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GPs face unsafe workload and fear neighbourhoods will make it worse, RCGP warns

A total of 73% of GPs say patient safety is compromised by the workload pressure they face, the survey of more than 2,300 GPs found.

Around three in five GPs (58%) reported a lack of time to adequately assess and treat patients during consultations and 57% said they did not have enough time to build relationships with patients that are key to high-quality care, according to findings published ahead of the 2025 RCGP annual conference, in Newport, Wales.

The polling also exposes deep concern over the impact of NHS neighbourhoods, with 68% of respondents voicing fears that there are not enough GPs to deliver the model proposed in the government's 10-year health plan and that it will deepen the workload crisis in general practice.

In her final speech as college chair, Professor Kamila Hawthorne told the conference that she has met GPs across the country who are 'pushing themselves, day after day, to look after their patients in the face of ever-growing demand and an unsustainable lack of capacity'.

She said: 'In our recent survey, 73% of members told us that patient safety is being compromised by workload pressures. Fewer than 30% said they had enough time during consultations to provide high quality patient care. And more than half reported that their own mental health had declined in the last year. It’s hard to find a GP who doesn’t feel they have to cut corners.'

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Source: GP Online, 9 October 2025

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Dangerous 'gray-market' weight-loss drugs flooding US as experts warn of risks

As demand for GLP-1 medications continues to skyrocket for weight loss and diabetes, more Americans are skipping pharmacies and turning to unregulated sellers as a way to avoid high prices, insurance barriers and recurring shortages.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that so-called "gray-market" GLP-1s (such as semaglutide or tirzepatide) are not evaluated for safety, quality or efficacy.

As they fall outside the legal drug supply chain, these unapproved drugs may be counterfeit, contaminated or improperly compounded, the agency states. 

Some are marketed online as "compounded semaglutide" or "research-use only," shipped directly to consumers with little oversight.

Recent research published in JAMA Health Forum also warned that some compounded products use unverified chemical forms of semaglutide that differ from FDA-approved versions. 

Fox News Digital spoke with Frank Dumont, M.D., medical director at Virta Health in Colorado, who said the rise of gray-market GLP-1s reflects growing desperation to access these medications outside regulated medical channels.

"Gray-market medications are versions of prescription medications that are obtained outside of the usual prescription process," Dumont said. 

"The usual safety precautions have been bypassed, in one way or another, and this increases the medical risk of using such a product."

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Source: Fox News, 7 October 2025

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Death toll from toxic cough syrup in India rises to 20 children as WHO demands answers

The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked India for urgent reassurances after at least 20 children died from contaminated cough syrup.

The deaths have all taken place in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, and were confirmed by the deputy chief minister Rajendra Shukla on Tuesday after he visited a hospital treating the children. “Two of them died in the past 24 hours,” he said.

This is only the latest incident of child deaths from Indian cough syrup. Toxins found in Indian-made syrups have killed at least 141 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022, and another 12 children in an incident in India in 2019, damaging the country’s image as one of the world’s biggest producers of pharmaceuticals.

The latest victims had reportedly been suffering from fever and cold before taking a cough syrup called Coldrif, after which they experienced vomiting and difficulty urinating. The first death was reported on 2 September.

The syrup was produced by Sresan Pharmaceuticals, based in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu, in southern India.

Authorities have since banned the formulation in eight Indian states and territories – Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry.

The WHO told Reuters it was seeking clarification from the Indian government on whether the cough syrup involved in the deaths has been exported to other countries.

The UN’s health agency, which advises against the use of all cold syrups for young children, suggested it could issue a global warning over Coldrif depending on the Indian government’s response.

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Source: The Independent, 8 October 2025

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Children harmed by decision to redeploy health visitors, Covid inquiry hears

A decision by the NHS to redeploy health visitors during the pandemic was "fundamentally flawed" and "children were harmed" as a result, the head of a health visiting charity has told the Covid inquiry.

Many health visitors were sent to work in other parts of the NHS at the beginning of the pandemic.

Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, told the inquiry it was "inappropriate" as they "were needed most on their own front line".

NHS England's Chief Nursing Officer Duncan Burton told the inquiry its response to safeguarding did not stop throughout the pandemic despite staff being diverted to critical services.

Health visitors in almost two thirds of trusts in England were redeployed in March 2020, according to research by University College London.

The intention was that they would go to work in hospitals to support acutely ill patients but some were sent to do administration, to deliver parcels and to answer telephones, the inquiry heard.

Some health visitors who remained in post were left with case loads of 750 children or more, way above the recommended 250, evidence provided by Prof Catherine Davies, of Leeds University, to the inquiry showed.

"We let families down", Ms Morton told the inquiry, saying protection was not afforded to babies and that "some children paid the highest price".

The inquiry was shown research by the child safeguarding review practice panel which identified Covid adaptions, such as virtual visits as opposed to home visits by health visitors, as factors in the deaths and serious incidents of some children.

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Source: BBC News, 8 October 2025

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Trump pressure to hike UK drug prices could cost NHS billions, experts warn

Pressure from Donald Trump to hike UK drug prices could wipe billions from the NHS budget, causing suffering to the “vast majority of NHS patients”, experts have warned.

Health think tank, the Nuffield Trust, urged the government not to give in to the demands of pharmaceutical companies to raise prices, warning that the threshold for spending on new drugs is already too high.

It says a new deal will only trigger further increased price demands and make healthcare in the UK more expensive.

The warning comes as Sir Keir Starmer looks set to bow to President Trump’s demands to pay pharmaceutical companies more money, including increasing the threshold the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) sets for spending on new drugs by 25%.

The move is believed to be an attempt by the government to avoid a wave of new US tariffs over what President Trump believes to be anti-competitive practices by the UK.

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Source: The Independent, 8 October 2025

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Researchers warn doctors could be ‘overtesting’ for prostate cancer

Doctors are “overtesting” men for prostate cancer and not targeting “those most likely to benefit,” researchers have warned.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, affecting 55,300 men a year, but prostate-specific antigen testing (PSA) is only routinely recommended for men with certain symptoms.

This type of testing remains controversial because it has led to an increased number of healthy men being diagnosed and treated unnecessarily for harmless tumours, which can lead to erectile dysfunction or incontinence, according to Prostate Cancer UK.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, in a study of more than 10 million men in England, aimed to find out how PSA tests are used.

The study, published by the BMJ, highlights that there is a lack of consistent guidance and many patients are tested more frequently than recommended, even patients without recorded symptoms.

The major concern raised in this study “is that unregulated PSA testing will result in large costs and harms and increase the incidence of prostate cancer likely to remain undetected, while doing little to identify prostate cancer most likely to cause symptoms and death”.

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Source: The Independent, 8 October 2025

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Top 10 trust served warning notice as quality ‘declines significantly’

A trust ranked in the top 10 of the government’s new provider league table for the mental health and community sector has been served with a warning notice after a Care Quality Commission inspection found multiple breaches of regulations. 

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust has been told to make urgent improvements, after the CQC rated safety in one of its key services as “inadequate”.

The trust sits within segment one of the four-tier league table and is ranked ninth out of the service’s 61 mental health and community trusts. It achieved the third-highest score for a dedicated mental health trust.

K&M was given an “above average” score for patient safety, one of the five domains that make up the overall league table ranking. This rating was given despite one of the two indicators used to calculate the domain rating – the proportion of staff “raising concerns” – placing the trust 52nd out of 61 mental health and community trusts.

K&M was ranked as “high performing” in the “effectiveness and experience of care” domain.

The CQC inspection of the trust’s community mental health services for working age adults raised concerns over the lack of up-to-date risk assessments, long waiting times and insufficient staffing levels.

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Source: HSJ, 9 October 2025

 
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New ‘unusual’ side effect of weight-loss drugs becoming more common, research suggests

A new “unusual” side effect of weight-loss drugs is becoming more common, research has suggested.

Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy have soared in popularity. About one in eight U.S. adults said they’ve taken a GLP-1 drug, used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in May 2024.

But like with any other drugs, there are side effects, including a newly found one that could interfere with medical imaging.

Researchers from Alliance Medical, a European imaging service provider, reviewed oncologic FDG PET-CT scans in patients taking GLP-1 drugs.

Alliance Medical researchers found several abnormal patterns of FDG uptake in patients taking GLP-1 drugs, according to a September presentation at the Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine. These abnormal patterns could be misinterpreted by doctors if a patient’s medication history is not considered.

“We noticed unusual uptake in one of our patients on a GLP-1 agonist, which prompted a wider review across our network,” lead author Dr. Peter Strouhal, Medical Director at Alliance Medical, said in a statement published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“We found that these altered patterns are increasingly common, yet there is currently no national or international guidance in the UK addressing this emerging issue.”

If patients’ scans are misinterpreted, it can lead to unnecessary tests, incorrect cancer staging and delays in treatment.

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Source: The Independent, 8 October 2025

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Trusts in Northern Ireland spend £22m on restricted procedures such as tummy tucks

Northern Ireland's health trusts spent almost £22m in a single year on restricted procedures which should only be carried out in very specific circumstances, according to the auditor general.

Dorinnia Carville said about 12,000 operations, which include tummy tucks and tonsillectomies, were carried out in 2023-24 without any assurance they complied with government policy.

Ms Carville described the lack of oversight by the Department of Health and the trusts as "very disappointing".

The Department of Health and the five health trusts acknowledged the concerns raised in the Audit Office report and accepted that oversight arrangements must be strengthened.

Health trusts must adhere to the Effective Use of Resources (EUR) policy which restricts 29 medical procedures, with six of these not permitted at all.

The Audit Office report found 40 restricted procedures were carried out each day during that year.

Other restricted procedures include liposuction, breast reduction, removal of breast implants, carpal tunnel and tattoo removal.

The auditor general found the EUR policy was "not resulting in good value for money being achieved".

She said: "Trusts have not put in place arrangements to verify that medical staff are complying with the policy."

"At a time when our health service is facing increased demands and significant financial pressures, measures introduced to ensure the effective use of resources are vital.

"However, these can only be successful if they are properly implemented and monitored."

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Source: BBC News, 8 October 2025

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Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome

Scientists say they have developed the world’s first blood test to diagnose myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

There is currently no test for the condition and patients tend to be diagnosed based on symptoms, which means many can go undiagnosed for years.

The lead researcher, Prof Dmitry Pshezhetskiy, from the University of East Anglia (UEA) Norwich Medical School, said: “ME/CFS is a serious and often disabling illness characterised by extreme fatigue that is not relieved by rest. We know that some patients report being ignored or even told that their illness is ‘all in their head’. With no definitive tests, many patients have gone undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years.

“We wanted to see if we could develop a blood test to diagnose the condition – and we did. Our discovery offers the potential for a simple, accurate blood test to help confirm a diagnosis, which could lead to earlier support and more effective management.”

Scientists at UEA and Oxford Biodynamics (OBD) looked at how DNA was folded in patients diagnosed with the condition, which could provide tell-tale signs of ME/CFS.

They examined blood samples from 47 patients with severe ME/CFS and 61 healthy adults. The team discovered a unique pattern that appears consistently in people with ME/CFS that is not seen in healthy people, enabling them to develop the test.

However, some experts not involved with the research urged caution and said the test would need to be fully validated in better designed and independent studies before it could be considered for use in clinical practice.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 October 2025

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Comparing trusts on new productivity metric is misleading, experts warn

Recent productivity improvements will be hard to sustain in future years, experts have warned, as they said newly published NHS England data fails to show which trusts are the most productive.

The Department for Health and Social Care announced last month that productivity at acute and specialist trusts had grown by 2.7% in 2024-25 compared to the previous year – exceeding the 2% target set by government.

