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Found 270 results
  1. News Article
    A charity will invest £250m over the next three to five years in a government-backed scheme testing a new funding model for neighbourhood health. Macmillan Cancer Support has partnered with West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust, non-profit enterprise Social Finance and the government’s Office for the Impact Economy to help other systems raise money from non-NHS sources. The intention is that investors who want to use their money for social purposes will add to the £250m, and will earn a return over an extended period, as the schemes reduce secondary healthcare demand. The “trailblazer” programme will choose six areas to develop more integrated and preventative care in the community, the organisations are due to announce today. The programme builds on a £10m initiative launched last year in West Hertfordshire, with the same partners, to improve care for older people with multiple conditions. In each area, the organisations will run a nine-month programme with financial and technical expertise, to design their model and build skills, confidence and culture to help attract “impact investment” finance. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 June 2026
  2. News Article
    NHS England is developing plans to procure external expertise to help it cut the cost of the £7.5bn all-age continuing care services on a “no saving, no payment” basis. All Age Continuing Care (AACC) involves the assessment and then funding of ongoing support for eligible individuals who have long-term, complex health and social care needs. The government initially signalled that integrated care boards would lose responsibility for AACC as part of their rationalisation and shift to strategic commissioning. That decision was reversed when it became clear there was no viable alternative host at present. However, ICBs have been told to consider delegating non-statutory responsibilities. Market engagement documents on the proposed programme warn of unwanted variation of up to 2.6 times per capita across integrated care systems and a persistent national overspend on AACC of around 5%. NHSE is considering contracting suppliers to first “diagnose” the reasons behind the variation and overspend and then to undertake “targeted system-level deep dives” to resolve the problems. The engagement documents state the proposed “commercial model” would link “payment exclusively to validated, cash-releasing savings”. It adds it would result in “no new central consultancy spend” and that there would be “no payment where savings are not delivered”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026
  3. News Article
    Hard-won successes in efforts to stop women and babies dying in childbirth have faced a serious setback with recent cuts to foreign aid – and the trend is now reversing in some countries, new figures show. Significant progress in tackling preventable maternal mortality across the globe had seen the rate decline by 40% in the last two decades. However, the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests this progress has slowed in recent years, and recent aid cuts by the US, as well as other countries including Britain, will start to reverse those crucial gains. With Donald Trump in particular slashing America’s foreign assistance programmes by 57%t last year, global aid fell by 23% cent in 2025 compared to 2024, and is projected to drop by a further 5.8% in 2026. Maternal mortality is particularly acute in parts of Africa, and is already playing out in the Central African Republic, which has the second-highest rate of neonatal deaths globally, according to the UN. Monica Ferro, head of the United Nations Population Fund’s London office, said that the work over the last 20 years had given the world “hope that finally the world would be on track to reach zero preventable maternal deaths”. “We know that when funding is cut, services are shut down and women die. It is that simple. It may sound cruel, but it is that simple, and we have the evidence to prove it.” “It is very disappointing. The women and girls who are losing access to services will not forgive us for promising them a world with more dignity and then failing them because funding is being withdrawn.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 May 2026
  4. News Article
    Community diagnostic centres could become a financial “burden” on providers without extra funding and changes to how tests are paid for, the programme’s architect has warned in an internal review obtained by HSJ. The NHS England review, led by Sir Mike Richards, follows ministers making community diagnostic centres a central plank of their elective recovery plan and mission to shift care into the community. The review concluded prices for some imaging tests are making significant amounts of CDC work loss-making – and says additional central funding over “multiple years” is required. It also called for CDCs to be rebranded and a major publicity campaign to address “low level[s] of awareness and understanding” among clinicians and the public about what they do. It also highlighted substantial digital challenges. The report declared the programme has “successfully” established 170 operational CDCs “delivering more than 20 million tests, primarily in new community settings”. But it also warned more funding and national directives are needed to “fully utilise” the centres. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 May 2026
  5. News Article
