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Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.

Daily weight loss pill available in UK pharmacies from today

Pharmacies are “bracing themselves” for an influx of patients seeking weight loss drugs as the Wegovy pill becomes available.
The Wegovy tablet, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, became the first GLP-1 pill for weight loss to be approved by the UK’s medicines regulator last month.
The starting dose is 1.5mg, gradually increasing to 4mg, 9mg and 25mg, with patients required to remain on each dose level for at least a month before progressing.
From Monday, the initial 1.5mg and 4mg doses will be accessible to eligible patients through weight management programmes in select pharmacies.
A recent survey conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) among 310 pharmacies revealed that 76 per cent expect to start a significant number of new eligible patients on the pill in the coming months.
Olivier Picard, chairman of the NPA, said: “This is a significant day and pharmacies are bracing themselves for a surge in demand for this new form of weight loss treatment. This is particularly significant for patients who cannot or do not want to take an injectable medicine.
“The NHS rollout remains extremely slow and community pharmacy is ready to support a wider rollout, which will help eligible patients access treatment safely and help mitigate the impact of obesity on the NHS.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 6 July 2026
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NHS to use AI on its app to direct patients to appropriate services

The NHS will begin using AI on its app to direct patients to the appropriate services, it has been announced.
The tool will be used to triage patients and to ascertain if they should be allocated a GP appointment. Some may be advised to attend a pharmacy or their local A&E department instead, depending on the severity of their condition.
The update is expected to reach 200,000 patients over the next year and be available to all users by April 2028.
The health secretary, James Murray, said he was “certain” that new technological advances would “get patients to the right care faster, free our brilliant clinicians from mountains of paperwork, and help drive down waiting times”.
However, health leaders said there was a need for a broader long-term strategy about the use of AI across the NHS. They expressed concerns that there was limited evidence about the productivity improvements it could offer. They also said they were worried that patient privacy could be compromised, and that those who were less confident using technology could be disadvantaged.
Lynn Woolsey, chief nursing officer at the Royal College of Nursing, said the app rollout could be “an important step in upgrading technology in the NHS” but added: “There are also warnings to heed, with growing concerns about overstated, overly optimistic assessments of the productivity benefits from AI.
“We cannot have situations where it increases bureaucracy through the need to correct flawed or inaccurate work.
“Patients must be reassured that any new systems handling their information, such as ambient voice technology, are accurate and properly protect confidentiality.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 4 July 2026
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NHS to rate English trusts on tackling violence and racism towards staff

The NHS will rate trusts according to how well they tackle racism, violence and sexual misconduct towards staff, the government has announced.
From July, all NHS acute, ambulance and mental health trusts in England will be judged and ranked in published league tables on six main measures of wellbeing, affecting more than 1.5 million staff.
All secondary care NHS bodies are affected by the announcement. Primary care, which includes GP practices, is excluded for now, but ministers hope to roll it out there in “future years”.
The new performance standards will rate hospitals and ambulance services on success in tackling racism, preventing violence, improving sexual safety, promoting flexible working, line management, and health and wellbeing support. They will receive a score of one to four for each measure, which will contribute to trusts’ overall ratings.
For the first time, trusts’ progress on workforce wellbeing – assessed via the NHS staff survey – will directly affect their overall performance rating alongside waiting list and A&E metrics.
The minister for secondary care, Karin Smyth, said: “NHS staff are the backbone of our health service, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
“The levels of racism, violence and sexual harassment reported by staff are completely unacceptable, and for too long there has been no formal accountability for employers to address them.
“These new standards – a 10-year health plan commitment – change that. For the first time, how trusts treat their employees will be measured and published, because we know that when staff are supported, patients get better care.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 6 July 2026
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Watchdog launches investigation into NHSE claims of FDP effectiveness

The UK statistics watchdog has confirmed it is “reviewing” NHS England’s use of figures to promote the federated data platform, HSJ  can reveal.
The Office for Statistics Regulation has told HSJ   it is “reviewing the issues raised” by NHSE’s recent admission that widely used figures do not prove the effectiveness of the FDP.
The claim the national data sharing platform has contributed to the service carrying out more than 110,000 additional operations has been repeatedly used in official statements defending the use of the FDP. For example, it was recently quoted by health minister Preet Kaur Gill under questioning from the health and social care select committee.
However, on its web page outlining the methodology used to calculate FDP benefits, NHSE has added a caveat stating that it cannot “draw conclusions about cause and effect as other variables have not been controlled for”.
The methodology used to calculate the 110,000 figure involved comparing the number of patients treated after adopting the FDP against “an expected baseline derived from pre-adoption activity”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 3 July 2026
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Doctors issue warning to people taking antidepressants during UK heatwaves

Doctors have warned people on certain mental health medications to take extra precautions as hotter temperatures are expected to return to Britain this weekend.
These medications include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants in the UK, as well as some antipsychotics.
Dr Nick Broughton, NHS England’s national director for mental health, learning disabilities and autism, said: “People taking antipsychotic medication and antidepressants need to be extra cautious during hot weather because some of these medicines can make it harder to keep the body cool.
“So, it’s vital that anyone taking medication for their mental health needs should take extra care by keeping out of the sun where possible, drinking plenty of fluids and following any advice from their healthcare professional.
“Most importantly, they should not stop taking their medication suddenly and can speak to their GP, pharmacist or mental health team for advice if they need to.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 2 July 2026
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Warning issued as osteoporosis patients facing ‘postcode lottery’ in access to early diagnosis clinics

