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Full-body scans of 100,000 people could change way diseases are detected and treated

Scientists expect to gain unprecedented insights into human ageing and the earliest signs of disease after scanning 100,000 people from head to toe in the world’s largest whole body imaging project.

The completion of the decade-long task means qualifying researchers worldwide will have access to 1bn de-identified images of the hearts, brains, abdomens, blood vessels, bones and joints of volunteers alongside medical histories and rich data on their genetic makeup, health and lifestyle.

Subsets of the images compiled by UK Biobank, which follows the health of half a million people in Britain, have already underpinned breakthroughs in how the heart influences psychiatric disorders and shown that the scans can predict dozens of future diseases. They also suggest no amount of alcohol consumption is healthy.

“Researchers now have an incredible window into the body,” said Naomi Allen, the chief scientist at UK Biobank. “For the first time, researchers can study how we age and how diseases develop in stunning detail and at a massive scale.”

“We hope that the findings … will change the way the world detects and treats disease before people get sick,” she added.

UK Biobank is now re-scanning 60,000 volunteers to see how people’s brains, bodies and bones change in the years after their first scan. Louise Thomas, a professor of metabolic imaging at the University of Westminster, has looked at body scans taken two years apart. “The results were shocking. The amount of visceral fat, the bad fat in the abdomen, had increased,” she said. Muscle also becomes more fatty. “As we get older, we become more and more marbled,” she said. “We’re becoming wagyu beef.”

Medical advances made from the images are expected to transform procedures in the NHS. One of Thomas’s colleagues automated the detection of aneurysms – life-threatening bulges in blood vessel walls. While men are already screened for them, women are not, even though they are more serious in women. “We can do lots of things we weren’t able to do before. It’s quite extraordinary,” Thomas added.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 July 2025

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UK worst in G7 for MMR jab rates, as 30m children worldwide not fully immunised

Millions of children worldwide are at growing risk of serious illness and death due to declining infant vaccination rates, experts have warned, while the UK ranks worst of major western economies for MMR immunisation.

Figures released by the World Health Organization and Unicef show that more than 30 million children worldwide are not fully immunised against measles, mumps and rubella and 14.3 million children have not received a single routine infant vaccination.

While the figures show that measles coverage improved slightly last year, reaching 2 million more children than in 2023, vaccination rates have gone backwards in some middle- and high-income countries and stagnated in other regions, leaving children increasingly vulnerable to outbreaks of the disease.

Across 53 countries in Europe and central Asia, vaccination coverage dropped by an average of one percentage point on 2019 levels. In 2024, more than half of the countries in the region did not meet the 95% vaccination rate required to reach herd immunity for measles. Almost a third reported coverage below 90%.

Unicef warned that without concerted action, millions more children could die or fall seriously ill from measles. Ephrem Tekle Lemango, the chief of immunisation at Unicef, said while more children were being vaccinated overall and global coverage was “inching upward”, progress was “not keeping pace with the threat”.

He said: “In 2024 alone, over 20 million children globally missed their first measles dose and nearly 12 million missed their second – leaving dangerous immunity gaps that continue to fuel outbreaks.

“Measles is one of the most contagious viruses we face. Even small declines in coverage, especially in communities affected by conflict, displacement or weak health systems, can trigger devastating surges. To protect every child, we need to reach 95% coverage with two doses in every district, in every country. Until we do, millions of children remain at risk of serious illness or death from a disease we have the tools to prevent.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 July 2025

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A&E’s staff ‘not trained’ for mental health

Staff working in an understaffed A&E were unsure about who was responsible for the care of patients with mental health issues – potentially putting them at risk of harm, the Care Quality Commission has said.

In a letter to East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust, the CQC warned there was a lack of clarity over who was responsible for patients with mental health issues at Colchester Hospital’s A&E – including over who should be completing their observations.

Inspectors also raised concerns about staffing levels, a lack of training, and monitoring of patients waiting in corridors.

The letter said: “We spoke with staff working in the emergency department who told us they did not have any special training for mental health patients. Staff told us this was concerning as they often cared for mental health patients.”

Staff also told the CQC they did not know what a corridor risk assessment was, despite a number of patients being cared for in corridors. The CQC warned of the problems in moving beds around in the corridor.