    Fewer and fewer Americans can afford healthcare and the situation has reached a “crisis point,” according to an urgent warning from the American Heart Association. And with total healthcare spending expected to account for 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product over the coming decade, people could feel even more financial pain, medical experts cautioned Thursday. Total healthcare spending by U.S. adults currently sits at $5 trillion annually, driven largely by chronic disease, the association’s advisory said. Rising costs often mean that people will forgo initial care, increasing the likelihood for more serious problems and therefore greater costs down the road. The American Heart Association identified some causes behind people’s rising healthcare costs as complex administration at facilities, and a lack of investment in prevention and public health across the U.S. The doctors called on lawmakers and the healthcare industry to address the crisis. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 April 2026
  6. News Article
    Doctors are having to choose which "very sick people" they prioritise because of the pressures on Northern Ireland's emergency departments (ED), the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has said. Department of Health (DoH) statistics for the first three months of this year show that no ED achieved targets for seeing patients within the four-hour and 12-hour benchmarks. RCEM Northern Ireland said, so far, the figures for 2026 are "the worst they have ever been" and described the state of emergency departments in Northern Ireland as "utterly horrifying". The association's vice president, Dr Michael Perry, said the environment staff are working in was making their jobs very difficult. "We're basically pleading with our policy makers and our elected representatives in our government to allow us to do our jobs," he said. "Don't put us in this position where we have to choose out of two very sick people who we prioritise," Dr Perry told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster. Nursing staff turnover in Northern Ireland's emergency departments is "vast and it is largely to do with the environment that they work in", he continued. "I've had staff very distressed where something's happened, they have tried their best to deliver the best care that they can, but because of the environment they're being forced to work in something adverse has happened." Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 April 2026
  7. Content Article
    Letter from Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive, NHS England covering priorities and a look ahead for the new financial year. Key points Outpatient transformation – shifting away from traditional outpatient models through a major expansion of Advice and Guidance and a reduction in unnecessary follow‑ups. A step‑change in reducing hospital bed‑days for highest‑risk cohorts – with neighbourhoods playing a central role in implementing proactive care models for high‑risk groups. Scheduling and access reform for urgent care – making it easier for patients to book urgent care appointments in GP practices, urgent treatment centres, or other appropriate settings, reducing avoidable ED attendances. Technology‑enabled productivity improvements – expanding the deployment of Ambient Voice Technology and a suite of tools to improve theatre utilisation, discharge flow, RTT validation, community waiting lists, Advice and Guidance, electronic prescribing in all trusts, and crisis response. The NHS App – accelerating efforts to expand the role of the App as the digital front door into the NHS, supporting more convenient and effective triage and navigation for patients. Payment reform – realigning the payment system to the service changes you are seeking to deliver, including new payment models for urgent and emergency care. Quality – putting quality back at the heart of everything we do, including the publication of a new quality strategy, the development of modern service frameworks focused on cardiovascular disease, sepsis, serious mental illness, frailty and dementia, children and young people, and palliative and end-of-life care, and testing new delivery models for secondary prevention to tackle variations in the uptake of high-impact CVD and diabetes interventions. Capability building and a focus on our people – launching the new Leadership College, which will be the most radical change to leadership development and talent management that the NHS has seen in over a decade.
  8. Content Article
    The King's Fund has launched the latest edition of their annual Social Care 360 report. 2024/25 saw the continuation of a new trend in adult social care. Local authorities are spending more on social care, with that investment focused not just on paying higher fees to the providers who supply care, but, now, increasing the number of people who receive it as well. More people are now receiving publicly funded long-term care than at any time in the last decade. This change is due to increasing local authority spending power – the total amount that councils have to spend, both from money they raise themselves (for example, from council tax and business rates) and from central government grants. However, councils still do not have the resources to meet all the demands on them and their overall financial position is worsening. As a result, local authorities are increasing fees below the increase in costs faced by social care providers. This has potential implications for market stability, quality, and particularly private-paying clients, who are being charged much more for their care so that providers can balance their books. Taken together, the picture for social care remains precarious, then, with significant pressure on the government to ensure stability in the sector in the medium term, and on the Casey Commission to identify coherent proposals for reform in the long term.
