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Found 500 results
  1. Content Article
    Obesity is now one of the biggest drivers of ill health in the UK’s working-age population, contributing to economic inactivity, increased NHS costs and deepening health inequality. Yet under the NHS’s current plan for the rollout of anti-obesity medications (AOMs), obesity rates will rise faster than the drugs can be delivered.  Anti-Obesity Medications: Faster, Broader Access Can Drive Health and Wealth in the UK explains why expanding access to these drugs could save the UK £52 billion by 2050. It's calling for a faster, broader strategy that includes: lowering eligibility to adults with a BMI of 27 or more making access digital-first delivering treatment more equitably through a national prevention programme. The opportunity is real – and so is the cost of delaying action on one of the UK’s most pressing health and economic challenges. Find out why the government needs to make AOMs available faster – and distribute them more broadly. 
  2. News Article
    NHS staff have voiced concern about the growing numbers of patients who are filming themselves undergoing medical treatment and uploading it to TikTok and Instagram. Radiographers, who take X-rays and scans, fear the trend could compromise the privacy of other patients being treated nearby and lead to staff having their work discussed online. The Society of Radiographers (SoR) has gone public with its unease after a spate of incidents in which patients, or someone with them in the hospital, began filming their care. On one occasion a radiology department assistant from the south coast was inserting a cannula into a patient who had cancer when their 19-year-old daughter began filming. “She wanted to record the cannulation because she thought it would be entertaining on social media. But she didn’t ask permission,” the staff member said. “I spent the weekend afterwards worrying: did I do my job properly? I know I did, but no one’s perfect all the time and this was recorded. I don’t think I slept for the whole weekend.” They were also concerned that a patient in the next bay was giving consent for a colonoscopy – an invasive diagnostic test – at the same time as the daughter was filming her mother close by. “That could all have been recorded on the film, including names and dates of birth,” they said. Ashley d’Aquino, a therapeutic radiographer in London, said a colleague had agreed to take photographs for a patient, “but when the patient handed over her phone the member of staff saw that the patient had also been covertly recording her, to publish on her cancer blog. “As NHS staff we wear name badges, so our names will be visible in any video. It makes people feel very uncomfortable and anxious.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2025
  3. News Article
    Breakthrough drugs that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease will reportedly be refused for use on the NHS this week in a blow to thousands of patients. The two drugs, Lecanemab and donanemab, slow down the decline in Alzheimer’s patients' ability to carry out daily activities. The drugs’ success in halting the progression of Alzheimer’s was heralded as a “new era” by campaigners and researchers. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is expected to refuse to recommend them on the NHS, according to The Sunday Times. The regulator has already issued two decisions, one in October last year and another in March, saying they would not recommend the drugs for use on the NHS. A final decision will be published on Thursday. The regulator will reportedly turn down both drugs on the grounds of cost-effectiveness, with one insider telling The Sunday Times: “It is the end of the road for these drugs on the NHS”. Hilary Evans-Newton, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said the decision to turn down the drugs would be “deeply disappointing”. She added: “These treatments are not perfect, and we recognise the challenges they pose around cost, delivery and safety. But scientific progress is incremental, and these drugs represent a vital foundation to build on.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 June 2025
  4. News Article
    A UK trial has found that a chemotherapy-free approach to treatment may lead to better outcomes for some leukaemia patients, in what scientists are calling a "milestone". The groundbreaking UK-wide trial could reshape the way the most common form of leukaemia in adults is treated. Researchers from Leeds assessed whether two targeted cancer drugs could perform better than standard chemotherapy among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The Flair trial, which took place at 96 cancer centres across the UK, saw 786 people with previously untreated CLL randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy; a single targeted drug, ibrutinib, or two targeted drugs taken together, ibrutinib and venetoclax, with treatment guided by personalised blood tests. Researchers found that after five years, 94% of patients who received ibrutinib plus venetoclax were alive with no disease progression. This compares with 79% for those on ibrutinib alone and 58 per cent for those on standard chemotherapy, according to the study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented to the European Haematology Association congress in Milan, Italy. Dr Talha Munir, consultant haematologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who led the study, said the Flair trial is a “milestone”. “We have shown that a chemotherapy-free approach can be not only more effective but also more tolerable for patients,” she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 June 2025
  5. News Article
