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The systems set to gain and lose hundreds of millions

Nine integrated care systems are set to lose hundreds of millions in NHS funding relative to others in coming years – while eight stand to make big gains – under new NHS England funding policy.

New NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey has vowed to move systems to their “fair share” funding allocation in the next few years, and to withdraw the “deficit support” that has provided a large subsidy to some areas since Covid.

It is unclear if NHSE will decide to cut their funding in real or cash terms in order to move more quickly to “fair shares”. Sir Jim has not said how quickly the change will happen, but he is seeking to remove “deficit support” as soon as next year. 

He said: “We will need to develop an affordable pace of change policy [for moving to fair share allocations], but I think it’s important that you can see where we are heading.”

However, rapidly removing their support is likely to lead to major service challenges in these areas, or to deepening their deficit problems even further.

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Source: HSJ, 10 April 2025

 

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A woman dies every two minutes due to failures in maternal care, shocking new figures reveal

A woman dies every two minutes due to failures in maternal healthcare, according to shocking global data that has prompted stark warnings about the impact of cuts to aid funding by the US and the UK.

A new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that there were 260,000 maternal deaths in 2023, equating to 712 women a day or 30 per hour – with the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa.

The WHO has warned that the global target for all UN member states to reduce maternal deaths – down to 71 per 100,000 by 2030 – will be missed by more than twice this amount as “the pace of progress has slowed to a near standstill”.

Leading health organisations including the WHO have warned that recent sweeping cuts to international aid by the US government, which amount to more than £595m ($770m) for maternal health and family planning, will risk “a shift backwards” in the progress made on cutting maternal deaths – defined as any death related to or aggravated by pregnancy, or within six weeks of the end of a pregnancy.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Bruce Aylward, assistant director general of universal health coverage for the WHO, said: “The funding cuts risk not only that progress, but we could have a shift backwards.” He said that cuts were already “affecting access to lifesaving supplies and medicines, and especially treatments for some of the leading causes of maternal death”.

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Source: The Independent, 10 April 2025

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Infected blood victims losing faith as inquiry hearings restart

The infected blood inquiry is holding two more days of hearings amid concerns about the government's response on compensation, with campaigners warning they are "losing faith".

It comes nearly a year after the final report was published into the scandal - said to be the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

More than 30,000 people contracted HIV and hepatitis from contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s – and 3,000 people have since died.

Victims groups have since said the government has been slow to pay out compensation and the process was lacking transparency. Inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff said he had decided to act given the "gravity" of the problems expressed.

And a spokesperson said it was continuing to act on the inquiry's recommendations, adding: "The victims of this scandal have suffered unspeakably."

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Source: BBC News, 9 April 2025

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England’s ‘complex’ health and care system harming patients, report says

Navigating England’s “complex” health and care system is “extremely difficult” and carers and patients are experiencing burnout, distress and harm as a result, a damning report says.

There were frequent failures by NHS and care organisations in coordinating care for people with long-term health conditions, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) found. Figures show 41% of adults and 17% of children have at least one long-term health issue.

The report said patients unable to navigate the health and care system were getting sicker as a result, missing vital appointments, and their care could be delayed or forgotten about, meaning they may need more intensive and expensive treatment in future or longer stays in hospital.

Patients and carers had to retell their health history to different health and care providers, the research showed. The system was not joined up and information did not flow well across health and care organisations, patients and carers told the investigators.

This was making people exhausted and feeling burned out, frustrated, angry and guilty, the report says. Some patients’ and carers’ physical and mental health was deteriorating because of the extra burden of navigating the health and care system.

Neil Alexander, a senior safety investigator at HSSIB, said: “Long-term care is complex and we acknowledge the challenges faced by providers, especially at a time of extreme pressure on resources. However, our investigation emphasises that if care is not properly coordinated, those with long-term conditions and their carers can suffer mental and physical deterioration and harm. Patients can need more intensive treatment or longer stays in hospital, placing further pressure on services.

“The stories and experiences shared with us provided powerful testimony as to the impact on people. Patients and carers were open about their feelings of anguish and exhaustion, their anger, sadness and loss of trust in a system they felt sometimes was fighting against them. Many told of the frustration at not being able to speak to the specialist and dedicated staff who would be able to help them.”