“If a patient were to deteriorate, it would be challenging to either take the patient to resuscitation or to get the resuscitation trolley to the patient,” the CQC said. Patients in corridor beds without call bells would not be able to summon help if they deteriorated, it added.

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Source: HSJ, 14 July 2025

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'My voice box was removed after NHS missed my throat cancer'

Steve Barton is angry, and he has every right to be.

The 68-year-old retired engineer stares at his medical notes that, he says, expose in black and white the moment his life changed forever.

"I have somehow missed… due to my mistake," a doctor writes in one of the notes, after it became apparent that Mr Barton had not been urgently referred to specialists over what later became an aggressive form of throat cancer.

Steve now has a prosthetic voice box and is one of many British patients fighting medical negligence claims after being misdiagnosed.

NHS officials in Scotland are dealing with thousands of cases annually. Meanwhile, Westminster's Public Affairs Committee (PAC) recently disclosed England's Department of Health and Social Care has set aside £58.2bn to settle clinical lawsuits arising before 2024.

Mr Barton, who lives in Alloa near Stirling, repeatedly contacted his doctors after he began struggling with his breathing, speaking and swallowing. His concerns were recorded by the NHS as sinus issues.

As panic grew and his voice became weaker, Mr Barton paid to see a private consultant who revealed the devastating news that a massive tumour had grown on his larynx and required part of his throat to be removed immediately.

"I am angry, I am upset, I don't want anyone else to go through this," Mr Barton told Sky News.

"There were at least four, possibly five, conversations on the phone. He [the doctor] said to me that it sounds like I've got reflux."

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Source: Sky News, 13 July 2025

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Child dies as measles cases surge at Liverpool hospital

A child with measles has died at a Liverpool hospital.

The individual was being treated at Alder Hey Children's Hospital after becoming ill with measles and other health problems.

It comes as the NHS hospital said it is "concerned" about the increasing number of children and young people who are contracting the highly contagious virus.

It said it has treated 17 cases of the effects and complications of measles since June.

"We are concerned about the increasing number of children and young people who are contracting measles. Measles is a highly contagious viral illness which can cause children to be seriously unwell, requiring hospital treatment, and in rare cases, death," the hospital said in a statement to Sky News.

In a separate open letter to parents and carers in Merseyside earlier this month, Alder Hey, along with the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) and directors of Public Health for Liverpool, Sefton and Knowsley, warned the increase in measles in the region could be down to fewer people getting vaccinated.

The letter read: "We are seeing more cases of measles in our children and young people because fewer people are having the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles and two other viruses called mumps and rubella.

"Children in hospital, who are very poorly for another reason, are at higher risk of catching the virus."

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Source: Sky News, 13 July 2025

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Victims of three medical products that caused 'avoidable harm' still awaiting redress

The dark granite block in a children's cemetery in Bristol tells an incomplete story: "Trelissa Whitbread, born 3rd of Feb 1988. She lived 2 hours."

Deborah Mann has not returned to the grave of her firstborn for 30 years but today has come with her daughter, Branwen, to tell her the story. "It shouldn't have happened," she says quietly.

Ms Mann had four pregnancies. Her first two children, Trelissa and Kaverne, died shortly after birth. Ms Mann believes their deaths were caused by an epilepsy drug she was taking called sodium valproate, prescribed by her GP.

After a long gap she would go on to have two more children, both girls, who were diagnosed with what is now recognised as foetal valproate syndrome, which has left them with life-long physical and neurological problems.

Ms Mann tells Sky News: "I asked so many questions and was told 'this is just the way things are.' It can't be the way things are when you lose two babies. How can it be the way things are?"

Five years ago, valproate was among three medical products including the pregnancy test drug Primodos and medical device pelvic mesh, that were found to have caused "avoidable harm" to patients.

The report was clear that valproate could cause lifelong disabilities to the children of mothers taking the drug when pregnant.

The independent review, chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, strongly criticised the industry and regulators and made a series of recommendations, including the creation of a redress scheme for victims in all three groups.

Five years on there is still no such scheme for any of the campaign groups.

