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Ministers plan to use NHS app to expand clinical trials as part of UK-wide drive

The government is aiming for a significant expansion of clinical trials in the UK, and plans to use the NHS app to encourage millions of people in England to take part in the search for new treatments.

Patients will eventually be automatically matched with studies based on their health data and interests, via the app. The plans envisage alerting them to the trials using smartphone notifications.

NHS trusts that fail to meet targets on trials will also be publicly named, and the best performers will be prioritised for funding, as part of improvements designed to restore Britain’s global reputation for medical research.

The strategy is one of the first to emerge from the government’s forthcoming 10-year health plan for England. It aims to take advantage of changes simplifying NHS records by quickly identifying people suitable for a trial. It will also include measures to streamline the paperwork required for the studies.

It is hoped the reforms will speed up the trials process and attract more pharmaceutical companies to host them in Britain, as ministers in all departments are ordered to find pro-growth measures.

The 10-year health plan will promise to slash set-up times for trials. While it takes about 100 days to set up a trial in Spain, it now takes 250 days in the NHS. The plan will push for commercial clinical trial set-up times to fall to a maximum of 150 days by March 2026.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025

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RFK Jr. names new slate of vaccine advisers after purging CDC panel

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unveiled eight people he has chosen to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel – just two days after taking the unprecedented step of removing all 17 sitting members.

On Wednesday, Kennedy listed the names and short bios of the new advisers who will join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, at its upcoming meeting in late June.

"All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," Kennedy said in a post on X, "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations."

The new members are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Michael A. Ross, Dr. James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth.

"This is a huge win for the medical freedom [m]ovement," David Mansdoerfer, former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services in the first Trump administration, wrote in a post on X, "they did everything by the book to put together this excellent slate of appointees."

Public health advocates are wary.

"Kennedy did not pick people with strong, current expertise in vaccines," says Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law, San Francisco, who studies vaccine policy. "It tells me that Kennedy is setting up a committee that would be skeptical of vaccines, and possibly willing to implement an anti-vaccine agenda."

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Source: NPR, 11 June 2025

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Hospital backlog drops to lowest level in two years

The backlog in routine hospital treatments in England has reached its lowest level for two years.

Data for the end of April showed the waiting list dropped to 7.39 million, down from 7.42 million in March.

But it is nine years since the NHS has met its target of 92% of patients being seen in 18 weeks – currently it is just below 60%.

The government has made meeting the target one of its key missions for this parliament – and on Wednesday announced above-inflation rises for the NHS in the coming years to help achieve it.

Responding to the latest figures, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, said: "We are putting the NHS on the road to recovery."

And he added this was "just the start" as the extra investment announced in the spending review, which will see the NHS budget rise by 3% a year in the next three years, combined with reforms that will be announced in the 10-year plan due next month, would help build on what has been achieved.

The drop in the numbers on the waiting list, which covers people waiting for routine treatments like hip and knee operations, came after March saw a rise in numbers – the first time in six months the waiting list had gone up.

Although a little bit of fluctuation from month to month is normally seen, the government said it was clear the numbers waiting were on a downward trend.

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Source: BBC News, 12 June 2025

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Sickle cell patients to have quicker and more accessible treatment in England

People living with sickle cell disease in England are to benefit from quicker and more accessible treatment due to a £9m investment, the government has announced.

Apheresis services, which are a type of treatment that removes harmful components from a patient’s blood, are to improve across England through the funding of more specialist treatment centres. The funding will ensure the wider availability of machines that remove a patient’s sickled red blood cells and replace them with healthy donor cells.

More than 20 NHS trusts currently offer Spectra Optia technology, a treatment more effective than blood transfusions and having been shown to be highly effective in reducing complications such as iron overload.

The investment could save the NHS up to £12.9m every year thanks to a reduction in time spent in hospital for patients and the reduced need for other treatments, according to the government.

Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, said: “People living with rare conditions like sickle cell disease face immense everyday challenges, and can sometimes struggle to get the specialised care they need.

“To make our health service fit for the future, we have to harness the power of new technologies, and these machines provide a shining example of how our government is starting to make huge advancements in digital healthcare.