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Source: The Guardian, 10 April 2025

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ICB seeks first GP and dentist integration

An integrated care board in the East of England is working to integrate general practice and dental care records, and exploring shared sites for the two primary care services.

Suffolk and North East Essex ICB is exploring how to “bring primary care services together”, according to recent board papers.

Ed Garratt, its chief executive, said dental practices first began to collaborate through the ICB’s dental priority access and stabilisation scheme, which saw them offer 15,000 urgent appointments.

“We’re now thinking about how to create networks of dental practices that could work together with our general practice networks,” he told HSJ. He added that the ICB was also pursuing integrating the summary care record – a patient record held by GPs – so it could be shared with dentists.

Mr Garratt said having GPs and dentists working at the same hub sites was likely to be “the ultimate end stage” for this work.

He said the moves were designed to improve communication and holistic care across dental and other health. “Often, dentists and GPs might share the same patient, but they would never communicate about that patient. So you can have more holistic care potentially if people were working closer together,” he said.

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Source: HSJ, 10 April 2025

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What’s lost: Trump whacks tiny agency that works to make the nation’s health care safer

Sue Sheridan’s baby boy, Cal, suffered brain damage from undetected jaundice in 1995. Helen Haskell’s 15-year-old son, Lewis, died after surgery in 2000 because weekend hospital staffers didn’t realize he was in shock. The episodes turned both women into advocates for patients and spurred research that made American health care safer.

On April 1, the Trump administration slashed the organization that supported that research — the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ — and fired roughly half of its remaining employees as part of a perplexing reorganization of the federal Health and Human Services Department.

Haskell, of Columbia, South Carolina, has done research and helped write AHRQ-published surveys and guidebooks on patient engagement for hospitals. The dissolution of AHRQ is dislodging scores of experienced patient-safety experts, a brain drain that will be impossible to rectify, she said.

Survey data gathered by AHRQ provides much of what is known about hospitalisations for motor accidents, measles, methamphetamine, and thousands of other medical issues.

“Nobody does these things except AHRQ,” she said. “They’re all we’ve got. And now the barn door’s closed.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on the social platform X on April 1 that layoffs at HHS, aimed at reducing the department’s workforce by about 20,000 employees, were the result of alleged inefficacy. “What we’ve been doing isn’t working,” he said. “Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year.”

But neither Kennedy nor President Donald Trump have explained why individual agencies such as AHRQ were targeted for cuts or indicated whether any of their work would continue.

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Source: KFF Health News, 3 April 2025

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Thousands of prisoners wrongfully restrained in hospital every year

Pregnant women handcuffed during and after labour. Dying men shackled to their hospital bed. A prisoner restrained while having his leg amputated.

Channel 4 News can reveal these are just some of the extraordinary cases where restraints are being wrongfully used on vulnerable prisoners while they’re receiving medical care.

In a rare and exclusive interview, the Prisons Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, told us: “Thousands of people, men and women, are being restrained inappropriately… the fact that the Prison Service, frankly, get it wrong so frequently is an issue that we should all be concerned about.”

Mr Usher said he has raised his own concerns many times with the Prison Service, but that not enough is being done quickly enough to tackle what he called “inhumane practices.”

He is particularly concerned about cases like ‘Laura’ – a young ex-offender who spoke to us about being restrained while in labour in 2023. We’re not using her real name to preserve her anonymity.

Serving time at HMP Bronzefield for drugs offences, she was deemed a “low risk” prisoner. She had suspected pre-eclampsia – a condition which can be life threatening for both mother and baby – and was handcuffed to a prison officer in hospital for hours after being induced and going into labour.

“I felt like an animal. I was handcuffed and I was having a lot of pain in my tummy and I asked her if she could loosen my handcuffs and she argued she couldn’t do it. I was crying. I got angry and very sad for being there chained and going through the very fragile moment,” she said.

“Many times I asked them to remove the chains, “ she went on. “I couldn’t have privacy with the doctor, I couldn’t use the toilet properly. And sometimes I couldn’t even walk properly. I couldn’t sleep. It was hurting me. Every time I ask them or question them about the handcuffs they told me that they had to use them, it was the rules.”

