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  1. Past hour
  2. Content Article
    In January 2025, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives’ Budget Committee offered a list of possible spending reductions to offset revenue losses from proposed tax cuts. In May, the Committee advanced a bill incorporating several reductions on the list. The Committee estimated that the 6 largest potential Medicaid cuts (for example, work requirements for some Medicaid enrollees) would each reduce the federal government’s Medicaid outlays by at least $100 billion over 10 years. On the basis of the Committee’s estimates of savings; Congressional Budget Office analyses; and peer-reviewed studies of the coverage, financial, and health impacts of past Medicaid expansions and contractions, the authors project the likely effects of each option and of the House bill advanced by the Budget Committee in May. Each option individually would reduce federal Medicaid outlays by between $100 billion and $900 billion over a decade, increase the ranks of the uninsured by between 600 000 and 3 900 000 and the annual number of persons forgoing needed medical care by 129 060 to 838 890, and result in 651 to 12 626 medically preventable deaths annually. Enactment of the House bill advanced in May would increase the number of uninsured persons by 7.6 million and the number of deaths by 16 642 annually, according to a mid-range estimate. These figures exclude harms from lowering provider payments and shrinking benefits, as well as possible repercussions from states increasing taxes or shifting expenditures from other needs to make up for shortfalls in federal Medicaid funding. Policy makers should weigh the likely health and financial harms to patients and providers of reducing Medicaid expenditures against the desirability of tax reductions, which would accrue mostly to wealthy Americans.
  3. News Article
    Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law. Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated. Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show. The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists. In making the changes, VA officials cite the president’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings. Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching. They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025
  4. Today
  5. Content Article
    Obesity is now one of the biggest drivers of ill health in the UK’s working-age population, contributing to economic inactivity, increased NHS costs and deepening health inequality. Yet under the NHS’s current plan for the rollout of anti-obesity medications (AOMs), obesity rates will rise faster than the drugs can be delivered.  Anti-Obesity Medications: Faster, Broader Access Can Drive Health and Wealth in the UK explains why expanding access to these drugs could save the UK £52 billion by 2050. It's calling for a faster, broader strategy that includes: lowering eligibility to adults with a BMI of 27 or more making access digital-first delivering treatment more equitably through a national prevention programme. The opportunity is real – and so is the cost of delaying action on one of the UK’s most pressing health and economic challenges. Find out why the government needs to make AOMs available faster – and distribute them more broadly. 
  6. Content Article
    Inpatient mental health services in the UK are under intense scrutiny and increasing pressure. Staff shortages, patient safety concerns, and outdated environments are just some of the issues drawing media and political attention. There’s widespread agreement that improvements are needed, but the question is: where do we begin? This HSJ article highlights five shifts that are needed to help inpatient mental health services better support the people they serve.
  7. News Article
    NHS call handlers are quitting amid burnout at dealing with 999 calls about suicides, stabbings and shootings and the long delays before ambulances reach patients. The pressure is so intense that 27% of control room staff in ambulance services across Britain have left their jobs over the last three years, NHS figures show. Many feel overwhelmed by the demands of their roles, unsupported by their employers and powerless to help patients who are facing life-or-death emergencies, according to a report by Unison, with some resigning within a year of starting the role. Call handlers get so stressed that they took an average of 33 sick days a year each between 2021/22 and 2024/25, data obtained by the union also showed. That is far higher than the average four days taken off sick by workers in the UK overall. A report by Unison found that call handlers’ jobs have become increasingly challenging in recent years as the demand for care, which rose during Covid, has remained consistently high since, while ambulance handover delays outside hospitals have worsened. “These findings paint a bleak picture of the conditions faced by 999 control room staff. TV programmes about ambulance services don’t show things as they really are,” said Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary. Unison’s report said: “Relentless exposure to traumatic and increasingly complex incidents, verbal abuse, long shifts and low pay are contributing to stress, burnout and fatigue. One call handler told Unison: “Some shifts are overwhelmingly traumatic, with 90% of the calls of a distressing nature. One shift, I handled three road traffic accidents and two cardiac arrests.” “There’s a persistent pressure to remain on the phone, no matter how emotionally drained we are.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2025
  8. News Article