The productivity measure, which compares cost-weighted activity growth against real-terms resource growth to give a “productivity growth estimate”, is also one of three finance measures used to determine which segment of the NHS Oversight Framework providers are assigned.

The data, which compares 2023-24 with 2024-25, has last month published what effectively amounts to a productivity “league table”.

HSJ has learned some trusts, including two specialist providers which appeared to be the worst performers when the data was first published last month, have raised concerns to NHSE that their figures were inaccurate.

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Source: HSJ, 7 October 2025

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‘Wild west’ of AI suppliers face new NHSE checks

A new national registry for ambient voice technology providers to combat the “wild west” of suppliers is due to launch this week, England’s national chief clinical information officer has announced.

Alec Price-Forbes told delegates at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) conference today that the new register was a “tactical response” to the rapid rollout of AVT across the NHS.

The AI software automatically transcribes patient-clinician conversations into structured medical notes, freeing up clinicians from manual documentation and allowing them to focus more on patient care.

The NHS 10-Year Health Plan pledged a mass rollout of AVT to deliver productivity gains among clinicians and improve their engagement with patients.

Dr Price-Forbes announced that NHS England would imminently launch a national “self-certified registry” for AVT, underpinned by “clear business capabilities and application requirements for all AVT suppliers to evidence compliance”.

He added that the registry would list existing and recognised regulatory, clinical safety and interoperability standards, but would also go further by introducing specific criteria for “greater safety governance and performance monitoring” of AI and large language models.

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Source: HSJ, 7 October 2025

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Deaf people criticise hospital interpreter delays

A deaf man who spent 24 hours in hospital without the support of an interpreter said staff were shouting out his name despite being told he could not hear.

Terry Murray, from Rugby, is among a group of NHS patients to have been left feeling frustrated or vulnerable at a city hospital because of a lack of sign language interpreters.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Association for the Deaf (CWAD) said it had received more than 100 complaints over delays in getting access to interpreters at University Hospital Coventry.

The trust running the hospital said its interpreter service provider LanguageLine Solutions would be engaging with CWAD.

Mr Murray told BBC Radio CWR he was taken to hospital with potential brain issues and asked for an interpreter but was not given one for 24 hours.

He said he had a CT scan and an MRI but the staff could not explain anything for him because there was nobody who knew sign language.

"They just basically took me, put me in, I had the scan and then was told to leave," he said.

Another CWAD service user said such situations could have safety implications.

Helen Patterson, from Solihull, said she requested an interpreter four or five times in advance before hospital appointments but none had been there when she arrived.

She said it felt like a waste of her time and money, adding that she had sometimes been offered an interpreter over a video link but said there were often connection issues.

"If we're sat there as deaf people, we don't know if there's a fire alarm, if there's a bomb or if there's an emergency," she said.

"We're at risk not having an interpreter present with us. We're very vulnerable."

National hearing loss charity RNID told the BBC that the NHS was "flouting equality law", adding that under the Accessible Information Standard, the NHS should be providing interpreters and accessible means of communication when needed.

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Source: BBC News, 4 October 2025

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Pharmacies facing angry and confused patients over Covid jab eligibility

UK pharmacies have reported having to deal with angry and confused patients after the NHS booking system allowed non-eligible patients to book Covid jabs.

According to Community Pharmacy England (CPE), which represents more than 10,000 chemists, between a third and half of patients who booked via the national booking system are not actually eligible for the vaccination.

CPE director of NHS services Alastair Buxton told the BBC that many patients had arrived at their pharmacy having booked the Covid-19 jab, only to be told they could only get the flu jab.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said the situation has been “deeply frustrating” for both patients and pharmacists.

"That obviously takes a lot of explaining to patients. It causes upset, concern and maybe anger for some patients,” Mr Buxton said.

"We've certainly had examples of some patients becoming abusive with pharmacy team members."