Experts have warned that the diagnosis rate for a common bone condition in England is "flatlining," prompting the Royal Osteoporosis Society to call on ministers to ensure nationwide access to early diagnosis clinics.
The charity cautioned that patients currently face a "postcode lottery" for these crucial services, also known as Fracture Liaison Services (FLS).
An estimated 3.5 million people in the UK live with osteoporosis, a condition that progressively weakens bones, making them significantly more prone to fractures.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society said that delays to roll out FLS across the country mean that diagnosis rates are “flatlining”.
New analysis of the national Fracture Liaison Service audit show 79,553 patients were identified by FLS in England in 2025 compared with 77,136 in 2024.
The Society said that these services need to identify 264,000 patients a year through these services to ensure that the full eligible population is properly served.
And it warned that the consequences can be severe, saying these broken bones are the UK’s fourth biggest cause of disability and early death.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 3 July 2026
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Women from minority backgrounds in UK less likely to receive epidurals, research finds

Women from black and Asian backgrounds are less likely than their white counterparts to receive an epidural while giving birth, research has revealed.
The findings, based on data collected from more than 2.7 million births in the UK, prompted experts to raise the alarm about an “ethnicity pain gap” that means people of colour are more likely to be deprived of adequate pain relief within medical settings.
It comes as Guardian analysis exposes evidence of racial inequalities in pain relief offered to people across all areas of healthcare – from children in A&E to palliative care offered to cancer patients.
Four medical royal colleges – the professional bodies for UK medical professions – called for better data collection on how patients from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to have their pain dismissed by health providers.
The analysis on pain relief provided to women giving birth, published in the journal Anaesthesia, examined data collected over a 10-year period up until 2021.
It found that women from a Bangladeshi, Pakistani and black Caribbean background were less likely than white women to receive an epidural while having a vaginal birth. They were 24%, 15% and 8% less likely respectively.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on black maternal health, said the new findings left “little room for doubt that racialised assumptions are a key driver of unequal outcomes”.
“The disparities around pain relief identified in this report are shocking and indefensible, but sadly not surprising, given the way black people’s pain has historically been doubted, downplayed and dismissed,” she said. She added that the findings were “inseparable from the wider context of racism and racial tropes such as the ‘strong black woman’”.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 2 July 2026
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League tables ‘obscuring’ trust performance

Government’s trust league tables are “actively obscuring” patients’ understanding of their local services and should be scrapped, a think-tank has recommended.
The league tables  are “management tools masquerading as public information” which could encourage providers to do “things that improve a league position without improving care,” the Nuffield Trust said in a blog.
The league tables, updated quarterly and most recently last month, were first published in September by then health secretary Wes Streeting. He hailed them as a key plank of a “new era of transparency and accountability” for the NHS.
Mr Streeting stressed the public value, adding “patients and taxpayers have to know how their local NHS services are doing compared to the rest of the country”.
The tables rank 205 NHS trusts across approximately 30 indicators covering waiting times, cancer access, urgent and emergency care, and financial balance.
But Nuffield Trust CEO Thea Stein argues that while the National Oversight Framework has merit as an internal performance management tool, it “fails” as a guide to the public on the care quality organisations are providing.
She writes in a blog today that after nine months of the league tables, the evidence suggests they “are actively obscuring the picture [about the quality of local services for patients] rather than illuminating it”.
“What patients need is clear, relevant, easy-to-understand information about the services they are using and, where it applies, the ability to make a timely, informed choice. The league tables do not provide that… As a public-facing product, they should go.”
She also said they had created “exactly the conditions in which gaming behaviour tends to emerge”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 3 July 2026
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Northern Ireland: Concerns raised over 'deteriorating' health buildings

There are significant concerns that a substantial number of Northern Ireland's healthcare buildings cannot deliver safe and effective services, according to a new report from a public spending watchdog.
The Auditor General's latest analysis of what is known as the health estate said only 40% of facilities were in an acceptable condition, with many categorised as being "high risk" and requiring urgent maintenance costing more than £250m.
The report said almost half of the estate was more than 50 years old and about one sixth more than 75 years old.
The Department of Health welcomed the report and said work had already begun to tackle some of the issues identified.
It added that health trusts had "provided assurance" that all associated risks were managed to ensure buildings remained "in a safe state to support service delivery".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 2 July 2026
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US-UK drug deal could result in 229,000 excess deaths in England, analysis suggests

