Nuffield Foundation, November 2025)

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Cuts to ICBs could ‘exacerbate’ patchy patient safety oversight

The article discusses concerns about proposed cuts to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in the UK and their potential impact on patient safety. ICBs are responsible for coordinating local healthcare services, but recent budget reductions could weaken their capacity to ensure effective oversight and patient safety.

Healthcare leaders express alarm that these cuts may exacerbate existing gaps in service oversight and lead to inconsistent quality of care across different regions. The article highlights that, although some improvements have been made in patient safety and local care integration, financial limitations could hinder further progress.

Experts warn that reduced resources may impair ICBs' ability to monitor performance, implement safety protocols, and respond to patient feedback, potentially putting vulnerable populations at greater risk. The article cites specific examples where local health entities have successfully tackled safety issues and improved patient outcomes, drawing attention to how vital ICBs are in facilitating such initiatives.

The article calls for comprehensive dialogue about the sustainability of funding for ICBs and the significance of ensuring strong oversight mechanisms to protect patient safety. It emphasizes the risk of fragmented care if ICBs struggle to fulfill their responsibilities due to budget cuts and urges policymakers to consider the long-term repercussions on health services and patient welfare.

In conclusion, the proposed ICB cuts pose a considerable threat to the current efforts in maintaining uniform patient safety standards and addressing the healthcare needs of diverse populations across the country, necessitating immediate attention from health authorities.

Full article here.

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Thousands waiting 24hrs in A&E with mental illness

One in 10 mental health patients who attended A&E in England last month stayed for more than 24 hours – and this figure rose to more than one in three in some departments, new data suggests.

NHSE labelled the data as “experimental”, because no quality checks were performed after it was received. However, they are the first official figures on the size of this long-standing problem.

In total, 173 acute hospital sites with a major type 1 or specialist type 2 A&E recorded attendances of mental health patients, and 118 of these recorded stays of 24 hours.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 14 November 2025

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New AI tool could cut wasted efforts to transplant organs by 60%

Doctors have developed an AI tool that could reduce wasted efforts to transplant organs by 60%.

Thousands of patients worldwide are waiting for a potentially life-saving donor, and more candidates are stuck on waiting lists than there are available organs.

Recently, in cases where people need a liver transplant, access has been expanded by using donors who die after cardiac arrest. However, in about half of these donations after circulatory death (DCD) cases, the transplant ends up being cancelled.

That is because the time between the removal of life support and death must not exceed 45 minutes. If the donor does not die within the timeframe needed to preserve organ quality, surgeons often reject the liver because of the increased risk of complications to the recipient.

Now doctors, scientists and researchers at Stanford University have developed a machine learning model that predicts whether a donor is likely to die within the timeframe during which their organs are viable for transplantation.

The AI tool outperformed the judgment of top surgeons and reduced the rate of futile procurements – which occur when transplant preparations have begun but the donor dies too late – by 60%.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian (13 November 2025)

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Mersey Care to launch mental health research data platform

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust will establish a Secure Data Environment (SDE) for mental health research to improve understanding of mental health conditions and treatments.

The trust is working in partnership with the University of Liverpool through the Merseyside-based Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) and has received more than £2.7 million funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The funding allows Mersey Care to work with DATAMIND, the UK’s national data infrastructure for mental health research, to establish a SDE for NIHR’s Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC).

The secure data platform will receive, store and analyse patient data from the MH-TRC, and support linkage of MH-TRC data with other health-related datasets such as the NHS SDE networks (regional NHS research hubs), making it easier for researchers to access data to better understand mental health conditions and improve treatments.

Read full article.

Source: Digital Health (13 November 2025)

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Resident doctors begin five-day strike in latest walkout over pay

Thousands of resident doctors have begun strike action across England in a dispute over pay.

The five-day action, which began at 7am on Friday, is the 13th walkout by doctors since March 2023 and health leaders have warned that the NHS may have to cut frontline staff and offer fewer appointments and operations if the strikes continue.

The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, which represent health trusts, said continued action was piling pressure on already-stretched budgets. The last industrial action in July was estimated to have cost the health service £300m.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian (14 November 2025)

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NHS waiting list down after three months of rises

The NHS waiting list in England has fallen after three months of consecutive rises.

At the end of September, it stood at 7.39 million, down from 7.41 million the month before. Of those waiting, 61.8% of patients had been waiting less than 18 weeks.

That is the best performance for more than two years, but is well below the target of 92%, which the government has promised it will hit by the end of the parliament.

The NHS also released figures showing more than one million people came forward for flu jabs in the past week after a vaccination "SOS" was issued last week amid the early rise in flu cases this year.

Read full article.

Source: BBC News, 13 November 2025

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Deaths linked to antibiotic-resistant superbugs rose 17% in England in 2024

The number of deaths linked to superbugs that do not respond to frontline antibiotics increased by 17% in England last year, according to official figures that raise concerns about the ongoing increase in antimicrobial resistance.