“Through our plan for change, this government will be the one that removes the barriers to getting the latest and best tech to our NHS frontline, so patients can access the best care available, closer to home.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025

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‘Virtual hospitals’ to be launched in 10-Year Plan

The upcoming 10-Year Health Plan is set to propose the introduction of “virtual hospitals” based on patients directly contacting consultants on an Uber-style platform, HSJ has been told.

Senior sources have indicated the proposal will involve a major overhaul and expansion of the existing “advice and guidance” model, whereby GPs can seek advice from a consultant before referring a patient to hospital, in the hope of finding an alternative.

Described by one well-placed official as “Uber for consultants”, the new proposal would create a system for GPs and individual patients to directly seek advice from any consultants, including those outside their home area, who make themselves available.

It is being described as “virtual hospitals” or “virtual clinics”.

Speaking at a session hosted by HSJ at NHS ConfedExpo this week, NHS England chair Penny Dash described a similar model which she said was “in the foothills” of development and could reap large benefits.

She said there should be a “much easier way” of GPs getting advice “from anywhere in the country” to help divert a patient from secondary care.

Dr Dash said: “It could be, for example, a model whereby you put in your question, let’s initially say as a GP or a practice nurse, it goes into a central repository as it were, and you have a team of [consultants] who are available for that time who are looking at it and responding to it.

“It doesn’t have to be the [consultant] in your local district general hospital, it could be anyone anywhere in the country.”

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Source: HSJ, 13 June 2025

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Blood cancer patients in England first in world to be offered ‘Trojan horse’ drug

Thousands of patients in England with blood cancer will become the first in the world to be offered a pioneering “Trojan horse” drug that sneaks inside cancer cells and wipes them out.

In guidance published on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to belantamab mafodotin, which can halt the advance of multiple myeloma for three times as long as standard treatments.

The targeted therapy, which is given as an infusion every three weeks with other cancer drugs, is a special type of antibody drug that targets and attaches to cancer cells.

It has been described as a Trojan horse treatment because it works by being taken into a cancer cell and unleashing a high concentration of a lethal molecule to destroy the cell from inside.

Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said the drug would be life-changing for patients and their families.

“Myeloma is an aggressive type of blood cancer, but we have seen a steady improvement in the outlook for patients over recent years as we have introduced new targeted therapies,” he said.

“I am delighted that patients in England will be the first to benefit from this new treatment, which has the potential to keep cancer at bay for years longer, giving people the chance of more precious time with friends and family.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025

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NIH grant cuts have pulled $2B from medical schools, academic hospitals

National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant terminations have pulled almost $2 billion in funding away from U.S. medical schools and hospitals, including $314.5 million in funding intended to train biomedical and health researchers, according to an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The halted funding undercuts medical schools and academic hospitals’ financial sustainability, immediately ended at least 160 active clinical trials for patients being treated for conditions like HIV/AIDS or cancer and threatens “the ability of academic medicine to attract and retain the best and brightest scientists,” the association warned in a Wednesday data brief.

An accompanying release from the AAMC framed the grant terminations alongside a slew of proposed executive and legislative actions it said threaten academic medicine and millions of patients, such as Medicaid provider tax limits and eliminating federal student aid programmes.

“For generations, bipartisan leaders have recognized that America’s strength and future rely on the groundbreaking research performed at our nation’s biomedical research facilities, the complex and highly sophisticated care provided at academic health systems that is the envy of the world, and the ability of our medical schools and teaching hospitals to train the next generation of physicians," AAMC President and CEO David Skorton, M.D., said in a position piece published Wednesday. “For the sake of medical advancement, economic prosperity, and the health of every citizen, we need policymakers to work with us, not against us. The stakes could not be higher—lives truly hang in the balance.”

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 11 June 2025

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Mackey reveals PFI revival plan

NHS England has confirmed plans to introduce a mechanism to allow private finance investment into health service infrastructure within months.

Sir Jim Mackey confirmed today he wanted government to “introduce an off–balance sheet capital investment mechanism”. It is part of a “100 day plan” for his first few months as NHSE CEO, published today.

HSJ understands discussions between NHSE and the Treasury over how this would be used and what form it would take are ongoing. Government is due to publish a new infrastructure strategy in coming weeks; whole 10 Year Health Plan drafts have included proposals for more social investment.