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Source: Channel 4 News, 8 April 2025

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Social care must stay ‘distinct’ from NHS, says Streeting

Wes Streeting has rejected the notion of merging the delivery or funding of social care with the NHS, arguing it is better “delivered and commissioned through local government”.

Speaking at the Commons health and social care committee today on the reorganisation of NHS England, the health and social care secretary was definitive that health and adult social care are best as “distinct services”.

Wes Streeting told MPs: “I am now even more strongly of the view as secretary of state for health and social care that social care has different roles and responsibilities than the NHS…

“[Social care is] not all about treating or preventing ill health. It’s about promoting dignity, independence, quality of life, and a range of caring functions, which I think not only are not delivered by the NHS today, but are better delivered and commissioned through local government than they would be through the NHS.”

His comments come despite an ongoing government commission on social care policy by Baroness Louise Casey, reporting to the prime minister, and the hopes of some in the Labour Party for its proposed “National Care Service” to result in a “free at the point of delivery” service combined with the NHS. Combining funding pots, accountability, and delivery across the two has also been a long-standing recommendation of experts and integration projects.

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Source: HSJ, 8 April 2025

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‘Mothers will never be the priority’: Postnatal mental health support cut despite surge in women seeking help

Postnatal mental health services are closing across the country due to a lack of funding despite record numbers of women seeking help, The Independent can reveal.

One in five of the 600,000 women a year who give birth in the UK experience a mental health condition, NHS figures show – and a quarter have a negative birth experience.

Mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal death between six weeks and a year after birth – accounting for one in three deaths, according to the Oxford University-led group MBBRACE-UK, which records all maternal and baby deaths in the UK.

Postnatal suicide rates rose by more than 50 per cent during the pandemic and have remained high ever since. Between 2017 and 2019, the rate of suicide was 0.46 for every 100,000 mothers who gave birth in that period, but between 2021 and 2023 - the latest figures available - the rate was 0.70 per 100,000 mothers.

But in January, the Government announced it was scrapping funding for the nationwide rollout of Women’s Health Hubs, which aimed to improve access to services such as perinatal mental health support.

“This is a completely neglected mental health crisis, on an extremely large scale,” Danny Chambers MP, the Lib Dem spokesperson on mental health, warned Parliament in February.

"And now several charities which plug the gaps in NHS support, by helping parents unable to access NHS help or who are stuck on waiting lists, have been forced to close or suspend services because of funding cuts."

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Source: The Independent,  8 April 2025

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New device gives female patients more dignity

It is hoped a device adapted to allow immobile female hospital patients to go to the toilet more easily could be rolled out nationwide.

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Swindon, has called its move to bring in the UniWee a "groundbreaking project" which has now got the support of the NHS supply chain.

Staff at the emergency department there started adapting the disposable male urinal bottle for women to use, lessening the need for catheters and making life more dignified and pain-free in hospital.

The design has now been formalised and researched, with plans in place for it to be used more widely in the future.

Many women who are forced to sit or lie down for long periods in hospital struggle to urinate without pain and movement.

Emergency department and trauma and orthopaedic staff at the Great Western Hospital started using the adapted bottle, collaborating with staff from NHS Trusts across the South West.

Research was done into how effective they were, with results published in the British Medical Journal's Emergency Medicine Journal, external. Now the manufacturer of the male bottles, OmniPac, has developed formal prototypes and is preparing to increase production.

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Source: BBC News, 6 April 2025

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‘Below-standard care’ surgeon named — 800 patients to be reviewed

The care of hundreds of NHS patients — many of them children — is being urgently reviewed because concerns about a surgeon at one of England’s leading hospitals.

She is Kuldeep Stohr, a specialist paediatric orthopaedic consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust. Stohr, who spoke of seeing 200 patients a month at Addenbrooke’s Hospital during a 2022 webinar, has been suspended by the trust after an initial review in January identified nine children who had suffered care “below the standard” the trust would expect.

This review was conducted by James Hunter, a surgeon and the national clinical leader for paediatric trauma and orthopaedics at NHS England, who found that the quality of some children’s lives had been affected.

Now the trust has worked with Hunter to identify 800 of Stohr’s patients to be assessed by a team of experts in a new review. Of these, about 560 are children and 140 are adults. Another 100 adults and children who were treated as emergencies at the Cambridge hospital will have their care reviewed.