  9. News Article
    The government has revealed the locations of 40 new and expanded urgent care centres and same-day emergency care units. The programme, backed by £215.5m, includes 10 new urgent treatment centres, four expanded UTCs, five new same-day emergency care services and 21 expanded SDECs. They are across 33 hospital trusts. A government announcement said the facilities would tackle corridor care by “reducing waiting times and improving patient flow through hospitals” – but the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has disputed this claim. While many of the hospitals set to host the new UTCs and SDECs are above the national average for 12-hour waits in A&E, others appear to have less of a problem with long A&E waits. This measure is a close barometer of corridor care. “Expert teams” from NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme are also being sent to the hospitals with the highest levels of corridor care to provide “bespoke clinical support to leadership staff”, the government has said. RCEM president Ian Higginson welcomed the government’s commitment to eradicate corridor care, but said urgent treatment centres “are not the answer to reducing corridor care and will not make a dent in the number of people who are enduring long waits on trolleys in inappropriate places such as corridors”. “These services focus on the least unwell patients, and it’s the most unwell or those with mental health problems who are filling our corridors,” he added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 April 2026
  10. News Article
    More than 400 hospitals across the United States are facing closure or slashing crucial services due to coming Medicaid cuts, a new analysis from progressive watchdog organization, Public Citizen, has found. Cuts to the federal and state health insurance program are expected to reduce access to health care for many Americans, raising insurance costs and limiting state funding. Roughly 8 million people are projected to become uninsured by 2034, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said. Losing millions of patients could throttle income for 446 hospitals in 44 states and Washington, D.C., Public Citizen said. The hospitals serve 6.6 million patients and employ 275,458 workers. “[The cuts] will have knock-on effects on hospitals that disproportionately serve these communities, deepening the financial strain already plaguing rural and safety-net hospitals and compromising their ability to deliver care, potentially leading many to close,” the report warned. Read full story Source: The Independent, 31 March 2026
  11. News Article
    Dying individuals across the UK are facing a "postcode lottery" in their final moments, according to a new report from MPs. The Health and Social Care Committee has declared palliative and end-of-life care services "inadequate", highlighting the "significant pressure" under which providers are currently operating. “It feels unthinkable that specialist care services for those who are close to passing away are somehow undervalued in the NHS. “And yet that is the heartbreaking reality that too many frightened patients and their families, including of young children, have to encounter during some of their most trying moments, when help is most needed,” said committee chairwoman Layla Moran. “These services are under significant pressure, with providers struggling to fund and commission the right care, and individuals entering a ‘postcode lottery’ of care in their most vulnerable moments at the end of life, the authors wrote. “These issues are further compounded by a workforce declining in numbers, a lack of access to and use of effective data, a poorly equipped social care system, and an unsustainable funding model.” The group has called for specific standards for how children’s palliative care should be provided; the need for 24/7 services throughout the country and a plan to strengthen the specialist workforce in the sector. Read full story Source: The Independent, 24 March 2026
  12. News Article
    As colon cancer rates are rising among people in their 20s and 30s, some adults in the US who are under 45 and experiencing worrying symptoms are struggling to get insurance coverage for colonoscopies, which can detect colon cancer. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurance companies to cover colonoscopies for people over 45 “because it’s been recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force”, says Caitlin Murphy, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of Chicago. The ACA requires preventive screenings, including pap smears, for example, to be completely covered. But, Murphy noted, for people “under 45, if you have symptoms like rectal bleeding, a colonoscopy would be considered a diagnostic test, and so it’s not going to be covered in the same way as a screening test would be”. She added that the cost of a diagnostic colonoscopy a given insurance plan will cover varies widely. Dominick, a 35-year-old software engineer living in Florida, learned about the distinction between preventative and diagnostic colonoscopy the hard way. His doctor recommended a colonoscopy after he experienced bowel movement changes, stomach pain and weight loss. At first, his insurance company said it would be covered. Then, three hours before the procedure was scheduled, he got a call saying the colonoscopy wouldn’t be covered because it was considered diagnostic. The out-of-pocket cost for Dominick’s colonoscopy was roughly $2,000, which he paid for with a credit card because he didn’t have the cash readily available. The procedure later revealed a precancerous polyp, which he had removed – he said it’s scary to think about what could have happened if he hadn’t been able to find a way to pay. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 March 2026