A move to revive off-balance sheet capital would pave the way for private investment to be once again used to build NHS hospitals, after the previous Labour government used private finance initiatives to invest widely in health service buildings in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Under the arrangements, the private sector builds and maintains an asset in exchange for annual payments from the public sector over the course of the contract. Because the private sector bore the up-front construction costs, this did not count as government borrowing.

However the model was criticised heavily over value for money concerns, and was banned by former chancellor Philip Hammond in 2018.

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Source: HSJ, 11 June 2025

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Virtual wards saved trust £1.3m a year

Virtual ward beds are £450 cheaper per day than traditional hospital ones, researchers have found in a landmark study.

It found around £1.3m was saved per year by the “hospital at home” service at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust.

Expanding virtual wards, where some acute services are delivered in patients’ homes, have been a big feature of government and NHS England health policy since covid-19.

Yet some experts question the cost-effectiveness of the policy, and early studies have yielded mixed results.

Niall Keenan, one of the researchers on the study from West Herts, and chair of the East of England clinical advisory group for virtual wards, told HSJ the new research is believed to be the largest to date in England.

It comes after NHS leaders told HSJ earlier this year that virtual wards were being targeted for cuts this year in a bid to balance the books.

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Source: HSJ, 12 June 2025

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CQC warns trust over maternity staffing

The trust with the highest perinatal mortality rates in the country has been told it must improve its midwifery staffing.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust is now reporting weekly to the Care Quality Commission about staffing on its maternity wards after being served a section 29A warning notice, it has emerged.

It followed inspections of its maternity and neonatal services in December and January. The trust, one of the largest in England, has already moved some neonatal care out of one of its hospitals, after issues were raised by the inspection.

It was also told to provide details to the CQC about how its board is informed about unmitigated risks and how its quality review meetings are assured over midwifery staffing, according to information seen by HSJ.

The trust also promised to provide assurance shifts would be filled by qualified and competent staff and that its rota would be compliant with numbers dictated by the Birthrate Plus safer staffing tool. The requirements remain in force until the CQC decides they are no longer needed.

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Source: HSJ, 11 June 2025

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Millions in compensation could be owed to women with mesh implants

Mesh implants returned to the national spotlight as Sling the Mesh campaigners appeared on Good Morning Britain to highlight the devastating impact of surgical mesh procedures—and the urgent need for compensation and systemic reform.

Campaign founder Kath Sansom was joined by Sharron Mahoney – who suffered severe autoimmune complications and chronic pain following rectopexy mesh surgery. Remarkably, Sharron’s symptoms began to clear within days of mesh removal -powerfully underscoring the direct link between these devices and the serious harm they can cause.

Sharron’s story highlights the critical work of researchers such as Nicholas Farr from Sheffield University who recently published this study showing the plastic particles of surgical mesh can trigger autoimmune diseases – even after removal.

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Menstrual tracking app users cautioned about risks

Women who tracked their menstrual cycle using smartphone apps have been warned about the privacy and safety risks of doing so.

A report from the University of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre said the apps were a "gold mine" for consumer profiling and collecting information.

Academics cautioned that in the wrong hands, the data could result in health insurance "discrimination" and risks to job prospects.

The apps collect information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.

Academics at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, an independent team of researchers at the university, said this data could give insights into people's health and their reproductive choices.

The report added that many women used the apps when they were trying to get pregnant.

Researchers said data on who is pregnant, and who wants to be, was some of the "most sought-after information in digital advertising" as it led to a shift in shopping patterns.

"Cycle tracking apps (CTA) are a lucrative business because they provide the companies behind the apps with access to extremely valuable and fine-grained user data," they said.

"CTA data is not only commercially valuable and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thereby making intimate user information exploitable for targeted advertising), but it also poses severe security risks for users."

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Source: BBC News, 11 June 2025

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Cervical screening invites to change in England

Invitations for cervical screening will be sent out every five years instead of every three for women aged 25-49 in England, if they have a negative test.

Research shows they are at very low risk of cervical cancer and can safely wait longer to be screened again, NHS England has said.

The roll out of a vaccine to protect against HPV - the virus which causes nearly all cervical cancers - has reduced cases by around a quarter since the early 1990s.

Charities said the change was good news for those at low risk because they no longer needed to go for screening as often.

