Children under 10 should not be given obesity drugs or GLP-1 weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, new global guidelines, external from the World Health Organization (WHO) say.

Most of these medications are only licensed for children or adolescents older than this, but some doctors prescribe them off-label, and drug companies are testing them in children as young as six.

WHO says the care should focus on healthy eating and exercise, not medicine or surgery, although they do not oppose drug trials.

Some digital technology, such as activity trackers and any online games that encourage the player to be more active and move, might be useful, it says, based on the limited evidence available.

Estimates suggest 170 million children and adolescents worldwide are obese.

That includes 70 million children aged 5–9. Obesity prevalence in this age group has quadrupled since 1990, rising from 2% to 8%.

In 2024, 35 million children under the age of five were overweight.

Obesity increases the risk of many different diseases, including type 2 diabetes.

Dr Luz De Rigil, Director of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, said: "For children under 10, WHO does not recommend obesity medicines, bariatric surgery or weight-management devices. This is a strong recommendation."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 7 October 2026

At least five trusts are reviewing their rates of repeat breast cancer surgery after recording levels significantly above the maximum expected level, HSJ has learned.

Their high rates were identified in this year’s National Cancer Audit, published last month.

While these can be caused by multiple and complex factors – and there is no suggestion at this stage of avoidable patient harm – the metric is a significant patient safety marker.

For example, it was a factor in triggering the high-profile breast cancer care investigation which uncovered significant patient harm at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust. A review of up to 4,500 cases continues.

HSJ contacted trusts which recorded rates more than 5 per cent above the maximum level expected by NATCAN auditors.

Airedale Foundation Trust, Buckinghamshire Health FT, Royal Berkshire FT, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals FT and Torbay and South Devon FT all recorded rates that were more than 5% above the maximum level expected by National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN) auditors, who examined the period between January 2021 and December 2023.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 7 October 2026

The UK Government has confirmed it will accept all 44 recommendations made by the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, published 10 September, and has set out how they will be delivered across the UK. Alongside the response, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is opening the call for applications for the third phase of AI Airlock, its regulatory sandbox for AI-enabled medical devices, with testing themes directly informed by the Commission’s recommendations.  

The Commission concluded that the current regulatory approach must evolve for AI technologies by designing a more proportionate, lifecycle-based framework. 

The Government's response commits the UK to developing a world-leading agile approach to AI device regulation that supports innovation while maintaining patient safety and public trust. The reforms aim to ensure patients can benefit from safe, effective and trusted AI more quickly, while maintaining robust safeguards as technologies evolve. 

Among the first steps set out in today’s response, the MHRA is also committed to issue draft guidance by December 2026 on a new approach to managing changes to AI-enabled medical devices as they adapt and improve over time, moving towards a regulatory system that is designed to maintain safety while supporting timely access to innovative devices. The MHRA will also begin next year by consulting on how to qualify and classify AI-enabled devices, the first recommendation of the National Commission.  

Other commitments include exploring new staged authorisation pathways, allowing promising AI tools to be used in the NHS earlier under close supervision while further real-world evidence is gathered. A full implementation roadmap, setting out timelines and responsibilities across all 44 recommendations, will be published by Spring 2027, with regular progress updates to follow. 

Read full article.

Source: MHRA, 6 October 2026

Related Reading

• Patient safety and the regulation of AI in healthcare (Patient Safety Learning)

• Reflections on the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare recommendations (Clive Flashman)

Staff at a trust subject to a statutory inquiry are paralysed by fear, a review has discovered.

Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust is under scrutiny by the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining the deaths of over 2,000 services users in the organisation’s care. It began in 2023 and is expected to report by 2028.

An external review of how the trust is coping has been undertaken by the King’s Fund and charity brap.

This has revealed the impact of the Lampard Inquiry, service pressure, and financial constraints on senior managers, middle managers, and frontline staff.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 6 October 2026

Women across the country will be better supported to spot the signs of breast cancer and know where to turn for help as the UK Government announces its first partnership to help deliver its renewed Women’s Health Strategy. 

Marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Department of Health and Social Care will partner with the UK’s largest breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, over the next 3 years, giving women practical information to build confidence in checking their breasts, recognising changes, and seeking advice sooner - particularly in underserved areas.

It comes as new research from Breast Cancer Now reveals almost a third (29%) of women in England who regularly check their breasts do not feel confident to notice a change, while just over one in 10 (11%) of those checking less than once a month say it’s because they do not know what to look out for.  

One in 5 (20%) UK adults also say they are not confident they would know where to find trusted information about breast cancer if they had concerns.  

Women will also be provided with better support after their treatment, including clear information to understand the possible signs of breast cancer returning or spreading and how to live a healthy lifestyle post breast cancer treatment.  

Healthcare professionals will receive additional training, alongside a practical toolkit for healthcare teams, so they can provide the best possible advice to women adapting post-treatment. 

Read full article.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 5 October 2026

Women report suffering more pain than men, a major new global study has found.

That was true for all types of pain the researchers measured, and comes amid continuing concern about the gender pain gap, which means women are less likely to be prescribed the pain relief they need.

Researchers from all over the world carried out “one of the largest harmonisation efforts in pain epidemiology to date”. Data was collected from more than 6 million people from 118 countries from 1990 to 2025, and included people from aged five years to more than 100.

The research, published in Nature Medicine, looked at how pain, as the leading global cause of disability, was distributed both around the world and across the human lifespan.

It found women’s self-reported pain across 11 bodily sites – head, face, neck or shoulder, foot or ankle, hand or wrist, elbow, chest, back, stomach or abdomen, hip and knee – was higher than for men.

Read full article.

Source: The Guardian, 5 October 2026

Ten mental health trusts have been reported to the health regulator after problems with patient consent procedures when monitoring patients using camera technology.

The issue emerged during the latest hearings of the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 people who spent time in mental health units in Essex between 2000 and the end of 2023.

The infrared technology is used in patients' bedrooms and can monitor breathing and pulse without staff having to enter the room.

NHS England told the inquiry it had passed information to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after reviewing the use of digital monitoring systems, including Oxevision.

Read full article.

Source: BBC News, 6 October 2026

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week told attendees at the Make America Healthy Again Summit that artificial intelligence could help address key health issues and can offer a “better-informed” second opinion than doctors, as the prominent vaccine sceptic once again railed against public health experts and COVID-era response strategies.

Speaking to Vice President JD Vance in a “fireside chat” to close out the MAHA summit, Kennedy argued AI offers the capacity to solve the “most daunting public health problems that are otherwise existential.”

Touting AI’s ability to digest thousands-page-long medical records, Kennedy claimed it can give you “a second opinion that is much better informed than any doctor in the country.”

Kennedy said another change he expects AI to bring is that health policymaking will never again be dominated by public officials “who tell us ‘Trust the experts.’”

Kennedy said every American will be able to check their own medical advice and argued that AI had the capacity to “free us from medical tyranny.”

“If somebody tells you, ‘Masks work, trust the experts,’ A.I. may tell you otherwise. If somebody tells you, ‘Social distancing works, trust the experts,’ A.I. may correct that. And if somebody tells you that a vaccine will prevent transmission and infection, or you need to take it to protect your grandmother, A.I. may say it actually doesn’t do that,” Kennedy said.

Read full story

Source: Forbes, 1 October 2026

The  “concentration” of electronic patient record systems under a relatively small number of suppliers has increased the risk of highly damaging cyber attack, a government review has concluded.

The Department of Health and Social Care’s Gateway review of NHS England’s Frontline Productivity programme reported “EPRs and their hosting/supplier dependencies present concentration and cyber risks”, and this “may warrant” their designation as “critical national infrastructure”.