  13. News Article
    The proportion of the NHS budget spent on mental healthcare will be cut for the third year in a row, the health secretary has admitted. Wes Streeting outlined 2026-27 spending plans for mental health services in a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon. He said the proportion allocated to mental health in 2026-27 was forecast to be 8.4%, lower than the 8.71% planned for this year. In a statement, he said: “This is a consequence of significant additional investment in other core areas, including those that benefit mental health services, such as the substantial amounts going into NHS technology and digital transformation, general practice, community-based services, and neighbourhood health centres. “These system-wide improvements are focused on fixing the fundamentals of the NHS and, although they are not counted in pure mental health service spend, will deliver significant benefits for mental health services and patients. “There are also important areas of mental health‑related expenditure not captured in the share of spend figure, such as prescribing mental health medication, continuing healthcare and NHS England’s investment in training the mental health workforce.” CEO of the charity Mind, Sarah Hughes, said: “The UK government is currently carrying out reviews into the prevalence of mental health problems and the delivery of mental health services. But the findings, recommendations and policies implemented off the back of these reviews will be undermined if mental health care is increasingly under-resourced and government shows no urgency in prioritising mental health.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 March 2026
  14. News Article
    The decision by Donald Trump's administration to extend the US policy that bars groups receiving foreign aid from promoting abortion risks weakening United Nations (UN) programmes designed to protect women and support LGBT+ people around the world, experts has warned. The policy – branded the “promoting human flourishing in foreign assistance policy” – dramatically expands the so-called Mexico City policy, which restricts organisations receiving US funding from providing or promoting abortion services overseas. The new rule goes much further and attaches broader ideological conditions to American foreign assistance. Organisations that receive US assistance must now ensure that none of their activities, even those funded by other governments, conflict with Washington’s positions on abortion, gender identity or diversity programmes. The rule took effect in February and could apply to tens of billions of dollars in US foreign aid. Under the policy, non-compliance could lead to funding being withdrawn and previously disbursed money being clawed back. Experts say the measure could have far-reaching consequences for the UN, which relies heavily on voluntary contributions from member states, including the US, historically its largest donor. "The new human flourishing policy projects the Trump administration’s political position against gender equality through its global financial assistance", Cristal Downing, a director at the International Crisis Group said. "This could have broad implications at the UN and elsewhere, compounding the global regression on gender equality that we have seen accelerate in the last year," she continued. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 March 2026
  15. News Article
    NHS trusts are being forced to wait an average of six months for a regulatory decision on capital projects, despite the relevant legislation stating they should be completed in 8-12 weeks, HSJ can reveal. This is resulting in lengthy delays to urgent building repairs and the purchase of new medical equipment, as well as the potential loss of funding if work is not started by the end of the financial year for which capital budgets apply. The NHS faces a maintenance backlog estimated at £15bn, meaning a huge number of remedial projects are now being put forward by trusts. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 March 2026
  16. Content Article
    With financial constraints, record waiting lists and recent staff strikes, the role of being an NHS chief executive has arguably never been harder. But what impact is it having on those health service leaders? In recent months, Thea Stein has spoken to a number of NHS chief executives about the difficult choices they confront in their everyday work and the moral distress that may accompany those decisions. In this long read, Thea reveals what was said to her, and emphasises once more the importance of making the NHS a psychologically safe place to work.
