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Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.
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.”
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Source: The Guardian, 14 June 2025
Sam
The government is aiming for a significant expansion of clinical trials in the UK, and plans to use the NHS app to encourage millions of people in England to take part in the search for new treatments.
Patients will eventually be automatically matched with studies based on their health data and interests, via the app. The plans envisage alerting them to the trials using smartphone notifications.
NHS trusts that fail to meet targets on trials will also be publicly named, and the best performers will be prioritised for funding, as part of improvements designed to restore Britain’s global reputation for medical research.
The strategy is one of the first to emerge from the government’s forthcoming 10-year health plan for England. It aims to take advantage of changes simplifying NHS records by quickly identifying people suitable for a trial. It will also include measures to streamline the paperwork required for the studies.
It is hoped the reforms will speed up the trials process and attract more pharmaceutical companies to host them in Britain, as ministers in all departments are ordered to find pro-growth measures.
The 10-year health plan will promise to slash set-up times for trials. While it takes about 100 days to set up a trial in Spain, it now takes 250 days in the NHS. The plan will push for commercial clinical trial set-up times to fall to a maximum of 150 days by March 2026.
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Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025
Sam
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.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unveiled eight people he has chosen to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel – just two days after taking the unprecedented step of removing all 17 sitting members.
On Wednesday, Kennedy listed the names and short bios of the new advisers who will join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, at its upcoming meeting in late June.
"All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," Kennedy said in a post on X, "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations."
The new members are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Michael A. Ross, Dr. James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth.
"This is a huge win for the medical freedom [m]ovement," David Mansdoerfer, former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services in the first Trump administration, wrote in a post on X, "they did everything by the book to put together this excellent slate of appointees."
Public health advocates are wary.
"Kennedy did not pick people with strong, current expertise in vaccines," says Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law, San Francisco, who studies vaccine policy. "It tells me that Kennedy is setting up a committee that would be skeptical of vaccines, and possibly willing to implement an anti-vaccine agenda."
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Source: NPR, 11 June 2025
The backlog in routine hospital treatments in England has reached its lowest level for two years.
Data for the end of April showed the waiting list dropped to 7.39 million, down from 7.42 million in March.
But it is nine years since the NHS has met its target of 92% of patients being seen in 18 weeks – currently it is just below 60%.
The government has made meeting the target one of its key missions for this parliament – and on Wednesday announced above-inflation rises for the NHS in the coming years to help achieve it.
Responding to the latest figures, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, said: "We are putting the NHS on the road to recovery."
And he added this was "just the start" as the extra investment announced in the spending review, which will see the NHS budget rise by 3% a year in the next three years, combined with reforms that will be announced in the 10-year plan due next month, would help build on what has been achieved.
The drop in the numbers on the waiting list, which covers people waiting for routine treatments like hip and knee operations, came after March saw a rise in numbers – the first time in six months the waiting list had gone up.
Although a little bit of fluctuation from month to month is normally seen, the government said it was clear the numbers waiting were on a downward trend.
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Source: BBC News, 12 June 2025
People living with sickle cell disease in England are to benefit from quicker and more accessible treatment due to a £9m investment, the government has announced.
Apheresis services, which are a type of treatment that removes harmful components from a patient’s blood, are to improve across England through the funding of more specialist treatment centres. The funding will ensure the wider availability of machines that remove a patient’s sickled red blood cells and replace them with healthy donor cells.
More than 20 NHS trusts currently offer Spectra Optia technology, a treatment more effective than blood transfusions and having been shown to be highly effective in reducing complications such as iron overload.
The investment could save the NHS up to £12.9m every year thanks to a reduction in time spent in hospital for patients and the reduced need for other treatments, according to the government.
Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, said: “People living with rare conditions like sickle cell disease face immense everyday challenges, and can sometimes struggle to get the specialised care they need.
“To make our health service fit for the future, we have to harness the power of new technologies, and these machines provide a shining example of how our government is starting to make huge advancements in digital healthcare.
“Through our plan for change, this government will be the one that removes the barriers to getting the latest and best tech to our NHS frontline, so patients can access the best care available, closer to home.”
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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025
The upcoming 10-Year Health Plan is set to propose the introduction of “virtual hospitals” based on patients directly contacting consultants on an Uber-style platform, HSJ has been told.
Senior sources have indicated the proposal will involve a major overhaul and expansion of the existing “advice and guidance” model, whereby GPs can seek advice from a consultant before referring a patient to hospital, in the hope of finding an alternative.