The figures, released by the UK Health Security Agency, also revealed a large rise in private prescriptions for antibiotics, with 22% dispensed through the private sector in 2024.

The increase in private prescribing is partly explained by the Pharmacy First scheme, a flagship policy of Rishi Sunak’s government that allows patients to be prescribed antibiotics for common illnesses without seeing a GP, raising questions about whether the shift in prescribing patterns risks contributing to the rise in resistance.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest health threats we face,” said the UKHSA’s chief executive, Prof Susan Hopkins. “More people than ever are acquiring infections that cannot be effectively treated by antibiotics. This puts them at greater risk of serious illness and even death, with our poorest communities hit the hardest.”

The emergence of drug-resistant strains is an inevitable consequence of natural selection. Whenever the drugs are used they wipe out some bugs, but any survivors multiply and are transmitted.

Limiting the use of antibiotics to when they are most needed is one of the most effective ways of combatting the spread of resistance, which it has been predicted could cause as many as 10 million deaths a year globally by 2050.

The latest surveillance data found that the number of antibiotic-resistant infections in 2024 equated to an average of nearly 400 newly reported cases a week.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2025

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Hospitals knew a heart device led to more patients' deaths - but they kept using it

Dozens of patients were put at risk after two of the UK's leading transplant centres continued fitting a heart device - despite knowing of concerns it had a higher mortality rate than its rival product.

Concerns were raised by the NHS about the device in 2018. Of the patients who were subsequently fitted with the mechanical pump, half went on to die within three years.

LVADs have been life-savers for decades and, for a number of years, hospitals had a choice of two devices - the HeartWare HVAD, sold by the Irish-American company Medtronic, and the Heartmate III, sold by US manufacturer Abbott.

In October 2018, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which oversees transplants in the UK, conducted a preliminary audit comparing how the two pumps had performed. A more detailed analysis followed in April 2019.

The results were stark. Of the 119 patients who had received the Medtronic device, 45% - or 54 patients - had died within two years. In contrast, just 15% - 15 out of 97 patients - who were given the Abbott pump had died over the same period. Similarly, the number of complications - such as strokes or needing a new pump - were significantly higher for the Medtronic device. The audit said there were "no significant differences" between the types of patients who received each device.

One of the UK's six transplant centres, the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, did not wait for the NHS analysis. It had picked up on the growing international concerns and had stopped using the Medtronic device in February 2018 "after considering the results of two randomised controlled trials", as their clinicians "considered the Heartmate III as superior".

However, Harefield Hospital continued to solely use the Medtronic device until early 2021, shortly after the manufacturer had issued a safety notice. The Freeman Hospital continued until June 2021, when the manufacturer withdrew it from sale "in the interest of patient safety".

The regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), continued to approve the device for use after the 2019 analysis, though it had not been informed by the NHS of the data's existence.

Read full article.

Source: BBC News, 12 November 2025

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FDA rolls back warning labels on HRT products for menopause, citing misinformation

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will remove broad “black box” warning labels from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause. 

The action, announced Monday, follows a comprehensive review of scientific literature by an expert panel at the agency in July, officials said, as well as a public comment period. Manufacturers are now expected to update and reprint their product labeling to remove references to risks of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and probable dementia. 

“The label was designed to frighten women and to silence doctors,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on stage during the announcement on Monday morning. “The consequences have been devastating.” 

The FDA will not remove the boxed warning for endometrial cancer for systemic estrogen-only products. Its labeled recommendation will be to start HRT within 10 years of menopause onset or before 60 years of age for systemic HRT. 

Use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) plummeted quickly after a flawed, now infamous 2002 study. While the study found a small increased risk of breast cancer among participants using HRT, described as less than a tenth of 1% per year for an individual woman, critics say its results were widely misinterpreted and blown out of proportion. A 2024 study found that only 5% of American women use HRT for menopause.

About 80% of women experience menopause symptoms that can last years, yet research has found women who initiate HRT before the age of 60 have a reduction in all-cause mortality. HRT may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 50%; Alzheimer’s disease by 35%; bone fractures by up to 60%, according to figures an HHS press release cited.

Echoing Kennedy, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary blamed the study and “medical group-think” for creating “a fear machine that still lingers.” No clinical trial has ever shown that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer mortality, said Makary, who was previously a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins.

“How could the medical establishment get it so wrong for so long?” Makary questioned. “Women deserve the same rigorous science as do men.”

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 10 November 2025

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Leading doctors issue warning amid ‘bad’ flu season

Leading children’s doctors are urging parents to get their children the flu nasal spray, amid fears of a particularly severe flu season.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) stressed that even healthy children can become seriously ill.

This advice comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirms this year’s flu vaccine provides "strong protection".

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Source: Independent, 12 November 2025

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