    When Tassie Weaver went into labour at full term, she thought she was hours away from holding her first child. But by the time she was giving birth, she knew her son had died. Doctors had previously told Tassie to call her local maternity unit immediately, she says, as she was considered high risk and needed monitoring, due to high blood pressure and concerns about the baby's growth. But a midwife told her to stay at home. Three hours later she called again, worried because now she couldn't feel her baby moving. Again, she was told to stay at home, the same midwife saying that this was normal because women can be too distracted by their contractions to feel anything else. "I was treated as just a kind of hysterical woman in pain who doesn't know what's going on because it's their first pregnancy," the 39-year-old tells us. When she called a third time, a different midwife told her to come to hospital, but when she arrived it was too late. His heart had stopped beating. Tassie and her husband John believe Baxter's stillbirth at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), four years ago, could have been prevented - and a review by the trust identified care issues "likely to have made a difference to the outcome". The couple are among 47 new families who have contacted the BBC with concerns about inadequate maternity care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust between 2017 and 2024. As well as the new families, three new whistleblowers - two who still work for the trust - have shared concerns about the standard of care at its two maternity units - at the LGI and St James' University Hospital. This is in addition to the two we spoke to in the initial BBC investigation. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 June 2025
  9. Community Post
    Supporting Loss: developing an online Toolkit to help those bereaved by substance use when the death is referred to the coroner in England and Wales A new project, Supporting Loss (Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath; Turning Point; Birkbeck University of London), is developing an online Toolkit to help professionals support bereaved people when an alcohol or other drug-related death is subject to a coroner’s investigation and inquest. The Toolkit will also be directly accessible to bereaved people. Supporting Loss builds on two previously completed projects - understanding bereavement by substance use, and the Voicing Loss project about people’s experiences of the coroner service in England and Wales. To help inform Toolkit development, we are holding online Knowledge Exchange events on 16th July and 8th September 2025. We want to hear bereaved people's ideas for the content and design of the Toolkit. To find out more contact LornaTempleton: [email protected]
  10. News Article
    NHS staff have voiced concern about the growing numbers of patients who are filming themselves undergoing medical treatment and uploading it to TikTok and Instagram. Radiographers, who take X-rays and scans, fear the trend could compromise the privacy of other patients being treated nearby and lead to staff having their work discussed online. The Society of Radiographers (SoR) has gone public with its unease after a spate of incidents in which patients, or someone with them in the hospital, began filming their care. On one occasion a radiology department assistant from the south coast was inserting a cannula into a patient who had cancer when their 19-year-old daughter began filming. “She wanted to record the cannulation because she thought it would be entertaining on social media. But she didn’t ask permission,” the staff member said. “I spent the weekend afterwards worrying: did I do my job properly? I know I did, but no one’s perfect all the time and this was recorded. I don’t think I slept for the whole weekend.” They were also concerned that a patient in the next bay was giving consent for a colonoscopy – an invasive diagnostic test – at the same time as the daughter was filming her mother close by. “That could all have been recorded on the film, including names and dates of birth,” they said. Ashley d’Aquino, a therapeutic radiographer in London, said a colleague had agreed to take photographs for a patient, “but when the patient handed over her phone the member of staff saw that the patient had also been covertly recording her, to publish on her cancer blog. “As NHS staff we wear name badges, so our names will be visible in any video. It makes people feel very uncomfortable and anxious.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2025
  11. News Article
    Dozens of trusts have been hit with financial penalties after regulators questioned their claims to be compliant with maternity safety standards. The maternity incentive scheme, run by NHS Resolution, gives trusts “refunds” on their payments to its clinical negligence scheme if they meet 10 safety-related criteria, which trust boards must declare against each year. The 10 requirements include appropriate staffing, reviewing deaths using a national tool, and board oversight of maternity services. However, NHS Resolution can investigate if concerns are raised — for example in a Care Quality Commission inspection — and these conflict with the trust’s submission. The payments to trusts can then be withdrawn, or withheld if they have not already been paid. HSJ analysis of data shared by NHS Resolution found 24 trusts had to make one or more repayments in the first four years of the scheme, which started in 2018 and was relaunched after the pandemic. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 June 2025
  12. Yesterday
  13. Content Article
    As part of my quality improvement study at university, I developed and introduced an oxygen reference card that was shown to improve newly qualified clinical staffs' knowledge and confidence when using an oxygen cylinder. The project's literature review captured that clinical staff may not have the memory recall to support them in clinical practice and, therefore, a lack of embedded knowledge, which could compromise care. It is paramount that users of oxygen cylinders have the knowledge to understand how to use a cylinder safely and to understand how to assess the remedial gas in the cylinder to support oxygen administration. The study found that there is minimal training accessed to support staffs' knowledge and skill foundations for using cylinders. The outcome of the study recommended that there needs to be better support for clinical staff to use cylinders within their pre/post training to be able to using the device correctly. Introducing a oxygen reference card that they could keep on them whilst at work is a useful tool to support decision-making when using the cylinder. You can download the card from the attachment below. Both NAMDET – National Association of Medical Device Educators and Trainers and Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management - NHS FOUNDATION supported the QI project.