Described by one well-placed official as “Uber for consultants”, the new proposal would create a system for GPs and individual patients to directly seek advice from any consultants, including those outside their home area, who make themselves available.
It is being described as “virtual hospitals” or “virtual clinics”.
Speaking at a session hosted by HSJ at NHS ConfedExpo this week, NHS England chair Penny Dash described a similar model which she said was “in the foothills” of development and could reap large benefits.
She said there should be a “much easier way” of GPs getting advice “from anywhere in the country” to help divert a patient from secondary care.
Dr Dash said: “It could be, for example, a model whereby you put in your question, let’s initially say as a GP or a practice nurse, it goes into a central repository as it were, and you have a team of [consultants] who are available for that time who are looking at it and responding to it.
“It doesn’t have to be the [consultant] in your local district general hospital, it could be anyone anywhere in the country.”
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Source: HSJ, 13 June 2025
Thousands of patients in England with blood cancer will become the first in the world to be offered a pioneering “Trojan horse” drug that sneaks inside cancer cells and wipes them out.
In guidance published on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to belantamab mafodotin, which can halt the advance of multiple myeloma for three times as long as standard treatments.
The targeted therapy, which is given as an infusion every three weeks with other cancer drugs, is a special type of antibody drug that targets and attaches to cancer cells.
It has been described as a Trojan horse treatment because it works by being taken into a cancer cell and unleashing a high concentration of a lethal molecule to destroy the cell from inside.
Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said the drug would be life-changing for patients and their families.
“Myeloma is an aggressive type of blood cancer, but we have seen a steady improvement in the outlook for patients over recent years as we have introduced new targeted therapies,” he said.
“I am delighted that patients in England will be the first to benefit from this new treatment, which has the potential to keep cancer at bay for years longer, giving people the chance of more precious time with friends and family.”
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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025
National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant terminations have pulled almost $2 billion in funding away from U.S. medical schools and hospitals, including $314.5 million in funding intended to train biomedical and health researchers, according to an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
The halted funding undercuts medical schools and academic hospitals’ financial sustainability, immediately ended at least 160 active clinical trials for patients being treated for conditions like HIV/AIDS or cancer and threatens “the ability of academic medicine to attract and retain the best and brightest scientists,” the association warned in a Wednesday data brief.
An accompanying release from the AAMC framed the grant terminations alongside a slew of proposed executive and legislative actions it said threaten academic medicine and millions of patients, such as Medicaid provider tax limits and eliminating federal student aid programmes.
“For generations, bipartisan leaders have recognized that America’s strength and future rely on the groundbreaking research performed at our nation’s biomedical research facilities, the complex and highly sophisticated care provided at academic health systems that is the envy of the world, and the ability of our medical schools and teaching hospitals to train the next generation of physicians," AAMC President and CEO David Skorton, M.D., said in a position piece published Wednesday. “For the sake of medical advancement, economic prosperity, and the health of every citizen, we need policymakers to work with us, not against us. The stakes could not be higher—lives truly hang in the balance.”
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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 11 June 2025
NHS England has confirmed plans to introduce a mechanism to allow private finance investment into health service infrastructure within months.
Sir Jim Mackey confirmed today he wanted government to “introduce an off–balance sheet capital investment mechanism”. It is part of a “100 day plan” for his first few months as NHSE CEO, published today.
HSJ understands discussions between NHSE and the Treasury over how this would be used and what form it would take are ongoing. Government is due to publish a new infrastructure strategy in coming weeks; whole 10 Year Health Plan drafts have included proposals for more social investment.
A move to revive off-balance sheet capital would pave the way for private investment to be once again used to build NHS hospitals, after the previous Labour government used private finance initiatives to invest widely in health service buildings in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Under the arrangements, the private sector builds and maintains an asset in exchange for annual payments from the public sector over the course of the contract. Because the private sector bore the up-front construction costs, this did not count as government borrowing.
However the model was criticised heavily over value for money concerns, and was banned by former chancellor Philip Hammond in 2018.
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Source: HSJ, 11 June 2025
Virtual ward beds are £450 cheaper per day than traditional hospital ones, researchers have found in a landmark study.
It found around £1.3m was saved per year by the “hospital at home” service at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust.
Expanding virtual wards, where some acute services are delivered in patients’ homes, have been a big feature of government and NHS England health policy since covid-19.
Yet some experts question the cost-effectiveness of the policy, and early studies have yielded mixed results.