Scotland and Wales have already introduced this change, which will start in England from 1 July.

Cancer Research UK urged women and people with a cervix not to wait for a screening invitation if they noticed any unusual changes.

They are encouraged to go for regular cervical screening between the ages of 25 and 64, external.

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Source: BBC News, 10 June 2025

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MPs set to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales

Women would no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales under a proposed shake-up of abortion laws.

MPs are set to get a free vote next week - meaning they will not be told how to vote by their party - on a change to the law.

It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy.

Abortion is illegal in England and Wales, most often prosecuted under a piece of Victorian legislation, the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. But it is allowed up to 24 weeks and in certain other circumstances under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act.

This requires two doctors to sign it off and even before 24 weeks can require a woman to testify that her mental or physical health is at risk.

An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, tabled by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, aims to decriminalise abortion at any stage by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy, ending the threat of investigation or imprisonment.

The framework by which abortion is accessed would remain the same.

But abortions would only need to be signed off by two doctors - as the law currently demands - if the procedure takes place in a hospital or other healthcare setting.

Time limits would also still apply in healthcare settings.

"The police cannot be trusted with abortion law – nor can the CPS or the wider criminal justice system," Antoniazzi said.

"My amendment to the crime and policing bill will give us the urgent change we need to protect women."

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Source: BBC News, 20 June 2025

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Nottingham maternity scandal hospital data was ‘maliciously’ deleted, police say

A computer file containing the details of cases linked to the NHS’s largest maternity scandal was “intentionally” and “maliciously” deleted, a police investigation has found.

Nottinghamshire Police launched a probe earlier this year after records held by Nottinghamshire University Hospitals Foundation Trust (NUH) and linked to the alleged maternity failings were temporarily lost.

The data was later recovered and 300 more cases are expected to be added to the inquiry into the scandal after a discrepancy was noted by a coroner.

NUH is currently being investigated for potential corporate manslaughter after The Independent revealed babies had died or suffered serious injuries at its maternity units. The investigation into the deleted hospital data is not related to the corporate manslaughter probe.

The trust is also the subject of an inquiry led by top midwife Donna Ockenden, who is investigating the cases of 2,400 families who experienced maternity care at the trust, including deaths and injuries.

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Source: The Independent, 10 June 2025

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Millions more to have robotic surgery in NHS plan to cut waiting lists

Millions more people will have robotic surgery over the next decade under NHS plans to slash the huge waiting list for hospital treatment.

The move will mean a significant expansion in how often surgeons use robots when treating people for cancer, hysterectomies and joint replacements, as well as in medical emergencies.

The number of patients undergoing robot-assisted surgery is due to rise from 70,000 to 500,000 a year by 2035, the head of the NHS in England will announce on Wednesday.

“The NHS has pledged to return to shorter elective waiting times by 2029 and we are using every tool at our disposal to ensure patients get the best possible treatment.

“Expanding the use of new and exciting tech such as robotic surgery will play a huge part in this,” said Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s chief executive.

“Not only does it speed up the number of procedures the NHS can do, but it also means better outcomes, a faster recovery and shorter hospital stays for patients.”

By 2035, nine out of 10 keyhole surgery operations, in which the surgeon makes only small incisions into the patient’s body, will involve a robot, up from just one in five today. It will have become so common by then that it will be “the default” for many procedures, Mackey will say.

Evidence shows that a robot, either controlled remotely by a surgeon at a console using a 3D camera or when it has been pre-programmed, can be more precise than when a surgeon undertakes the same task and often helps the patient to recover faster and get home from hospital sooner. When surgeons control the robot, they guide the surgical instruments – which in keyhole surgery can be as tiny as 5mm – to undertake the work needed.

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Source: The Guardian, 11 June 2025

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New blood test for coeliac disease can diagnose autoimmune condition without need to eat gluten

Coeliacs may soon no longer need to eat large amounts of gluten – the very thing suspected of making them sick – to get an accurate diagnosis.

Australian research published in the journal Gastroenterology showed a blood test for gluten-specific T cells had a high accuracy in diagnosing coeliac disease, even when no gluten was eaten.

Around 1% of people in western countries have coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition in which gluten causes an inflammatory reaction in the small bowel.

Currently, every approved method to diagnose it requires people to eat gluten, the paper said.