  14. Content Article
    1 million people in the UK are unable to speak English well, or at all. People who speak little or no English are more likely to be in poor health, have a greater likelihood of experiencing adverse events and of developing life-threatening conditions and tend to have poorer access to and experiences of healthcare services than people who don’t have language barriers. They can struggle at all points of their journeys through healthcare. Translation and interpreting services for community languages are inconsistent across the NHS. Support for them by NHS commissioners, national programmes and NHS trusts is variable and the lack of high quality, appropriate and accessible services is stopping people from engaging with the healthcare they need. NHS organisations, including commissioners and trusts, have legal duties to provide accessible and inclusive health communications for patients and the public. This framework is designed to support the provision of consistent, high-quality community language translation and interpreting services by the NHS to people with limited English proficiency. Community languages are defined as languages used by minority groups or communities where a majority language exists (for example, English in the UK). It should be used as a framework for action across the NHS, including by NHS trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs). In primary care, it supplements the existing guidance for commissioners on interpreting and translation services and should be used alongside it.
  15. Event
    until
    Too many people are struggling to access the health and care they need. Staff are under extreme pressure, and health and care systems are financially strained and undergoing significant changes. The government has set out its intention to improve health and care – but will the plans go far enough? And will they deliver what the public really want from these services? We need an honest conversation with staff and the public about the future of health and social care, recognising the tough and courageous decisions that need to be made – and the trade-offs that come with them. A year after the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated at the 2024 annual conference that ‘the NHS may be broken, but it’s not beaten’, we’re bringing together leaders from across health and social care, national and local government, and private and third sector organisations to work together to find a way through the challenges. Register
  16. Content Article
    The Yellow Card scheme is a system for reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from medicines or adverse incidents with medical devices in the UK, ensuring that these products are safe for both healthcare professionals and patients. Reporting these issues helps the MHRA to identify new safety concerns, review products and take action to minimise risks. Despite the role of the Yellow Card reporting system in pharmacovigilance in the UK, understanding and uptake of the scheme remains limited. The authors designed a survey to explore healthcare professionals’ awareness, usage and perceptions of the Yellow Card Scheme for reporting ADRs. It was aimed at identifying current levels of engagement, perceived barriers to reporting, confidence in identifying ADRs and opportunities for improving reporting practices within the East London NHS Foundation Trust. The survey results showed that 84% were aware of the Yellow Card scheme, with 52% selecting that they were ‘fully aware’. A total of 16% of those asked had never heard of the scheme. Despite awareness of the scheme, actual usage is very low — 76% have never reported and 12% were unsure if they had reported, suggesting underutilisation of the scheme. Reporting is infrequent: no respondents report regularly; 12% report a few times a year and 20% have only reported one or twice in total. When asked about barriers to reporting, participants selected: Lack of awareness. Uncertainty about what qualifies as reportable. Lack of time. . Belief that someone else is responsible.