  17. News Article
    Dentists in England are returning hundreds of millions of pounds a year to the government for unfulfilled NHS care, the BBC has learnt. Over the last two years, more than £900m has been handed back - £1 out of every £7 they have been paid - as dentists instead prioritise private work. The findings help explain why despite record sums being set aside for NHS dentistry, so many patients are struggling to get one - more than a fifth of people report not being able to access care when they need it. The government said improvements were being made this year and any money returned was reinvested into services. Nikita Jenkins, 27, from Cornwall, is one of millions of people who has struggled to access NHS dental care. She has not seen one for 14 years and has been forced to pay privately for her two young daughters to get treatment as she was told waiting lists locally were seven years long. "I tried every dentist in and around my area, but it was near impossible. "We were waiting and, in the end, I felt like we had no choice but to take the jump and pay to go private, to ensure that our children had the right health care." "Dentistry feels like a luxury, not a necessity, because it's just so inaccessible, which shouldn't be the case - especially for children," she told the BBC. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 March 2026
  18. News Article
    Nearly 23 million additional deaths are expected by 2030 as a result of countries like the US and UK dramatically cutting their overseas aid, a new report estimates. The peer-reviewed study, produced by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and published in the influential health journal The Lancet, finds that cuts to aid programmes in 93 countries - including 38 in Sub-Saharan Africa - will result in 22.6m extra deaths by 2030. With that total including some 5.4 million children under the age of five, the findings have been labelled a “humanitarian catastrophe”. “These findings give a voice to millions of vulnerable people and show the profound moral cost of the zero-sum approach many political leaders are taking,” said Dr Rajiv J Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, which helped to fund the report. “Though it will take years to adequately assess the full toll of aid cuts, this early projection is an urgent call to action,” added Dr Shah, who is also a former administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is the agency that managed most American aid programmes before it was closed by Donald Trump last year. “This humanitarian catastrophe is not inevitable, but preventing it will require all of us to act with urgency,” Dr Shah added. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 February 2026
  19. News Article
    A shortage of mental health beds and poor communication between agencies contributed to the death of a teenage girl on hospital grounds, an inquest has found. Ellame Ford-Dunn, 16, who had a history of self-harm, died in March 2022 after absconding from an acute children’s ward where she had been put because of a dearth of appropriate mental health beds. Her family and campaigners say Ellame’s death exposed a mental health system “crumbling at the seams”. The inquest jury at West Sussex coroner’s court was told that Ellame absconded “multiple times” during her stay at Worthing hospital’s Bluefin ward, which was not a specialist mental health unit. Jurors concluded the decision to place Ellame there was “inappropriate” and “more than minimally” contributed to her death. They found “inadequate provision” of mental health beds also contributed to her death. The coroner Joanne Andrews said she would issue a prevention of future deaths report to warn that more children would die unless the inadequate provision of mental health beds was tackled. Ellame’s parents, Ken and Nancy Ford-Dunn, urged the government to increase funding for mental health services to ensure “other families don’t have to experience the worst thing imaginable”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 February 2026
  20. News Article
    Cancer patients are being denied access to cutting-edge treatments on the NHS because of a “deadly postcode lottery” in access, doctors have warned. Patients in England are missing out on two innovative forms of radiotherapy that are known to be effective against several forms of the disease and are widely available in other countries, due to “red tape” and lack of funding. The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and Radiotherapy UK want Wes Streeting to use the government’s new cancer plan, being published this week, to make them widely available. They are urging the health secretary to end what they say are “bureaucratic hurdles” that NHS England imposes, through its complex funding and commissioning policies, on hospitals that want to provide stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and molecular radiotherapy (MRT). Unlocking the potential of the novel treatments would help improve cancer survival, which is poor in Britain by international standards, both organisations said. Dr Nicky Thorp, the RCR’s vice-president for clinical oncology, said: “A number of innovative cancer treatments exist and are known by cancer doctors to be effective, but they are in only limited use in the NHS in England. “This means that some cancer patients are missing out on treatments that cancer specialists know are effective and which could treat their cancer in fewer doses with fewer side effects. “Doctors want to do our best for our patients, so it is incredibly frustrating for us to be in a situation where some patients aren’t getting access to the full range of treatments that are proven to help tackle cancer.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 February 2026
  21. News Article