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Source: Sky News, 11 July 2025

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Hospital boards not ready to run population health, says government adviser

Hospital trust boards are not currently in a position to run population health and “very few” acute chief executives “truly understand” primary care, government’s neighbourhood health adviser has told HSJ.

Sir John Oldham, A former GP and a senior adviser to Wes Streeting, told HSJ in an interview: “You can’t just take a hospital trust board and management and think that it will be able to run population health, because the skill set and knowledge set is really quite different.”

The 10-Year Health Plan, published last week, said high-performing trusts would be encouraged to evolve into “integrated health organisations”. Similar to accountable care organisations in the USA, they would take on a population-based budget to run – and commission – a wide range of acute, community, primary and social care services. Some will begin in 2026, and the plan says IHOs will “over time… become the norm”.

There are questions about how it will fit with the planned expansion of primary care-led neighbourhood health work, including two proposed new “neighbourhood provider” contracts.

Sir John, who is leading a new programme implementing neighbourhood health, said “deepening the connectivity with local authorities” was particularly important “when you’re developing IHOs, because if they just become hospital services being delivered in the same way in the community, then it will fail”. 

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Source: HSJ, 9 July 2025

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Mesh victims ‘still fighting for justice’ five years on from review

Women harmed by vaginal mesh are “still fighting for justice”, campaigners have said on the fifth anniversary of a review into the scandal.

Sling the Mesh, a campaign group representing women harmed by mesh, accused governments of “dragging their feet” on implementing all the recommendations set out in the report.

The review examined how the health service responded to concerns over pelvic mesh – which has been linked to crippling, life-changing complications including chronic pain, infections and loss of sex life; the anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate – which has been linked to physical malformations, autism and developmental delay in many children when it is taken by their mothers during pregnancy, and hormone pregnancy tests such as Primodos – which are thought to be associated with birth defects and miscarriages.

It concluded that patients came to “avoidable harm” because the healthcare system failed to respond in a speedy and appropriate way when serious concerns were raised about some medical treatments.

The First Do No Harm review, published in 2020, found patients were “dismissed” and “overlooked”, while the healthcare system had a “glacial” and “defensive” response to concerns over treatments.

It set out a series of recommendations, but campaigners have said that to date, some three of the nine recommendations set out in the review have been implemented.

One of the key recommendations of the report was the appointment of a Patient Safety Commissioner, who would be an “independent public leader with a statutory responsibility”.

A commissioner was appointed, but following the Government’s 10-year plan for health last week, it has been confirmed that this role will be transferred into the MHRA.

Ms Sansom said: “Moving the Patient Safety Commissioner role to the MHRA silences the patient voice instead of strengthening it.

“It strips away independence, undermines trust, and betrays the very women this role was created to protect.”

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Source: Yahoo News, 8 July 2025

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South Africans fear spike in HIV infections as US aid cuts bite

Gugu used to collect her antiretrovirals from a USAID-funded clinic in central Johannesburg.

But when President Trump's cuts to aid funding were announced earlier this year, she and thousands of other HIV-positive patients across South Africa suddenly faced an uncertain future.

Gugu was lucky, the clinic where she got the medication that helps suppress her symptoms contacted her before it closed down.

"I was one of the people who was able to get their medication in bulk. I usually collect a three-month prescription. But before my clinic closed, they gave me nine months' worth of medication."

She will run out of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in September, and then plans on going to her local public hospital for more.

She currently works as a project coordinator for an NGO.

"We help pregnant sex workers get their ARVs, to ensure their children are born HIV-negative. We also do home visits to make sure that the mothers take their medication on time, and to look after their babies when they go for their monthly check-ups."

Many HIV-positive sex workers in South Africa relied on private clinics funded by the US government's now-defunct aid agency, USAID, to get their prescriptions and treatments.

But most of the facilities closed after US President Donald Trump cut most foreign aid earlier this year.

Gugu believes that many sex workers could be discouraged from going to public hospitals for their ARVs if they can no longer get them from clinics.

"The problem with going to public hospitals is the time factor. In order to get serviced at these facilities, you have to arrive at 4 or 5am, and they may spend the whole day waiting for their medication. For sex workers, time is money," Gugu says.