Many of the cases involving Stohr are linked to osteotomies — a surgical procedure where a bone is cut to reshape or realign bones such as those in the legs. Some families fear the operations were not performed correctly, with some children having to have multiple operations over several years. There are concerns about poor post-surgery follow-up and alleged delays in complications being recognised and treated.

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Source: The Times, 5 April 2025

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Hospitals in England could shed 100,000 jobs in response to cost-cutting orders

Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new boss.

The scale of looming job losses is so large that NHS leaders have urged the Treasury to cover the costs involved, which they say could top £2bn, because they do not have the money.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s new chief executive, has told the 215 trusts that provide health care across England to cut the costs of their corporate functions – such as HR, finance and communications – by 50% by the end of the year.

But the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, said some trusts believe complying with that edict could force them to shed anywhere between 3% and 11% of their entire workforce.

If replicated across the 215 trusts, that could lead to job losses ranging from 41,100 to 150,700, given they employ 1.37 million people.

Matthew Taylor, the NHS Confederation’s chief executive, said trusts were being asked to make such “staggering” savings that they might not be able to help banish the long delays patients faced for treatment.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 April 2025

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Finance and efficiency £6bn underlying deficit ‘could derail 10-Year Plan’

The underlying deficit in the NHS provider sector has returned to pre-covid levels and could derail the government’s reform plans, HSJ analysis has found.

As they head into the 2025-26 financial year, the gap between trusts’ regular income and expenditure is north of £6bn.

Adjusted for turnover, the gap appears to have returned to the same level as in 2018-19, when NHS Improvement, which no longer exists, last published an official estimate.

The underlying deficit is the difference between recurrent annual income and costs, which is often plugged by one-off savings and funding injections.

Sally Gainsbury, lead analyst at the Nuffield Trust, warned the scale of financial distress would undercut efforts to reform the NHS through its 10-Year Plan.

Ms Gainsbury said: “There is a worrying disconnect between the huge ambition in the forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan – which centres around shifting care out of hospital, improving digital care and preventing ill health – and the financial realities.

“With the average CEO or finance director worrying about how to find the cash to pay staff for 17 days of the year, they’re probably not going to have the bandwidth – let alone the resource – to think about asking those staff to double-run clinics in the community or upgrade to the latest tech.”

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Source: HSJ, 7 April 2025

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Trump’s tariffs could hit UK medicine supply, Wes Streeting warns

US tariffs could adversely affect the supply of medicines to the UK, the health secretary has said.

Donald Trump announced a wide range of “reciprocal” tariffs on goods imported into the US, including a 10% levy on the UK as well as 20% on the EU, 34% on China and 46% on Vietnam.

It triggered a rout on stock markets worldwide, with plunges not seen since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, wiping out trillions of dollars in value.

Wes Streeting told Sky News that the chaos caused by the fears of a global trade war could disrupt supplies of medicine.

“As ever in terms of medicines, there’s a number of factors at play,” he said. “There have been challenges in terms of manufacturing, challenges in terms of distribution, and if we start to see tariffs kicking in, that’s another layer of challenge, but we watch this situation extremely closely.”

He added: “We are constantly watching and acting on this situation to try and get medicines into the country, to make sure we’ve got availability, to show some flexibility in terms of how medicines are dispensed, to deal with shortages.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Streeting said patient data was “not for sale” as part of any trade negotiations with the US designed to mitigate the impact of the tariffs.

“The NHS is not for sale and our patients’ data is not for sale,” Streeting said.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 April 2025

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Benefits of ADHD medication outweigh health risks, study finds

The benefits of taking drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outweigh the impact of increases in blood pressure and heart rate, according to a new study.

An international team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Southampton found the majority of children taking ADHD medication experienced small increases in blood pressure and pulse rates, but that the drugs had “overall small effects”. They said the study’s findings highlighted the need for “careful monitoring”.

Prof Samuele Cortese, the senior lead author of the study, from the University of Southampton, said the risks and benefits of taking any medication had to be assessed together, but for ADHD drugs the risk-benefit ratio was “reassuring”.