Current testing methods – blood tests or a gastroscopy – require weeks of a person eating gluten, while often enduring symptoms such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bloating.

Despite the importance of early diagnosis, the researchers said many people are deterred because they do not want to get sick from the tests.

More than one in two cases of coeliac disease are either undiagnosed or diagnosed late, prior research has shown.

“There are likely millions of people around the world living with undiagnosed coeliac disease simply because the path to diagnosis is difficult, and at times, debilitating,” said Assoc Prof Jason Tye-Din, a senior author of the paper and head of the Coeliac Research Laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia.

The new research could be a “game-changer”, helping address “one of the biggest deterrents in current diagnostic practices”, Tye-Din said.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2025

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USA: Stanford pilots ChatEHR

California-based Stanford Health Care is piloting an internally developed, AI-backed software designed to revolutionize clinician interaction with the electronic health record (EHR)

Nigam Shah, chief data science officer at Stanford Health Care, is leading the development team for ChatEHR, which allows clinicians to ask questions, request summaries and pull specific information from a patient’s medical record. ChatEHR is built directly into Stanford’s EHR to maximise clinical workflow.

The pilot is available to a small cohort of 33 physicians, nurses and physician assistants. The technology is secure and designed for information gathering; not medical advice.

ChatEHR, which has been in development since 2023, facilitates a more streamlined and efficient way for clinicians to interact with patient records.

“This is a unique instance of integrating [large language model] capabilities directly into clinicians’ practice and workflow,” said Michael Pfeffer, MD, chief information and digital officer at Stanford Health Care and School of Medicine, in a news release. “We’re thrilled to bring this to the workforce at Stanford Health Care.”

Stanford is still working on automation to evaluate tasks, such as determining whether to transfer patients between hospitals or units. Dr Shah and his team are using an open-source framework for real-world large language model evaluation, MedHELM, to evaluate ChatEHR. His goal is to scale ChatEHR to all clinicians and the team is working on more features to ensure accuracy.

“We’re rolling this out in accordance with our responsible AI guidelines, not only ensuring accuracy and performance, but making sure we have the educational resources and technical support available to make ChatEHR usable to our workforce,” said Dr Shah in the release.

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Source: Becker's Health IT, 6 June 2025

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USA: RFK Jr removes entire panel of CDC’s vaccine experts

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed all members of a vaccine advisory board to restore "public trust above any pro- or antivaccine agenda,” he announced in a Monday op-ed.

Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published late Monday afternoon that America is facing a “crisis of public trust…toward health agencies, pharmaceutical companies or vaccines themselves.”

To restore what Kennedy sees as Americans' distrust in the healthcare system and ensure that they receive “the safest vaccines possible,” the secretary announced that HHS will retire all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.

The committee is responsible for evaluating the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines and then presenting its findings to the Centers for Disease Control.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy claimed in the op-ed.

The current members will be replaced with new members “currently under consideration,” HHS said in a statement.

“The new members won’t directly work for the vaccine industry. They will exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry—unafraid to ask hard questions,” Kennedy wrote in the Journal.

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Source: The Independent, 10 June 2025

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More testing needed for genetic cancer risk as too many women ‘missed’, experts say

A new study has revealed that families of some cancer patients are being denied the opportunity to learn about their potential cancer risk due to inconsistencies in genetic testing.

Academics have warned that the absence of adequate testing for Lynch syndrome is leaving some cancer patients unaware of their risk of developing other cancers.

Lynch syndrome, a rare hereditary condition, elevates the risk of cancers of the bowel, womb, and ovaries. It arises from a gene mutation affecting DNA error correction during replication, potentially leading to uncontrolled cell growth.

NHS guidelines stipulate that patients with bowel or womb cancer should undergo tumour assessments for Lynch syndrome markers.

The identification of these markers should prompt a referral for genetic testing, confirming the diagnosis and enabling access to support and guidance regarding cancer risks for both the patients and their families.

However, a new study by academics at the University of Edinburgh found not all womb cancer patients are being sent for genetic testing.

Researchers said those who were referred faced long waits, resulting in high dropout rates, meaning only 48 per cent of those eligible went on to get the test.

Experts from the university said gaps in testing mean some womb cancer patients with Lynch syndrome go undetected.