    People living with sickle cell disease in England are to benefit from quicker and more accessible treatment due to a £9m investment, the government has announced. Apheresis services, which are a type of treatment that removes harmful components from a patient’s blood, are to improve across England through the funding of more specialist treatment centres. The funding will ensure the wider availability of machines that remove a patient’s sickled red blood cells and replace them with healthy donor cells. More than 20 NHS trusts currently offer Spectra Optia technology, a treatment more effective than blood transfusions and having been shown to be highly effective in reducing complications such as iron overload. The investment could save the NHS up to £12.9m every year thanks to a reduction in time spent in hospital for patients and the reduced need for other treatments, according to the government. Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, said: “People living with rare conditions like sickle cell disease face immense everyday challenges, and can sometimes struggle to get the specialised care they need. “To make our health service fit for the future, we have to harness the power of new technologies, and these machines provide a shining example of how our government is starting to make huge advancements in digital healthcare. “Through our plan for change, this government will be the one that removes the barriers to getting the latest and best tech to our NHS frontline, so patients can access the best care available, closer to home.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2025
  6. Content Article
    Diabetes UK has launched their new ‘10 Year Vision: For diabetes prevention, care and treatment’, setting out a clear plan for the UK government about how it can improve health outcomes and tackle inequality for people living with diabetes by 2035.  The UK government will publish its 10 Year Health Plan in June, which will set out how the health service can make a shift from sickness to preventing ill health. If the government is to succeed with this aim, diabetes must be at the heart of its plans.  The ‘10 Year Vision’ gives the government a clear plan for how it can improve health outcomes and tackle inequalities for people living with diabetes, and how this can be achieved by 2035. This vision involves: Stemming the rise in type 2 diabetes – improving our food environment and delivering high-quality support to help people reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes. Ensuring early and accurate diagnosis - which is key to setting people up to manage their diabetes and, in turn, preventing serious complications. Transforming diabetes care and treatment – to help people with diabetes live well. Most diabetes complications can be prevented with simple interventions like annual checks, access to the right treatments and technology, and a focus on reducing health inequalities. Accelerating innovation – Investing in diabetes research and ensuring new treatments and technologies are available to people with diabetes quickly.
  7. Content Article
    This report sets out how the NHS will resuscitate urgent and emergency care, with a focus on getting patients out of corridors, keeping more ambulances on the road, and enable those ready to leave hospital to do so as soon as possible. Summary of actions and impact for patients and carers Focus as a whole system on achieving improvements that will have the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care services this winter By the year-end, with improvement over winter, we expect to: Reduce ambulance wait times for Category 2 patients – such as those with a stroke, heart attack, sepsis or major trauma – by over 14% (from 35 to 30 minutes). Eradicate last winter’s lengthy ambulance handover delays by meeting the maximum 45-minute ambulance handover time standard, helping get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road for patients. Ensure a minimum of 78% of patients who attend A&E (up from the current 75%) are admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours, meaning over 800,000 people a year will receive more timely care. Reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department compared to 2024/25, so this occurs less than 10% of the time. This will improve patient safety for the 1.7 million attendances a year that currently exceed this timeframe. Tackle the delays in patients waiting to be discharged – starting with the nearly 30,000 patients a year staying 21 days over their discharge-ready-date, saving up to half a million bed days annually. Increase the number of children seen within 4 hours, resulting in thousands of children every month receiving more timely care than in 2024/25. Develop and test winter plans, making sure they achieve a significant increase in urgent care services provided outside hospital compared to last winter Improve vaccination rates for frontline staff towards the pre-pandemic uptake level of 2018/19. This means that in 2025/26, we aim to improve uptake by at least 5 percentage points. Increase the number of patients receiving urgent care in primary, community and mental health settings, including the number of people seen by Urgent Community Response teams and cared for in virtual wards. Meet the maximum 45-minute ambulance handover time standard. Improve flow through hospitals, with a particular focus on reducing patients waiting over 12 hours, and making progress on eliminating corridor care. Set local performance targets by pathway to improve patient discharge times, and eliminate internal discharge delays of more than 48 hours in all settings. Reduce length of stay for patients who need an overnight emergency admission. This is currently nearly a day longer than in 2019 (0.9 days) and needs to be reduced by at least 0.4 days . Reduce the number of patients who remain in an emergency department for over 24 hours while awaiting a mental health admission. This will provide faster care for thousands of people in crisis every month. National improvement resource and additional capital investment is simplified and aligned to supporting systems where it can make the biggest difference Allocating over £370 million of capital investment to support: Around 40 new same day emergency care centres and urgent treatment centres. Mental health crisis assessment centres and additional mental health inpatient capacity to reduce the number of mental health patients having to seek treatment in emergency departments. Expansion of the Connected Care Records for ambulance services, giving paramedics access to the patient summary (including recent treatment history) from different NHS services, enabling better patient care and avoiding unnecessary admissions.