“We found an overall small increase in blood pressure and pulse for the majority of children taking ADHD medications,” he said. “Other studies show clear benefits in terms of reductions in mortality risk and improvement in academic functions, as well as a small increased risk of hypertension, but not other cardiovascular diseases. Overall, the risk-benefit ratio is reassuring for people taking ADHD medications.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2025

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NHSE admits ‘devaluing of commissioning’

NHS England hopes to tackle “a perceived devaluing of commissioning” and enhance “the skills and professional identity of commissioners”, as part of the future of integrated care boards, a leaked document reveals.

NHSE started developing the “strategic commissioning framework” late last year – before the announcement of 50% cuts to ICBs  and its own abolition – but it is still hoping to publish the document soon.

Slides outlining its plans, seen by HSJ, say: “There has been a perceived devaluing of commissioning and a consequent variation in capability and capacity to carry it out across health economies.”

It must now, it says “set out what commissioning means now, building the skills and professional identity of commissioners to meet the challenges but also the opportunities afforded in 2025”.

The draft policy expects ICBs to become “strategic commissioners”, a role the document seeks to define, from 2026-27. It is unclear if the approach will now need to be overhauled, or accelerated, as ICBs have to make deep staffing cuts by October.

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Source: HSJ, 26 March 2025

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Cancer screening reporting errors led to mum's death

The family of a mother who died from cervical cancer after twice being wrongly told she had negative results have been awarded undisclosed damages.

The misreporting of Louise Gleadell's cervical screening results was admitted by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust following her death aged 38 in March 2018.

An internal review in 2017 found the samples, taken four years apart, were not good enough to produce reliable results but neither Ms Gleadell - a mum to three boys - nor her relatives were told about the "inadequate" samples while she was still alive.

Her family have now been given an undisclosed payout, with the trust apologising for its mistakes that had "devastating consequences".

Ms Gleadell, from Cossington in Leicestershire, was diagnosed with cervical cancer two years prior to her death. It was, by that stage, too late to have surgery.

Two cervical screening tests, carried out in 2008 and 2012, were misreported to her as negative.

It meant that over a four-year period, she had been given false reassurance about her health when she was developing cervical cancer, and the opportunity to treat pre-cancerous cells passed.

Ms Gleadell's sisters, Laura and Clare Gleadell, say their grief has been compounded by knowing that their sister's death was avoidable.

Laura, 43, said: "Her death was preventable and that for us is ultimately really hard.

"It would not have developed into cancer had she been recalled in either 2008 or 2012.

"If she had had treatment for cell abnormalities before it even developed into cancer, she would not have died."

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Source: BBC News, 6 April 2025

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Who's to blame when AI makes a medical error? (26 March 2025)

Assistive artificial intelligence technologies hold significant promise for transforming health care by aiding physicians in diagnosing, managing, and treating patients. However, the current trend of assistive AI implementation could actually worsen challenges related to error prevention and physician burnout, according to a new brief published in JAMA Health Forum.

The brief, written by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, explains that there is an increasing expectation of physicians to rely on AI to minimize medical errors. However, proper laws and regulations are not yet in place to support physicians as they make AI-guided decisions, despite the fierce adoption of these technologies among healthcare organisations.

The researchers predict that medical liability will depend on whom society considers at fault when the technology fails or makes a mistake, subjecting physicians to an unrealistic expectation of knowing when to override or trust AI. The authors warn that such an expectation could increase the risk of burnout and even errors among physicians.

"AI was meant to ease the burden, but instead, it’s shifting liability onto physicians - forcing them to flawlessly interpret technology even its creators can’t fully explain," said Shefali Patil, visiting associate professor at the Carey Business School and associate professor at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. "This unrealistic expectation creates hesitation and poses a direct threat to patient care."

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Source: Digital Health News, 26 March 2025

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Second child dies of measles as Texas outbreak worsens

A second child has died from measles as an outbreak of the highly contagious virus continues to grow in western Texas.

The school-aged child was not vaccinated, had no underlying health conditions and was in hospital suffering complications from measles, Aaron Davis, the vice-president of UMC Health System, told the BBC.

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has faced a backlash over his handling of the outbreak, visited Texas on Sunday in the wake of the death, which is the third overall in recent weeks.