Niall Keenan, one of the researchers on the study from West Herts, and chair of the East of England clinical advisory group for virtual wards, told HSJ the new research is believed to be the largest to date in England.
It comes after NHS leaders told HSJ earlier this year that virtual wards were being targeted for cuts this year in a bid to balance the books.
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Source: HSJ, 12 June 2025
Mesh implants returned to the national spotlight as Sling the Mesh campaigners appeared on Good Morning Britain to highlight the devastating impact of surgical mesh procedures—and the urgent need for compensation and systemic reform.
Campaign founder Kath Sansom was joined by Sharron Mahoney – who suffered severe autoimmune complications and chronic pain following rectopexy mesh surgery. Remarkably, Sharron’s symptoms began to clear within days of mesh removal -powerfully underscoring the direct link between these devices and the serious harm they can cause.
Sharron’s story highlights the critical work of researchers such as Nicholas Farr from Sheffield University who recently published this study showing the plastic particles of surgical mesh can trigger autoimmune diseases – even after removal.
Watch interview
The trust with the highest perinatal mortality rates in the country has been told it must improve its midwifery staffing.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust is now reporting weekly to the Care Quality Commission about staffing on its maternity wards after being served a section 29A warning notice, it has emerged.
It followed inspections of its maternity and neonatal services in December and January. The trust, one of the largest in England, has already moved some neonatal care out of one of its hospitals, after issues were raised by the inspection.
It was also told to provide details to the CQC about how its board is informed about unmitigated risks and how its quality review meetings are assured over midwifery staffing, according to information seen by HSJ.
The trust also promised to provide assurance shifts would be filled by qualified and competent staff and that its rota would be compliant with numbers dictated by the Birthrate Plus safer staffing tool. The requirements remain in force until the CQC decides they are no longer needed.
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Source: HSJ, 11 June 2025
Women who tracked their menstrual cycle using smartphone apps have been warned about the privacy and safety risks of doing so.
A report from the University of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre said the apps were a "gold mine" for consumer profiling and collecting information.
Academics cautioned that in the wrong hands, the data could result in health insurance "discrimination" and risks to job prospects.
The apps collect information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.
Academics at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, an independent team of researchers at the university, said this data could give insights into people's health and their reproductive choices.
The report added that many women used the apps when they were trying to get pregnant.
Researchers said data on who is pregnant, and who wants to be, was some of the "most sought-after information in digital advertising" as it led to a shift in shopping patterns.
"Cycle tracking apps (CTA) are a lucrative business because they provide the companies behind the apps with access to extremely valuable and fine-grained user data," they said.
"CTA data is not only commercially valuable and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thereby making intimate user information exploitable for targeted advertising), but it also poses severe security risks for users."
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Source: BBC News, 11 June 2025
Invitations for cervical screening will be sent out every five years instead of every three for women aged 25-49 in England, if they have a negative test.
Research shows they are at very low risk of cervical cancer and can safely wait longer to be screened again, NHS England has said.
The roll out of a vaccine to protect against HPV - the virus which causes nearly all cervical cancers - has reduced cases by around a quarter since the early 1990s.
Charities said the change was good news for those at low risk because they no longer needed to go for screening as often.
Scotland and Wales have already introduced this change, which will start in England from 1 July.
Cancer Research UK urged women and people with a cervix not to wait for a screening invitation if they noticed any unusual changes.
They are encouraged to go for regular cervical screening between the ages of 25 and 64, external.
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Source: BBC News, 10 June 2025
Further reading on the hub:
Top picks: Seven resources about improving access to cervical screening
Women would no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales under a proposed shake-up of abortion laws.
MPs are set to get a free vote next week - meaning they will not be told how to vote by their party - on a change to the law.
It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy.
Abortion is illegal in England and Wales, most often prosecuted under a piece of Victorian legislation, the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. But it is allowed up to 24 weeks and in certain other circumstances under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act.
This requires two doctors to sign it off and even before 24 weeks can require a woman to testify that her mental or physical health is at risk.
An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, tabled by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, aims to decriminalise abortion at any stage by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy, ending the threat of investigation or imprisonment.
The framework by which abortion is accessed would remain the same.
But abortions would only need to be signed off by two doctors - as the law currently demands - if the procedure takes place in a hospital or other healthcare setting.
Time limits would also still apply in healthcare settings.
"The police cannot be trusted with abortion law – nor can the CPS or the wider criminal justice system," Antoniazzi said.
"My amendment to the crime and policing bill will give us the urgent change we need to protect women."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 20 June 2025
Sam
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