  8. News Article
    Women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and those living in the most deprived areas of England are less likely to receive treatment after a diagnosis of a deadly heart disease, according to one of the largest studies of its kind. Researchers at the University of Leicester analysed data from almost 155,000 people diagnosed with aortic stenosis – a narrowing of the valve between the heart’s main pumping chamber and the main artery – between 2000 and 2022 across England, from a database of anonymised GP records. The study found that patients living in the most deprived areas were 7% less likely to be referred for secondary care after their diagnosis compared with patients in the least deprived areas, and 4% less likely to undergo a procedure to replace their aortic valve. The analysis, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester, also found that women were 11% less likely to be referred to secondary care, such as a hospital specialist, after their diagnosis than men. Women were also 39% less likely to have a procedure to replace their aortic valve. The study also found that black patients were 48% less likely to undergo a procedure to replace their aortic valve than white patients, with south Asian patients being 27% less likely. Both groups were more likely to be referred to secondary care, although the researchers say that this could reflect referrals for other heart issues not related to their aortic stenosis. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 June 2025
  9. Content Article
    Despite its prevalence, treatment of hypothyroidism has long divided opinion in the research and clinical fields.  In a paper for Nature Reviews Endocrinology, I share my experience as a patient living with hypothyroidism for 16 years, as well as the difficulties I have faced in achieving consistent and effective treatment tailored to my individual needs. Hypothyroid patients will recognise many aspects of their own journey in this personal report. Achieving a prompt, accurate diagnosis and appropriate, effective treatment is difficult, sometimes impossible. NHS guidance is confusing and restrictive. There have been huge advances in the science of endocrinology in recent decades that has not filtered down to those at the coal face, dealing with patients.
  10. News Article
    The purchase of approved digital products and services used for diagnosing and treating NHS patients should be reimbursed centrally, the chief executive of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence has told HSJ. Sam Roberts said this was “the minimum a citizen should expect from a digitised health service” and that she was determined “to get that into the [government’s 10-Year Health] plan”. She described the different financial arrangements for NICE-approved digital products and services as “outrageous”, and said they should instead be treated “like medicines”. In a wide-ranging interview with HSJ, the NICE CEO also said: She wanted NICE to “lead the charge” in determining which digital innovations the NHS should adopt NICE would issue more guidance on which medicines it had previously recommended should no longer be used A new approach was needed to deal with the impending wave of expensive “preventive medicines” such as the new wave of weight-loss drugs. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 June 2025
  11. News Article
    Cancer patients are dying due to misinformation on social media, turning down life-saving treatment in favour of “radical diets” and natural “cures”, oncologists have said. Doctors gathered in Chicago for the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) general meeting said that some patients are delaying the start of their treatment until their cancer becomes metastatic, or incurable. Some patients are choosing alternative treatments such as diets and essential oils instead of life-saving medicines, the doctors said, with patients falling victim to those who “deliberately push unproven treatments or ideas”. The oncologists said that the field was “losing the battle for communication” in the age of misinformation. England’s chief doctor added that the rates of misinformation around cancer seen by the NHS had become “alarmingly high” recently. Richard Simcock, the chief medical officer at the charity Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “I have recently seen two young women who have declined all proven medical treatments for cancer and are instead pursuing unproven and radical diets promoted on social media. “As a doctor, I want to be able to use the best available therapies to help people with cancer. A person is perfectly entitled to decline that therapy but when they do that on the basis of information which is frankly untrue or badly interpreted it makes me very sad. It’s clear that we have work to do to build back trust in evidence-based medicine.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 2 June 2025
  12. Content Article