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Source: The Independent, 7 October 2025

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Children’s unit to close over staffing and CQC concerns

A children’s mental health unit struggling with short staffing has been forced to close for several months, in the wake of a Care Quality Commission inspection.

Chalkhill Hospital, an inpatient unit run by Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust in the grounds of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, has capacity for up to 16 young people aged 12 to 17.

The trust confirmed it has closed to new admissions and, although it is not at full capacity, is seeking to relocate its seven current residents. However, the trust expects this to take up to 12 weeks. 

A board paper shows the trust was contemplating closure from mid-September, citing “no consultant cover”, and said admissions were paused following concerns from the CQC.

The CQC inspected the unit at the end of August, but has not yet published its report, and would not comment further.

HSJ understands the trust has recently recruited a new “responsible clinician” – a regulated role required for patients detained under the Mental Health Act – but they will not take up the post for several weeks.

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Source: HSJ, 6 October 2025

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Trump launches website to help Americans buy cheaper drugs, with Pfizer signing up

The US president, Donald Trump, has announced a new web portal—dubbed TrumpRx—to allow Americans to buy drugs at reduced prices from next year.1

Prices listed on TrumpRx will be the “most favoured nation” price, said Trump—essentially, the lowest price paid by other developed nations such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, and Denmark. In a press conference announcement on 30 September Trump reiterated that US drug costs were higher than in other developed nations.

The website is intended to facilitate direct-to-consumer access to prescription drugs at lower prices,2 although the announcements did not say how prescriptions would be verified, and no further detail was disclosed at the press conference.

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Source: BMJ, 3 October 2025

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Covid-19: Lack of surveillance leaves UK in dark as hospital admissions rise, experts warn

The UK’s current method of recording Covid-19 cases “is not a sensible approach to managing the spread of infection,” virologists have warned.

Latest data showed an uptick in the number of UK covid cases and hospital admissions that experts said was “worrying, so early in autumn.”

The latest surveillance report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed that in the week starting 15 September the overall weekly hospital admission rate for covid was 2.73 per 100 000 people. This was up by 60% from a month prior, when the rate was 1.71 per 100 000 in the week starting 18 August. And latest data from the following week show that covid cases rose 22%—from 2012 weekly cases to 2459—in the week to 24 September.

Amanda Doyle, NHS England’s primary care director, said, “It’s concerning to hear flu and covid-19 cases are already creeping up ahead of winter,” urging people who were eligible to come forward for vaccinations as soon as they could.3

But Young warned that reduced data now collected by the UK on the virus could mean that health officials were flying blind into the winter period. “The lack of routine [covid] testing means we have no idea about the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population, making it difficult to predict any future waves of infection,” he said.

Current testing predominantly focuses on hospital patients rather than community or primary care, which Young said could make it “difficult to identify and monitor outbreaks.” He added, “Relying on hospitalisations as a measure of surges in infection is not a sensible approach to managing the spread of infection and planning for pressures on the NHS.”

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Source: BMJ, 3 October 2025

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More than 60,000 cancer patients in England ‘not getting necessary radiotherapy’

More than 60,000 cancer patients a year in England are not getting the radiotherapy they need at all, while some face waits of up to six months to begin the treatment, research has found.

The situation is so dire that nearly 100 heads of radiotherapy and oncology – three-quarters of England’s radiotherapy leaders – have warned in an open letter that the government is failing patients.

International experts agree that more than half (53%) of all cancer patients will typically need radiotherapy, but exclusive analysis of the latest NHS data in England shows only 35% actually receive it. The study by the charity Radiotherapy UK found 181,023 cancer patients should have received radiotherapy but only 120,569 did, leaving 60,455 patients a year without any radiotherapy at all.

Regional inequalities are rife. In south-west England, 36% of patients receive radiotherapy, meaning around 7,200 patients miss out, while in the south-east, 33.7% receive treatment, with more than 10,100 missing out.