The review, which has been seen by HSJ, says responsibility for the cyber risks posed by EPR concentration was “fragmented” and that there was “material uncertainty” over how an attack might be prevented and responded to. 

The gateway review said it was “essential” that NHSE “publish minimum cyber security requirements for EPRs and clarify cyber risk ownership”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 5 October 2026

The chair of a public inquiry into mental health deaths said she would make interim recommendations if she identified issues that "might pose an urgent risk to patient safety".

Baroness Kate Lampard is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 people who died while under the care of Essex mental health services between 2000 and the end of 2023.

The Lampard Inquiry will hear further evidence during hearings beginning on 5 October before deciding whether recommendations were needed ahead of a final report, Baroness Lampard said.

Any recommendations were expected to focus on inpatient safety, including resuscitation procedures and monitoring technology used to detect patients in distress.

"Those two matters are not specific to Essex and therefore the evidence the inquiry hears will be of relevance to service providers across the entire country," Baroness Lampard said.

"It may carry implications for the care and treatment provided on all mental health units."

One system under examination as part of the inquiry is Oxevision, which can take footage, record breathing and pulse rates and is used by a number of NHS mental health trusts in England.

Concerns have been raised about privacy, dignity and whether the technology could be used as a substitute for face-to-face care.

Tammy Smith, whose daughter Sophie Alderman died in 2022, previously told the inquiry: "It actually takes away human interaction. They are at their most vulnerable.

"They need those conversations. They need someone to ask, 'Are you OK? Do you need anything?' We all need that."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 5 October 2026

Every ambulance trust in the south of England is missing the national category 2 response target so far this year, while all three northern trusts are inside it after a more sustained recovery.

The national target for 2026-27 is an average response of 25 minutes for category 2 calls, which include suspected strokes and heart attacks. NHS England data for April to August shows a national average of 29 minutes, almost a minute slower than in the same months last year.

North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (19m 13s), West Midlands Ambulance Service University FT (20m 42s), Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust (24m 13s), and North West Ambulance Service Trust (24m 22s) are all under 25 minutes for the year to date.

However, those figures do not yet include winter. NWAS was at 24m 26s at the same point last year and finished 2025-26 on 27m.

South Western Ambulance Service FT (38m 41s), South Central Ambulance Service FT (32m 8s), London Ambulance Service Trust (31m 24s), and South East Coast Ambulance Service FT (27m 26s) are all outside the target, as are East Midlands Ambulance Service Trust (33m 59s) and East of England Ambulance Service Trust (32m 47s).

The gap has widened over the past year. South Central, South Western, and London were slower in April to August than in the same months of 2025, by 4m 40s, 4m 14s, and 1m 52s respectively, while NEAS and Yorkshire both improved by more than a minute.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 5 October 2026

A mental health trust in east London, where a man was killed by a fellow patient, has been warned further deaths may occur unless staff issues are addressed.

Hugo Flint Cahan, 34, was strangled by 22-year-old Rolando Torres-Pena at Newham Mental Health Centre, which provides care for acutely mentally ill men, in January 2023.

The coroner has sent a report to the Trust and NHS England raising serious concerns about the care the two men received.

It follows a six-day inquest in September during which the senior coroner for east London, Graeme Irvine, concluded that neglect had more than trivially contributed to Cahan's death.

On the night of Cahan's death, staff on the ward were found to have been asleep on the job and on their phones for long periods.

East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) says the failings identified were "wholly unacceptable" and that it has undertaken a "significant programme of work" to improve inpatient services.

The coroner's Prevention of Future Deaths report highlights 14 concerns. These include failing to carry out "timely and thorough observations" of patients, then falsifying records "in the safe knowledge that staff on duty would not report or escalate the deception".

The document also says there were delays in starting CPR on Cahan when he was discovered, that staff misled the police as to what the patients had been doing on the night of the incident, and that staff colluded with each other to take two-hour unauthorised breaks.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 2 October 2026