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Source: BBC News, 10 July 2025

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Surgeon banned by private practice is working for NHS

A surgeon banned from working for a private healthcare company, following an investigation into patient safety, continues to work in the NHS, the BBC has learned.

Nuffield Health has stopped the surgeon from working in their hospitals, but he is still operating on patients for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

An NHS patient left with a twisted bowel following an operation he carried out said he should never work again.

In January the BBC revealed concerns had been raised about the surgeon's complication rate and that he was no longer practising at Nuffield Health's hospital in Brighton pending an investigation.

A former employee at the hospital told the BBC that internal data showed one third of the surgeon's patients had experienced a "moderate harm event", where, for instance, a patient had to be transferred to another hospital or re-admitted, over a 12-month period. The figure should be 5%, the BBC was told.

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Source: BBC News, 11 July 2025

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Minority ethnic and deprived children more likely to die after UK intensive care admission

Minority ethnic children and children from deprived backgrounds across the UK are more likely to die following admission to intensive care than their white and more affluent counterparts, a study has found.

These children consistently had worse outcomes following their stay in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the research by academics at Imperial College London discovered.

The study showed they were more likely to arrive at intensive care severely ill, more likely to die after admission, and more likely to stay longer or be readmitted unexpectedly after discharge.

The report, published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, looked at 14 years of UK-wide data between 2008 and 2021, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, on more than 160,000 critically ill children aged 15 and younger.

While previous studies have shown that minority ethnic children have an increased rate of admission to PICUs, this study is the first to look at the health outcomes of these children, and children from more deprived backgrounds, following admission.

More specifically, Asian children were 52% more likely to die following admission to a PICU than their white counterparts. Their mortality rate was 1,336 deaths per 26,022 admissions, compared with a rate of 4,960 deaths per 154,041 admissions for white children, who had the lowest mortality rate overall.

Dr Hannah Mitchell, the lead author of the study from the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, said the reasons behind this disparity were complex and could be due to structural factors such as discrimination and language barriers.

Prof Padmanabhan Ramnarayan, the senior author of the study, said: “These children may face discrimination, both within and outside healthcare, which can lead to hesitancy seeking help or delays accessing urgent care. Language barriers may further complicate access.

“Children from some ethnic minority groups have a higher prevalence of complex or life-limiting conditions, making them more vulnerable. Children living in poverty are more likely to develop serious illnesses such as asthma or traumatic injuries, and may struggle to access timely care due to difficulties getting help from GPs or A&E.”

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Nearly a third of US teens have prediabetes, CDC finds

Nearly a third of U.S. teens are prediabetic, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2023, a count found that an estimated 8.4 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 – or 32.7 percent – fell into that category.

The alarming results are a “wake-up call,” Dr. Christopher Holliday, the agency’s top official in charge of diabetes prevention, said in a statement to ABC News. He said that the risk of type 2 diabetes poses a "significant threat" to young people's health.

With prediabetes, a person’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Having prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as well as heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

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Source: The Independent, 8 July 2025

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Win in Doctors for America lawsuit against Trump’s HHS

A federal judge ruled in favour of Doctors for America (DFA) and the City and County of San Francisco in their lawsuit challenging the removal of important health information from government websites. The removal of key webpages and datasets created a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprived physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and took away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients.

The court order requires restoration of webpages on which DFA and San Francisco relied and vacates the Office of Personnel Management and Department of Health and Human Services policies that led to the webpage removals.

“The court found that the government violated the law when it took down important health information that physicians and other public health professionals rely on to keep all of us healthy,” said Zach Shelley, a Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney and lead counsel on the case. “The decision serves as a reminder that the government must follow the law, just like the rest of us.”

“It is heartening to see that the court agrees with doctors, researchers, and patients that the government cannot unlawfully and without explanation remove crucial health information and datasets. With this ruling, we can provide care for our patients and protect public health based on evidence, rather than ideology,” said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, member of the board of directors of Doctors for America.

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Source: Doctors for America, 3 July 2025

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UK bosses to be banned from using NDAs to cover up misconduct at work

Bosses in the UK will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements to silence employees who have suffered harassment and discrimination in the workplace as part of the government’s overhaul of workers’ rights.