The leading oncologist and chair of Radiotherapy UK, Prof Pat Price, said: “Thousands of cancer patients risk dying prematurely either because they are not getting radiotherapy at all or because of huge delays in starting radiation treatment.”

She added: “Radiotherapy is one of the most cost-effective and curative cancer treatments we have. It is not a ‘nice to have’, this is a life-saving treatment.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 September 2025

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Maternity units disrupted for nine months by IT fault

An IT fault has prevented several major maternity units in South London from properly storing foetal heart monitoring records for more than nine months, HSJ has learned.

St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group (GESH) and Kingston and Richmond Foundation Trust have confirmed they are affected by a problem which prevents cardiotocography (CTG) traces from being automatically downloaded and stored.

A manual workaround has been put in place, which the trusts said ensured CTG traces were captured and safely stored, but the fault is not yet fixed.

CTGs can track a baby’s heart rate and a mother’s contractions during labour and are often critical evidence in clinical negligence investigations.

Board papers from GESH, published in September, said CTG traces from Neoventa STAN machines were not being downloaded or stored as expected.

It warned that the absence of CTG traces “presents a clinical and legal risk”, given their frequent role in determining breach of duty in clinical negligence claims.

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Source: HSJ, 3 October 2025

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Call to allow ‘safe and effective’ at-home abortions up to 12 weeks in UK

At-home abortions should be allowed for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy across the UK, according to academics, after a study found they were just as safe and effective as hospital care.

A medical abortion involves taking two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. In 2022, at-home medical abortions were made permanent in England and Wales, after temporary legislation allowed them to take place at home during the pandemic. In Northern Ireland, at-home abortion care is not permitted at any gestation.

Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending that early medical abortions can occur safely at home in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, legislation across England and Wales limits this to 10 weeks.

The study, published in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, looked at the outcomes of abortions carried out between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy in hospital and at home across NHS Lothian in Scotland, between 2020 and 2025. At-home medical abortions are legal in Scotland up to 12 weeks.

During this period, 14,458 referrals were made to the abortion service, and of these 485 women (3.5%) were assessed as being between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy either by the date of their last period or by an ultrasound scan.

The researchers found that 97% of abortions were successful for both groups of women.

They also found cases of serious complications, such as heavy bleeding or infection, one month after the procedure among those who had opted for a medical abortion at home. But despite this, the researchers concluded it was a rare complication among women who are less than 20 weeks pregnant.

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Source: The Guardian, 

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The doctors banned from practising abroad cleared to treat in NHS

he health secretary has ordered an urgent review of vetting procedures for foreign qualified doctors after a Times investigation exposed how medics banned from practising overseas have been cleared to treat NHS patients.

Wes Streeting described the findings as “horrific” and “a serious failure in our medical regulatory systems that I will not tolerate”.

One doctor was fired when The Times approached their employer with its revelations, and another is under suspension.

Sujan Thyagaraj, a psychiatrist employed by a Bradford NHS trust, lost his US medical licence for having sex with a patient. Sattar Kadhem, a radiologist, lost his Swedish and Norwegian medical licences for misreading scans.

Despite this, both were granted the right to practise in the UK.

They were among 22 doctors identified by The Times who have been subject to discipline or restrictions overseas but with no record of it showing on their General Medical Council (GMC) licences.

In each case the GMC had either failed to spot the overseas findings — despite in some cases this information being public record — or it did not think the information should be available to patients.

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Source: The Times, 2 October 2025

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UK woman who refused cancer drugs was influenced by mother, inquest finds

A woman who died after refusing chemotherapy doctors believed would have given her a strong chance of recovery was “adversely influenced” by her conspiracy theorist mother, a coroner has said.

Paloma Shemirani died aged 23 in July 2024 after refusing conventional treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. On Thursday, the coroner in her inquest said the influence of her parents, Kay and Faramarz Shemirani, “more than minimally” contributed to her death.

“It seems that if Paloma had been supported and encouraged to accept her diagnosis and considered chemotherapy with an open mind she probably would have followed that course,” Catherine Wood told a hearing at Kent and Medway coroner’s court in Maidstone.