  17. News Article
    Breakthrough drugs that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease will reportedly be refused for use on the NHS this week in a blow to thousands of patients. The two drugs, Lecanemab and donanemab, slow down the decline in Alzheimer’s patients' ability to carry out daily activities. The drugs’ success in halting the progression of Alzheimer’s was heralded as a “new era” by campaigners and researchers. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is expected to refuse to recommend them on the NHS, according to The Sunday Times. The regulator has already issued two decisions, one in October last year and another in March, saying they would not recommend the drugs for use on the NHS. A final decision will be published on Thursday. The regulator will reportedly turn down both drugs on the grounds of cost-effectiveness, with one insider telling The Sunday Times: “It is the end of the road for these drugs on the NHS”. Hilary Evans-Newton, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said the decision to turn down the drugs would be “deeply disappointing”. She added: “These treatments are not perfect, and we recognise the challenges they pose around cost, delivery and safety. But scientific progress is incremental, and these drugs represent a vital foundation to build on.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 June 2025
  18. News Article
    A UK trial has found that a chemotherapy-free approach to treatment may lead to better outcomes for some leukaemia patients, in what scientists are calling a "milestone". The groundbreaking UK-wide trial could reshape the way the most common form of leukaemia in adults is treated. Researchers from Leeds assessed whether two targeted cancer drugs could perform better than standard chemotherapy among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The Flair trial, which took place at 96 cancer centres across the UK, saw 786 people with previously untreated CLL randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy; a single targeted drug, ibrutinib, or two targeted drugs taken together, ibrutinib and venetoclax, with treatment guided by personalised blood tests. Researchers found that after five years, 94% of patients who received ibrutinib plus venetoclax were alive with no disease progression. This compares with 79% for those on ibrutinib alone and 58 per cent for those on standard chemotherapy, according to the study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented to the European Haematology Association congress in Milan, Italy. Dr Talha Munir, consultant haematologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who led the study, said the Flair trial is a “milestone”. “We have shown that a chemotherapy-free approach can be not only more effective but also more tolerable for patients,” she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 June 2025
  19. News Article
    A senior figure in the health service has criticised it for deep-seated racism after his mother “got a black service, not an NHS service” before she died. Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, claimed his mother Grace’s lung cancer went undiagnosed because black people get “disproportionately poor” health service care. The NHS’s failure to detect her cancer while she was alive shows that patients experience “two different services”, based on the colour of their skin, Adebowale said. His mother, Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale, a former NHS nurse, died in January aged 92. He highlighted her care and death during his speech this week at the NHS Confederation’s annual conference as an example of “persistent racial inequalities in NHS services”. His remarks prompted fresh concern about the stark differences between the care received by those from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds and white people. “My mum, who worked for many years as a nurse, died earlier this year at the age of 92. It was difficult. It was not the dignified death that we would have wanted for her,” Adebowale told an audience of NHS bosses. “It wasn’t the death she deserved. So it makes me clear about the need to address the inequity. I think she got a black service, not an NHS service.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 June 2025
  20. News Article
    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. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025
  21. Content Article
    More information about "The Green Maternity Challenge: delivering safe, low carbon care"
    Angela Hayes, is a Nurse Fellow and Project Lead at The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. In this blog, she tells us more about the Green Maternity Challenge and draws on three case studies to highlight it’s success in delivering low carbon, equitable and safe maternity care: local screening for newborn developmental hip dysplasia supporting breast-feeding reducing health-inequalities for Albanian-speaking women. Background With births totalling over 673,000 in 2022, maternity services contribute significantly to the overall carbon footprint of the NHS, and therefore, to the environmental crisis. Pregnant women and infants are particularly vulnerable to climate change, which exacerbate existing health complications. Women from ethnic minorities or disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately affected so significant health inequalities persist. The Green Maternity Challenge was delivered in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, The Royal College of Midwives and The Sustainable Healthcare. It aimed to: address the environmental impact of maternity care improve health outcomes create a more sustainable, equitable healthcare system. Nine clinical teams in the UK were chosen and supported by CSH to develop a Sustainable Quality Improvement project (SusQi) and measure its impact. Examples of impact Local screening for newborn developmental hip dysplasia - Orkney Due to geographical limitations, access to advanced equipment and specialist care and skills can be limited. Presently, families need to travel to Aberdeen with their newborns for the Ultrasound Newborn Screening for Hip Dysplasia. This has the potential to negatively affect clinical outcomes for patients, particularly those from peripheral areas such as Orkney Island, due to increased travel time and delay in travel owing to unpredictable weather, longer waiting periods and inconvenience to