Ministers will on Monday night table amendments to the government’s employment rights bill to prohibit the widespread practice of using legally enforceable NDAs to conceal unacceptable behaviour at work.

If passed, the rules would mean any future confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements that sought to prevent a worker speaking about an allegation of harassment – including sexual harassment – or discrimination would be null and void.

They would also allow victims to speak freely about their experiences, while any witnesses – including employers – would be able to call out poor conduct and publicly support victims without the threat of being sued.

Announcing the change, Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said: “Victims and witnesses of harassment and discrimination should never be silenced. As the Guardian has reported on widely, this is not an issue confined to high-profile individuals or the most powerful organisations.

“The use of NDAs to cover up abuse and harassment is growing – and sadly amongst those in low-income or insecure employment across multiple industries and workplaces.

“This cannot go on. That is why we are stamping out this practice and taking action to ban any NDAs used for this purpose. My message is clear: no one should suffer in silence and we will back workers and give survivors the voice that they deserve.”

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Source: The Guardian, 7 July 2025

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Robot performs realistic surgery ‘with 100% accuracy’

A robot has performed realistic surgery on its own with 100% accuracy, researchers have said.

In a “major leap” towards using more robots in operating theatres, a machine trained on the videos of surgeries was able to precisely work on removing a gallbladder.

The robot operated with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers in the US, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real-life medical emergencies.

The robot was watched as it performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal on a life-like patient.

It was able to respond to and learn from voice commands from the team, just like a novice surgeon working with a mentor.

Overall, there were 17 tasks in the surgery, the robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors.

It was also able to adapt even when dye was introduced which changed the appearance of the organs and tissue.

Associate professor in mechanical engineering, Axel Krieger, said: “This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures.

“This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care.”

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Source: The Independent, 9 July 2025

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Blood scandal victims 'harmed further' by compensation delays

Thousands of victims of the infected blood scandal are being "harmed further" by long waits for compensation, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster has said.

In a hard-hitting report, Sir Brian Langstaff said there were "obvious injustices" in the way the scheme had been devised.

It is thought 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s after being given contaminated blood products on the NHS.

The government has set aside £11.8bn to pay compensation and has said it is cutting red tape to speed up payments to victims.

The inquiry's main report into the scandal, published last year, found that the disaster could largely have been avoided if different decisions had been taken by the health authorities at the time.

It said too little was done to stop the importing of contaminated blood products from abroad in the 1970s and 80s, and there was evidence that elements of the scandal had been covered up.

In May of this year, Sir Brian took the unusual step of ordering two days of extra hearings after he received "letter after letter, email after email" expressing concerns about the way the government's compensation scheme for victims had been managed.

His extra 200-page report, published on Wednesday, was based on that evidence, and found that victims had been "harmed further" by the way they had been treated over the last 12 months.

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Source: BBC News, 9 July 2025

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US posts highest annual measles case tally in 33 years amid Texas outbreak

The annual tally of measles cases in the US is the highest in 33 years, as an ongoing outbreak in west Texas continues to drive cases.

The latest figures mean Americans will have to look back to 1992 to find a worse year with the vaccine preventable disease. The official tally very likely undercounts the scope of the outbreak, experts told the Guardian.

“When you talk to people on the ground, you get the sense that this outbreak has been severely underestimated,” said Dr Paul Offit, director of the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Confirmed cases appear to be the “tip of a much bigger iceberg”, he said.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. However, as the pandemic disrupted routine childhood visits to the doctors and anti-vaccine organizations saw their coffers swell during the pandemic, measles vaccination rates have fallen below a critical threshold to prevent outbreaks in some communities.

“The number of new cases has slowed down, but I don’t think there’s any reason to suggest this will be our last,” said Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and dean for the national school of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

He later added: “It’s a very dark epidemic that never had to happen.”

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Source: The Guardian, 7 July 2025

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Wes Streeting warns doctors ‘the public will not forgive you’ as NHS strike chaos looms

Wes Streeting has warned doctors that “the public will not forgive you” as the NHS faces months of strike chaos.

The health secretary said that a pay rise is not an option after doctors in England voted in favour of industrial action, which could see walkouts last until January next year.

He also accused them of “squandering an opportunity by striking” instead of working with him to improve working conditions, warning: “You will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me”.