The southern US state has reported more than 480 cases of measles so far this year as of Friday, a jump from 420 earlier in the week. The outbreak has extended to neighbouring states.

Across the whole of the US, more than 600 cases of measles have been recorded so far this year, more than double the 285 cases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded last year.

In 2019, there were a total of 1,274 measles cases recorded across the US, but prior to that there had not been a larger outbreak than this year's since the early 1990s, according to the CDC.

Many of this year's cases - nearly all in unvaccinated people - are related to the outbreak that began in western Texas.

"This unfortunate event underscores the importance of vaccination," Mr Davis said in a statement. "Measles is a highly contagious disease that can lead to serious complications, particularly for those who are unvaccinated."

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Read full story: BBC News, 6 April 2025

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'The NHS can't tell me where my job will be'

Jayne Evans has completed four years at medical school in London - but says she is still being left in the dark about where her first permanent NHS position will be.

"I was told that I don't have a job set aside for me," she said.

"They've guaranteed we will only be offered jobs other people decline and there's just no sort of timeline that they can give us."

Ms Evans has been given a rough idea of where she will be working - the Trent area, which spans almost all of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire - but no further clues.

She is one of hundreds of newly-qualified medical students who have not been found a specific job by the NHS yet.

Instead they have a so-called "placeholder job", meaning they have only been told the rough part of the country they will be in.

Without knowing where they will be living, they say they are not able to start preparations for moving.

Ms Evans said it had overshadowed her achievement in qualifying.

"I was expecting around this time to feel excited or even nervous, but now mostly I just feel angry and disrespected," she said.

"I went into medicine and was told we needed doctors and the NHS needs help but I've been told there is no job for me."

Dr Hassan Nassar was one of more than 1,000 medical students in the same position last year.

The BMA, the union that represents doctors and medical students in the UK, has accused the government of failing to plan for an increase in resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - after increasing the number of medical school places.

"The government has increased the number of medical school places - but not the number of foundation jobs," Callum Williams, the union's deputy chair of education, said.

"The government needs to increase that funding - and these jobs should go to UK-trained doctors first."

Mr Williams said there was a danger students would move abroad.

"It's your first job with the NHS, it is supposed to be exciting and instead it leaves a sour taste in your mouth," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 7 April 2025

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Missed and delayed medication putting A&E patients at risk, new report reveals

Patients in A&E are being put in potentially life-threatening situations due to missed doses of prescription medicines, according to a new report.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) found people in A&E were not getting their medications on time and were missing doses needed to manage their illnesses – putting them at risk of getting worse.

Insulin for diabetes, Parkinson's drugs, epilepsy medicines and tablets for preventing blood clots are all time critical medicines (TCM).

If these drugs are delayed or missed, the patient can deteriorate and is at greater risk of complications or death.

While patients are advised to remember to bring their medications to A&E and to take them, there is also a responsibility on NHS staff to make sure this happens.

Despite the recognised risk of harm, the delivery of TCM is not consistent across emergency departments with long waiting times often contributing to this.

The study, which was part of the College's clinical Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) which aims to improve the care of A&E patients, found more than half of these patients were not identified as being on TCM within 30 minutes of their arrival in an emergency department.

In addition, 68% of doses were not administered within 30 minutes of the expected time.

"The findings contained in this report should serve as a call to action for both emergency medicine staff, as well as patients reliant on time critical medications, to ensure no dose is ever missed in A&E," said Dr Jonny Acheson, an emergency medicine consultant in Leicester who has Parkinson's, led the study.

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Source: The Independent, 7 April 2025

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'Fit and well' surgery waitlist details to be revealed in Wales

More details on plans to only add people who are "fit and well" to surgery waiting lists and crack down on missed appointments are expected to be revealed on Monday.

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles will give a speech to health leaders on the Welsh government's bid to cut waiting lists by around one quarter by March 2026.

Hospital volunteer John Timmons, 70, said he saw "a ridiculous number" of patients not turning up for appointments and would support the plans.

But health equality charity, Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales (FTWW), said "fear of weight stigma" could delay some people from seeking help.

The proposed changes are part of a number of Welsh government ideas being discussed to improve the NHS, which has recently seen small reductions in record waiting lists.