families. Local screening programmes can reduce waiting times and increase access to healthcare. It can also allow for early management and intervention in newborns. A team in Orkney introduced local screening facilities for newborn developmental hip dysplasia and eliminated the need for travel to the mainland. The programme has created increased job satisfaction for staff and reduced stress, travel and delays for patients. The environmental savings projected are around 22,500 miles and costs savings rising to £17000/year. Supporting breast-feeding - Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Breastfeeding is important because it improves the long-term health of both mothers and babies. Between 74-86% of birthing people start breastfeeding in the first 48 hours. Around 8% stop breastfeeding by the time they go home from hospital and a further 20% stop during the first two weeks at home. There are several reasons for this, but a lack of infant feeding support is a major contributor. Lack of support also contributes to 5-20 mothers and babies a month requiring readmission for jaundice, weight loss and tongue tie. Staff on the post-natal ward at the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hoped to improve breast-feeding rates through the implementation of daily feeding support groups. They demonstrated improvements in effective person-centred care, staff satisfaction and patient confidence. With breast-feeding rates up by 5%, they projected yearly savings over £4600, reductions in re-admissions and outpatient appointments, and environmental savings equivalent to driving almost 5000 miles. Reducing health-inequalities for Albanian-speaking women - Kingston Vulnerable groups such as migrants and ethnic minorities, face various barriers in accessing healthcare, and as a result, face poorer clinical outcomes. One such example is that of Albanian speaking women in Kingston. Comprising of 1% of all maternity care bookings at Kingston (as compared to the 0.2% national population), Albanian women face various challenges such as language barriers, asylum seeking status, poor socio-economic status, lack of support, histories of human trafficking and sexual abuse, and pre-existing mental health conditions. They are also subject to discrimination and culturally insensitive care. All these factors contribute to underutilisation of healthcare services, limited access to high quality care, concerns about confidentiality as well as lack of faith in healthcare system. Delay in getting timely and appropriate care can lead to poorer health outcomes, often necessitating more intensive and resource heavy treatments. The Olive Clinic in Kingston & Richmond midwifery team arranged for an interpreter to support their ante-natal clinic for Albanian-speaking women to support them during and after pregnancy. Impact studies are yet to be measured but qualitative data shows encouraging results from women and midwives. Summary There are many more examples and case studies but these three particularly highlight how green initiatives can be aligned to patient safety improvements to make sure every newborn and every child receives safe care. With projected annual savings of £860,669, and carbon savings equivalent to 778,978 disposable nappies, they made a huge impact on sustainable and equitable maternity. Share your insights Do you have insights to share around balancing patient safety with sustainability? What are the challenges and opportunities? Contact the editorial team at [email protected] to share your ideas.
  22. Last week
  23. News Article
    On 9 June 2025, federal employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stood up for the health and safety of the American people and faithful stewardship of public resources by authoring and signing the Bethesda Declaration. Read the open letter in support of the Bethesda Declaration.
  24. Content Article
    The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) has published Recovery Beyond Survival, a review of the quality of rehabilitation care provided to patients following an admission to an intensive care unit. Based on 1,018 patients aged 18 and over who were admitted as an emergency to an ICU for four or more days between 1st October and 31st December 2022 (and who survived to hospital discharge), this report covers a range of specialities and ward areas, and identifies areas for improvement. Themes that emerge include the need for co-ordinated multidisciplinary care and good communication between professional groups, patients and their families. It also contains examples of excellent practice, such as early assessment for rehabilitation, the setting of short-term rehabilitation goals, the use of patient diaries, providing a leaflet on discharge with information about the availability of ongoing support, and the provision of follow-up appointments with the critical care team. This report goes on to make recommendations to support national and local quality improvement initiatives: Improve the co-ordination and delivery of rehabilitation following critical illness at both an organisational level and at a patient level. Develop and validate a national standardised rehabilitation screening tool to be used on admission to an intensive care unit. Undertake and document a comprehensive, holistic assessment of the rehabilitation needs of patients at risk of morbidity. Ensure that multidisciplinary teams are in place to deliver the required level of rehabilitation in intensive care units and across the recovery pathway. Standardise the handover of rehabilitation needs and goals for patients as they transition from the intensive care unit to the ward, and ward to community services. Provide patients and their family/carers with clear information.
  25. News Article
    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." Read full story Source: NPR, 11 June 2025
  26. News Article
    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. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 June 2025
  27. News Article
    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.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025
  28. News Article
    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.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 June 2025
  29. News Article
    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.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025
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