It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, had backed strike action as part of demands to secure a 29% pay rise.

Warning that more walkouts will be a “disaster” for the BMA’s members and patients alike, “just as we are finally moving the NHS in the right direction”, Mr Streeting called on the union to reconsider.

He told The Times: “Patients do not support the proposed strike action and it doesn’t even command majority support among BMA resident doctors, less than half of whom actually voted for industrial action. There are no grounds for strike action now. Resident doctors have just received the highest pay award across the entire public sector.”

“I urge the BMA, even at this late stage, to reconsider this deeply damaging course of action”, he added.

Commenting on the announcement, Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers – which is part of the NHS Confederation, said: “Resident doctors voting for more industrial action after the largest series of pay awards in the public sector is a troubling development.

“Further strikes are the last thing health leaders wanted and could result in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of operations and procedures being delayed or cancelled, leaving patients in pain or discomfort.”

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Source: The Independent, 9 July 2025

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First anti-malaria drug for newborns approved

Switzerland's medical products authority has granted the first approval for a malaria medicine designed for small infants, touted as an advance against a disease that takes hundreds of thousands of lives — nearly all in Africa — each year.

Swissmedic gave a green light Tuesday for the medicine from Basel-based pharmaceutical company Novartis for the treatment of babies with body weights between 2 and 5kg, which could pave the way for hard-hit African nations to follow suit in the coming months.

The agency said that the decision is significant in part because it's only the third time it has approved a treatment under a fast-track authorisation process, in coordination with the World Health Organization, to help developing countries access needed treatment.

The newly approved medication is a lower-dose version of a tablet previously approved for other age groups, including older children.

Dr. Quique Bassat, a malaria expert not affiliated with the Swiss review, said the burden of malaria in very young children is “relatively low” compared to older kids.

But access to such medicines is important to all, he said.

“There is no doubt that any child of whichever age — and particularly very, very young ones or very light-weighted ones — require a treatment,” said Bassat, the director general of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, known as ISGlobal.

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Source: The Independent, 8 July 2025

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ASA cracks down on online pharmacies advertising weight loss injections

Online pharmacies are no longer allowed to run adverts for weight loss injections, the advertising watchdog has ruled, as part of a crackdown on what has been described as a “wild west” culture of online selling.

In the UK, advertising prescription-only medications (POMs) – which includes all weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – to the public is illegal. However, a Guardian investigation previously found some online pharmacies either breaking these rules outright, or exploiting grey areas to peddle the medications to the public.

Now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has released nine new rulings that, it says, will set clear precedents for advertisers.

The ASA said the new rulings meant that while pharmacies could continue to mention weight loss injections on their websites, provided they were not shown on homepages or landing pages from other links, adverts were banned from using the phrases “weight loss injections” and “weight loss pen”, and the treatments must instead be marketed as part of a wider service, including a consultation and prescription.

Experts say the ban on the advertising of POMs protects the public by preventing people from being exposed to undue commercial pressure, ensuring safe prescribing, and avoiding over-medicalisation of everyday concerns.

“Part of our overall strategy is protecting vulnerable people from harm, and nothing’s so harmful as powerful prescription-only medicines,” said Nicky Morgan, chair of the ASA.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 July 2025

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Why is banned vaginal prolapse mesh still being used in India?

Sling The Mesh is deeply concerned to see a global organisation, the International Urogynecological Association (IUGA), publishing a glowing spotlight article featuring an Indian surgeon who continues to use transvaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) – despite its ban in many countries due to serious and well-documented harm.

In a recent IUGA article, Dr Karthik Gunasekaran describes how he not only continues to use transvaginal mesh for prolapse, but also:

  • Cuts his own mesh by hand from sheets of polypropylene – a practice that lacks standardisation and has been linked to erosion, chronic pain, and other complications.
  • Uses “reusable trocars”, increasing the risk of infection and cross-contamination.
  • Admits to off-label use, potentially without fully informed patient consent.
  • Shows no mention of disclosing these products are banned in many countries for safety reasons.

Transvaginal mesh for prolapse has been withdrawn or banned across much of the world.