These include:

  • Patients who miss hospital appointments twice or more being referred back to their GP, in effect placing them at the back of the queue.
  • An improved Welsh NHS app, allowing patients to track their progress through the system and make or amend appointments.
  • Increased levels of intervention to get patients fit for surgery, such as people being asked to lose weight or exercise more before they are placed on a waiting list.

The Welsh government said patients who were fit and well before surgery were more likely to recover quickly and support would be given to get them "in the best possible shape" for treatment.

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Source: BBC News, 6 April 2025

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Health workers to go door-to-door under new NHS plans to tackle sickness rates across England

Health workers will be sent door-to-door under drastic new NHS plans to tackle sickness rates across England, according to reports.

A community health worker will be allocated 120 homes to visit every month to see if help is needed under plans set to be rolled out in June, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said trials of the scheme showed “encouraging signs” in slashing the number of heavy NHS users which he called “frequent flyers” of A&E departments.

A pilot scheme in Westminster, London, showed a dramatic 10% drop in hospital admissions over a year, The Daily Telegraph reports.

“We’re seeing some really encouraging signs about what can happen if you’ve got the right care in the right place at the right time,” Mr Streeting said.

The scheme, set to be rolled out in 25 parts of England, is part of Mr Streeting’s 10-year plan for the NHS, which could also see younger people directed to pharmacy care using the NHS app, leaving GPs to devote their time to sicker and older patients.

The health secretary said a modernised version of the health service’s phone app could mean the NHS could “do a much better and faster job of making sure patients get the right care at the right time in the right place”.

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Source: The Independent, 7 April 2025

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Aid cuts could have ‘pandemic-like effects’ on maternal deaths, WHO warns

More women risk dying in pregnancy and childbirth because of aid cuts by wealthy countries, which could have “pandemic-like effects”, UN agencies have warned.

Pregnant women in conflict zones are the most vulnerable, and face an “alarmingly high” risk that is already five times greater than elsewhere, according to a new UN report on trends in maternal mortality.

Deaths due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth declined 40% globally between 2000 and 2023, but progress is “fragile” and has slowed since 2016, the authors said. An estimated 260,000 women died in 2023 from pregnancy-related causes.

There is a “threat of major backsliding” amid “increasing headwinds”, the authors said. US funding cuts this year have meant clinics closing and health workers losing their jobs, and disrupted the supply chains that deliver life-saving medicines to treat leading causes of maternal death such as haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria, World Health Organization experts warned.

The report – itself part-funded by the US – revealed that maternal deaths rose by 40,000 in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, probably driven by complications from the virus itself and by the disruptions to healthcare.

Dr Bruce Aylward, an assistant director general at the WHO, said that rise could offer insights into the possible impact of current aid cuts.

“With Covid, we saw an acute shock to the system, and what’s happening with financing is an acute shock,” he said.

“Countries have not had time to put in place and plan for what other financing they’re going to use, what other workers they’re going to use, [and] what are the trade-offs they’re going to make in their systems to try to make sure the most essential services can continue.”

The shock to services, he said, would lead to “pandemic-like effects”, adding that funding cuts risked not only progress, “but you could have a shift backwards”.

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Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2025

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England’s NHS crews ‘watching patients die in back of ambulances’ due to A&E delays

Paramedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison.

The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.

The survey of nearly 600 ambulance workers reveals the toll of the waits on patients and the crews looking after them. Unison warns that “car park care” is increasingly becoming the norm, with hospital medical staff tending to patients in the back of ambulances.

More than three-quarters (77%) of paramedics and emergency medical technicians said they have had to look after people in the back of ambulances in the past year while stuck outside emergency departments. Two-thirds (68%) have waited in hospital corridors, or in other locations, with one paramedic often caring for several patients to allow colleagues to respond to other calls.

More than two-thirds also reported patients’ health deteriorating during long waits, and one in 20 (5%) said people have died in their care because of long delays in being admitted.

Gavin Taylor, 58, a Unison representative and ambulance worker in the north-west of England, said it was now a regular occurrence to be waiting several hours to hand over a patient. He said: “It’s heartbreaking because we are here as a caring profession and the delays have an impact on the care and wellbeing of patients.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2025

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