    Human rights groups and charities have hit out at the decision by Donald Trump's administration to extend the US policy that bars groups receiving foreign aid from promoting abortion — even using their own money — in what has been called a "disastrous and deadly" move. Known as the "Mexico City policy" or by critics as the "global gag rule," the policy was reinstated by Trump when he returned to the White House last year. That followed a tradition for Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan introduced the policy in 1984. Democratic presidents have repeatedly dropped it. In what Vice President JD Vance has called “a historic expansion of the Mexico City Policy”, the U.S. will stop funding any organization working on diversity and transgender issues abroad. Mr Vance says the change will make the policy “about three times as big as it was before... and we’re proud of it because we believe in fighting for life”. In response, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy policy and campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said: “The expansion of the Global Gag Rule is an assault on human rights. By targeting organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and recognise gender diversity, the Trump administration is deliberately deepening inequality and putting the lives of millions around the world at risk. “The Global Gag Rule is a disastrous and deadly US policy. It strangles healthcare systems, censors information and violates the rights to health, information, and free expression... Doubling down on this policy is cruel, reckless and ideologically driven. Expanding it to international and U.S.-based organizations will impact the poorest and marginalised first and hardest," she added. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 January 2026
  22. News Article
    Eight in 10 NHS physiotherapists have reported they do not have enough staff to meet demand, up by 10 percentage points since 2024. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy survey, carried out in October and the results shared with HSJ, also found 65% of respondents said their service was subject to a recruitment freeze, an increase from 58% in July 2024. The 1,100 members surveyed also said temporary roles were not being renewed, and that many services no longer cover maternity leave. The proportion of NHS members concerned about staffing levels being insufficient to meet patient needs grew from just under 70% in the first quarter of 2024 to 80% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Ash James, the CSP’s director of practice and development, described the recruitment freezes as “absurd” when the NHS has a “ready and waiting physiotherapy workforce”. It was leading to longer waiting times, he said. He said: “For example, I know of a community [musculoskeletal] service where their waits are two and four weeks, based on an activity-based contract. But because the trust didn’t have the funding to be able to maintain that level of activity, to deliver that for patients, they have imposed 12-week waits on the service when it was already two to four weeks. “The funding is having a massive impact on the delivery of care for patients. They are waiting longer, their pain is getting worse, [and] we are getting poorer health outcomes because of those longer waits. “We don’t want patients paying the price for this when there’s a solution ready to go.” The cuts were also damaging the morale of the remaining staff, added Mr James. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 January 2026
  23. News Article
    NHS England has told trusts to begin a “sprint” exercise in a bid to hit its politically critical waiting list target by March. HSJ understands “tens of millions of pounds” is likely to be made available to trusts to fund extra elective work. The pot was still being finalised as of last week, with the money due to be released from contingency funds within NHSE’s existing budget. Some trust leaders were given assurances about indicative allocations last week and told to use it as soon as possible. A formal briefing from NHSE leaders is scheduled for next week. Progress on increasing the proportion of patients waiting under 18 weeks from referral to first treatment stalled in the most recent reporting period. It remained at 61.8% in November – the same level as in October and September. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 January 2026
  24. News Article
    Some small hospices are “probably unsustainable”, Sir Jim Mackey has told MPs, while also warning integrated care boards they needed to clarify their local commissioning intentions this year. The NHS England CEO told the Commons public accounts committee evidence session on the sector, held last week, that “an awful lot of rebuilding” was required for ICBs to develop clearer payment mechanisms for hospices. He admitted publication of the new “modern service framework” for palliative and end of life care, which promises to overhaul the sector, including its funding, had now been delayed from spring to autumn. However, he said he still expected ICBs to work this year to “provide a clarity of direction about what will be commissioned over time”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 January 2026
  25. News Article
    US health officials reversed course and began reinstating nearly $2bn in cuts to mental health and substance use programmes on Wednesday night, one day after they unexpectedly announced the immediate shutdown of programmes. The reversal is a blow to the agenda of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, who has made aggressive and legally contested cuts to health agencies in the first year of the Trump administration and has proposed folding the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa) into a new agency he would call the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). There was immediate outcry about the effects of shutting down vital programs amounting to one-quarter of the budget of Samhsa. The cuts would have affected overdose prevention and reversal, mental health and substance use support for children, mental health training and support for first responders, support for pregnant and postpartum women, and recovery support programmes. “After national outrage, Secretary Kennedy has bowed to public pressure and reinstated $2 billion in SAMHSA grants that save lives,” DeLauro said. “These are cuts he should not have issued in the first place,” and they “created uncertainty and confusion for families and healthcare providers”, Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the House appropriations committee, said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 January 2026

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