These decisions were not taken lightly. They came in response to overwhelming evidence of complications – including mesh erosion, nerve damage, mobility problems, autoimmune reactions, chronic infections, inability to have sex due to pain.

Mesh manufacturers may have been forced to exit regulated Western markets, but some have shifted focus to countries with different regulatory oversight. This creates a dangerous double standard where women in lower-income or less-protected healthcare systems are exposed to high-risk procedures banned elsewhere.

Sling the Mesh are especially alarmed that IUGA, a global body, would platform a surgeon openly admitting to practices that would not be permitted in the US, UK, or Australia. This raises serious ethical and professional questions:

  • Why is IUGA showcasing a surgery that has been stopped in many Western countries
  • Are patients in India and elsewhere being fully informed that the mesh being used is off-label, manually cut, and banned in much of the developed world?
  • What safeguards exist to protect women from these outdated and dangerous practices?

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Source: Sling the Mesh, 3 July 2025

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USA: Medical groups sue HHS, RFK Jr. over 'unlawful' vaccine changes

Several major medical organizations filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday over what they are calling "unlawful, unilateral vaccine changes."

The six groups -- including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) -- as well as a pregnant woman filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The organizations, representing paediatricians, infectious disease physicians and public health professionals, accused the HHS and Kennedy of intentionally taking away vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, and unjustly replacing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) entire vaccine advisory panel.

The lawsuit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin Kennedy's new COVID vaccine recommendations and a declaratory judgment pronouncing the change as unlawful.

Kennedy "has been on a warpath. It's gotten to the point that we are going to ... ask the court to put a stop to it," Richard H. Hughes IV, a partner at Epstein Becker Green and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told ABC News. "This decision to unilaterally overturn the COVID recommendation based on a history of bias -- it was an arbitrary, capricious decision. They didn't make any effort to follow any ordinary processes."

Hughes said the HHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a U.S. federal law that establishes procedures federal agencies must follow when making rules.

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Source: ABC News, 7 July 2025

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New ‘sponge’ cancer test to be trialled in high-street pharmacies

Hundreds of people experiencing persistent heartburn or acid reflux will soon be offered a “sponge on a string” test in high-street pharmacies.

NHS England is piloting a new way of preventing oesophageal cancer by identifying individuals with a condition called Barrett’s oesophagus, which occurs when stomach acid damages the lining of the oesophagus or food pipe.

Some cells may grow abnormally and then develop into oesophageal cancer.

From early next year, around 1,500 people in London and the East Midlands will participate in these new "heartburn health checks" to test for Barrett’s oesophagus.

During the test, the patient swallows a small capsule attached to a string. The capsule dissolves in the stomach and leaves a small sponge about the size of a 1p coin.

The sponge is then pulled out via the string by NHS staff after a few minutes, during which time it collects cells from the oesophageal lining for analysis in the lab.

This test is already used in hospitals and community diagnostic centres to help reduce the need for invasive endoscopies in Barrett’s patients.

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Source: The Independent, 9 July 2025

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Number of patients in UK waiting for lifesaving organ transplant at record high

The number of patients waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant in the UK has increased to a record high while there has been a sharp drop in donors, official figures show.

More than 8,000 people, including almost 300 children, are on the transplant waiting list, according to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). With nearly another 4,000 in need of an organ but temporarily off the list because they are too sick or unavailable for an operation, it means almost 12,000 people are living in limbo, waiting for the call that can mean the difference between life and death.

In the past year, the NHS performed fewer transplants, and fewer people donated organs than the previous year. One senior official at NHSBT said the situation was “incredibly concerning”.

Anthony Clarkson, NHSBT’s director of organ and tissue donation and transplantation, said there was an urgent need for more Britons to save lives by registering their decision on the NHS organ donor register and telling their loved ones about their wishes.

“We are facing an incredibly concerning situation where more people than ever are waiting for transplants, but fewer donations are taking place. Tragically, someone will die today waiting for a transplant – we urgently need more people to register their decision to donate and to have these vital conversations with their families.

“Last year, 60% of people who donated after death were on the NHS organ donor register, which made those conversations with families so much easier. People are far more likely to support donation when they know it’s what their relative wanted.”

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Source: The Guardian, 9 July 2025

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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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