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Source: The Independent, 10 June 2025

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Thousands harmed and 87 dead after NHS equipment failures in England

Almost 100 people have died and 4,000 have been harmed after equipment malfunctions in the NHS in the past three years, prompting calls for more government funding to upgrade broken and obsolete medical devices.

A defibrillator advising paramedics not to administer a shock, an emergency alarm system on a neonatal ward failing, and the camera on an intubation device going dark were just three failures after which patients died.

They are included in figures released for the first time by NHS England that show patients were harmed after 3,915 equipment malfunction incidents – with 87 being followed by a death – since 2022.

Paul Whiteing, the chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, said: “These are shocking statistics. Behind these numbers are real people who are needlessly harmed, the impact of which will be life-changing and traumatic.

“The scale of the harm and loss of life that has resulted from basic equipment failures and malfunctions shows in stark relief the scale of the tragedy that has resulted from years of underfunding in the NHS.”

The vast majority of incidents, which were logged by doctors and nurses when a device was broken, not fit for use or didn’t perform as expected, caused a low level of harm. That meant patients were unlikely to need further treatment beyond dressing changes or short courses of oral medicine.

There were 522 moderate harm incidents, in which a patient’s independence could be limited for up to six months. Meanwhile, on top of the 87 deaths, 68 patients were severely harmed – meaning they could have received permanent damage from the incident, or had a reduced life expectancy.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 June 2025

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Australia: Monash IVF admits second bungled embryo implant

A second bungled embryo implant at Monash IVF has sparked a new investigation and the expansion of a review into the first incident, which led to a woman unknowingly giving birth to a stranger’s baby.

Monash IVF said in a statement on Tuesday that in June “a patient’s own embryo was incorrectly transferred to that patient, contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient’s partner”.

“Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,” the fertility company said.

The first error was announced in April. In that case, a patient at one of its Queensland clinics had an embryo incorrectly transferred to her, meaning she gave birth to a child of an unrelated woman.

The mistake was blamed on human error. Monash IVF asked senior counsel Fiona McLeod to investigate.

Lawyers described the incident as a legal and ethical nightmare while Monash IVF said it was confident it was an isolated incident.

The latest incident happened in a Victorian laboratory. The state’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, confirmed the Victorian health regulator was investigating.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2025

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Cuts to UK’s global vaccination funding would risk avoidable child deaths, experts warn

Any cut in UK funding to a global vaccination group would damage soft power and could make Britain less resilient to infectious diseases, as well as causing avoidable deaths among children, leading vaccine and aid experts have warned.

Scientists including Sir Andrew Pollard, who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, said a major cut in money for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) could also make the UK less able to respond to a future pandemic.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has not yet set out its future funding for Gavi, a Geneva-based public-private organisation that has vaccinated more than a billion children in developing countries.

The UK has previously been one of Gavi’s main funders, providing more than £2bn over the last four years. But with the UK aid budget cut back from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% and the focus shifting towards bilateral aid the expectation is that there will be a major reduction at Wednesday’s spending review.

Pollard, who leads the Oxford Vaccine Group, said that as well as continuing to save lives in poorer countries, there was a self-interested case for continuing with similar levels of support.

“It’s a safer place, obviously, for people who are in situations where they wouldn’t have been able to access these vaccines without the government support, but it also makes it a safe place for us, because it’s acting as part of the shield that we have against the spread of infectious diseases around the world,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 June 2025

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Blood test for Alzheimer's disease is highly accurate, researchers say

Researchers say a new blood test for Alzheimer's disease has been shown to be highly accurate in detecting people with early symptoms.

Scientists looked for two proteins - amyloid beta 42/40 and p-tau217 - and found the test was 95% accurate in identifying patients with existing cognitive impairment linked to the condition.

The US study involved 509 patients in an outpatient memory clinic in Florida and was published in the medical journal Alzheimer's and Dementia.

The test, which has already been approved by the US regulator, was also 82% accurate for specificity, which means it could rule out people without dementia.

Dr Gregg Day, who led the study, said the test was as good as existing, but more invasive, tests.

He said the next step was to extend the test to a wider range of patients, including those with early Alzheimer's who do not have any cognitive symptoms.

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Source: Sky News, 7 June 2025

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