The NHS will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for new medicines under the terms of the UK-US trade deal agreed last December, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths of patients, analysis has found.
Ministers have defended the deal as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs, and giving patients in England access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied.
But they have been accused of caving in to US demands to spend billions of pounds a year extra on drugs supplied to the NHS after pressure from Donald Trump. The potentially devastating impact on NHS care has also caused growing alarm among health experts.
Now analysis, published in the British Medical Journal, lays bare the likely cost of the deal to the NHS – and the projected deadly impact of cuts to health services on the population in England – for the first time.
In total, £44.7bn in NHS cash will be diverted from health services by 2036 in order to pay more for new medicines under the trade deal, unless extra funding is made available to cover the additional costs, the analysis suggests.
Reduced NHS spending on services will have an adverse effect on the nation’s public health, the analysis found, causing 229,000 excess deaths by 2036. The estimated avoidable death toll is larger than the number that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, between March 2020 and June 2022 (137,000).
If the indirect effect on adult social care was also included, excess deaths would increase to 291,000, the report from the University of York, the University of Liverpool and Christchurch hospital in New Zealand found. Most of the preventable deaths would be among people with heart, respiratory and gastrointestinal disease or cancer.
Read full story 
Source: The Guardian, 1 July 2026
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Mackey issues 10-point ‘urgent’ maternity plan

The CEO of NHS England has ordered trust boards to enforce joint accountability for maternity between medical directors and chief nursing officers, following criticisms of “siloed” leadership in major reviews.
In a letter circulated to hospital trusts, Sir Jim Mackey said he had been “deeply moved” by recent reports by Baroness Valerie Amos and Donna Ockenden.
In the note, seen by HSJ, Sir Jim said it must be a “turning point”, adding: “We cannot allow failures in care to persist and be followed by reviews that continuously highlight the same themes.”
He announced a “10-point plan for maternity and neonatal services”, saying there are parts of the reviews that “we must focus on delivering now.”
This includes asking boards to complete audits of their triage services within three months, and implement improvements within a year.
They should ensure all pregnant women have 24/7 access to maternity units, with dedicated round-the-clock midwifery staffing to answer calls and provide face-to-face assessments, which should be separate from the labour ward. National standards for triage services will be circulated by the end of this week.
Triage services were a major focus of criticism in the Amos review.
Trusts must also check mortuaries by 31 July, in response to findings about shocking treatment of bodies, particularly by Ms Ockenden at Nottingham hospitals. 
Both reviews found leadership had become “siloed”, with conflicts between obstetricians and midwives. In response, Sir Jim said all trusts must establish clear joint accountability at board level for maternity and neonatal services.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 1 July 2026
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The Greater Manchester hospital were AI could help save lives 'before a crisis occurs'

An NHS hospital trust in Greater Manchester is using a new form of technology to help tackle growing pressure on its emergency department.
Tameside & Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to identify patients who may need extra support before they end up back in hospital.
The tool looks at information already routinely collected during a visit to Tameside General Hospital A&E and predicts which patients are most likely to return within the next month, allowing staff to step in with community care before their health problem worsens.
Read full story
Source: Manchester Evening News
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Recent inquiries demand a clear, direct and robust response, says Nesbitt

The findings of two recent health inquiries in Northern Ireland demand a clear, direct and robust response, the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said.
In a hard-hitting speech to senior health leaders, Nesbitt said the experiences of patients described in the reports had rocked public confidence in the health and social care system.
The minister said both reports set out serious and in places deeply disturbing failings in care which highlight breakdown in systems, in oversight and culture.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 30 June 2026
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Women with irregular periods should be checked for PMOS, NHS says

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.
PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.
Symptoms include irregular, very short, long or absent periods, excess levels of testosterone, and ovaries with multiple small follicles.
The condition is associated with greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnoea, fatty liver disease, mental health issues and complications in pregnancy.
Read full story
Source: Guardian, 1 July 2026
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'Normal birth drive' criticism removed from maternity report, expert claims

A review into maternity safety in England was changed just days before publication to remove criticism of a "normal birth drive", according to a former member of the inquiry team.
The campaign, which encourages vaginal birth without any medical intervention and is backed by many midwives, has been found to have contributed to avoidable deaths and harm in other reviews.
But Dr Bill Kirkup told the BBC that similar criticism was removed from the government-commissioned review, forcing him to resign.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 1 July 2026
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Urgent warning over online ‘squishy’ trend leaving children with skin grafts

Doctors are issuing urgent warnings about a dangerous online trend involving microwaving "squishy" toys, after several children sustained severe burns.
Videos circulating widely online depict these soft, squeezable toys being heated to enhance their pliability. However, experts warn that this causes internal pressure to build within the squishy, significantly increasing the risk of it exploding. The hot gel released can then stick to skin, leading to serious injuries.
The Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow has treated six children for injuries related to this trend over the past eight months, with some requiring surgery, including skin grafts. Eight-year-old Joseph Erskine, from Clackmannanshire, was among those injured, needing weeks of treatment and a skin graft after a toy burst across his chest and hand in May.
Sharon Ramsay, a burns nurse at the RHC, said: “Unfortunately, we are seeing a growing number of children with preventable injuries linked to this trend.
“When these toys are heated, the contents can explode and stick to the skin, causing deep burns.
“These injuries can be very serious and may require long-term treatment, including surgery and rehabilitation.
“In some cases, children are left with permanent scarring. We strongly urge parents and carers to speak to their children about the risks.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 28 June 2026
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