She said Kay Shemirani “took a leading role in advising Paloma in respect of and facilitating access to alternative treatments”. She added: “If approached with an open mind, Paloma would have chosen the chance to survive, and if she had undergone chemotherapy she probably would have survived.”

An NHS doctor told the inquest into Paloma Shemirani’s death she was concerned her mother, Kay, better known as the online influencer Kate Shemirani, influenced her daughter’s refusal of cancer treatment.

Arunodaya Mohan, a consultant haematologist at Maidstone hospital, said she had recommended steroids and a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, and that Paloma had “nodded in agreement”.

At the time of her diagnosis, doctors at Maidstone hospital told Paloma she had an 80% chance of recovery through chemotherapy.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 October 2025

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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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Millions of seniors could lose access to telehealth without deal in Congress

Millions of American seniors could lose access to telehealth appointments with their doctors if Congress fails to fund them amid a looming government shutdown, while thousands more who have been receiving high-level, acute care at home face being sent back to the hospital or discharged.

While most Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals will continue in the event the government shuts down Wednesday, payments for video health care visits — which gained in popularity during the pandemic and must be separately authorised for an extension by Congress — face elimination.

Without getting paid or receiving some assurance they would be compensated retroactively, doctors and hospitals say they will be unable to provide services. Particularly for elderly people with limited mobility or transportation hurdles, telehealth has become a vital service improving their access to care, advocates say.

Losing these benefits will “exacerbate all types of problems in our health care system,” said Kyle Zebley, executive director of ATA Action, the advocacy arm of the American Telemedicine Association. “It’s going to diminish capacity at a point in time when we don’t have enough.”

More than 6.7 million seniors received care through a telehealth service visit last year, according to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which is a quarter of eligible Medicare beneficiaries. During the pandemic, the number was even higher, with 14.8 million eligible Medicare beneficiaries receiving telehealth services in 2020.

The funding cliff for the telehealth and home-hospital care programs is separate from shutdown negotiations, but both programmes are caught up waiting for congressional action. Some providers have been warning patients for months that their appointments may no longer be reimbursed, while others are remaining hopeful that Congress will come through with a last-minute funding plan. The biggest impact would be in urban and suburban areas, according to medical groups, while patients in rural areas that were eligible before the pandemic would continue to receive coverage.

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Source: Washington Post, 30 September 2025

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'Years of unnecessary chemotherapy stole my youth'

A brain cancer patient who says he was prescribed chemotherapy tablets for 16 years, even though NHS guidelines say they should only be taken for six months, has said he feels his youth was stolen from him.

Jonathan Jones was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma in 2007 when he was 17 and took temozolomide tablets until November 2023, when he was 33.

Since he has raised his case with lawyers, more than 30 other brain cancer patients at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) have raised similar concerns.

The NHS trust said it was committed to providing the safest possible care and had commissioned an independent inquiry.

Prof Ian Brown, the oncologist who oversaw Mr Jones's care, is being investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC). The BBC has attempted to contact the retired professor several times.

Mr Jones, now aged 36, said: "I lost my freedom, I couldn't do anything at the time. I had 16, 17 years taken away from me."

Mr Jones was told he would need to stay on his tablets to stay alive, and when he questioned the treatment, he said the reply was: "Do you want to die? If you don't carry on taking the chemo, you'll die."

Guidelines say temozolomide should be taken post radiotherapy for a maximum of six cycles, external. This is usually over six months.

There are a wide range of side effects associated with temozolomide including muscle weakness, memory issues and, in rare cases, secondary cancers and liver damage.

Another patient, Samantha Smith from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, says she took temozolomide for six-and-a-half years while under the direction of Prof Brown at UHCW.

She said she had suffered from teeth and gum decay, mobility issues and chronic fatigue.

Ms Smith said: "You never expect anybody to turn around and say to you 'by the way, you've had too much'."

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Source: BBC News, 2 October 2025

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