    The annual Cancer in the UK report summarises key data across the cancer pathway, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. It looks at where progress is being made and what challenges remain in the UK. Evidence in this report shows that improvements can be made across the cancer pathway – preventing cancers, diagnosing patients earlier and ensuring patients have access to the best treatment options – to attain outcomes that are among the best in the world. The report concludes by setting out the priority actions that are vital to addressing challenges faced by cancer services and lays out how data-led insights can strengthen our ability to beat cancer
  13. Content Article
    Stigma and misunderstanding of obesity are preventing people from receiving adequate treatment for the disease, which is increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), a new report from the World Heart Federation warns. The “World Heart Report 2025 – Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease” launched at the World Heart Summit, highlights the myths that hamper efforts to treat obesity. The problem is compounded by systemic healthcare gaps and is contributing to an economic burden worsened by the aggressive commercial practices of companies making cheap, processed food. The World Heart Report emphasises the trends that could send healthcare costs spiralling: As the rate of child obesity continues to increase, children with a high BMI are 40% more likely than their peers to suffer from CVD in midlife. The onset of obesity at younger ages can significantly reduce life expectancy while the psychological impacts of childhood obesity are profound – obesity is now the leading cause of bullying and discrimination in schools. CVD mortality attributable to high body mass index (BMI) is now highest among middle-income countries, with rates up to 67.5 deaths per 100,000 people in North Africa and the Middle East. Across the globe, obesity cases increased in nearly every country between 1990 to 2022 and global deaths from cardiovascular disease linked to high BMI have more than doubled. If current growth trends continue, data projects that almost 2 in 3 adults over 25 years of age could be overweight or obese by 2050. A shift in types of employment towards desk jobs is also associated with the development of obesity and CVD, as are long working hours and frequently working overtime. The report expresses concern that stigma experienced by people living with obesity is preventing them from receiving adequate treatment through guidance, lifestyle support and appropriate medication.
  14. Content Article
    Bias in the way medical research is carried out means that new medicines for diseases such as cancer – as well as the tools used to diagnose patients with some conditions – are disproportionally tested on people of European heritage. This can lead to those not represented in the data being misdiagnosed as well as some treatments not working as well as they should. From the Ghanaian scientist helping to develop cancer treatments which work better for African people, to the team in England using AI to diagnose dementia in communities where English isn’t widely spoken, in this programme we will meet the solution-seekers trying to make healthcare more equal.
  15. News Article
    A proponent of using the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 despite scant evidence of its efficacy has been named to a top pandemic prevention role at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Washington Post reports. Steven J Hatfill is a virologist who served in Donald Trump’s first administration, during which he promoted hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus in the early months of the pandemic, when vaccines and treatments were not yet available. He recently started as a special adviser in the office of the director of the administration for strategic preparedness and response, which prepares the country to respond to pandemics, as well as chemical and biological attacks. The Trump administration embraced using the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, along with other drugs such as ivermectin and chloroquine, as treatments against Covid-19, despite concerns over both their efficacy and potentially serious side-effects. In June 2020, just months after the pandemic started, the Food and Drug Administration warned against using hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat Covid-19 over “reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues”, even after Trump approved the ordering of millions of doses of the drug from Brazil for US patients. Last year, a study released at the onset of the pandemic that promoted hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 was withdrawn by the publisher of the medical journal. In an interview with the Post, Hatfill defended his support of hydroxychloroquine, which remains in use to treat diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. “There is no ambiguity there. It is a safe drug,” Hatfill said, noting that “they gave the drug to the president” in 2020. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 May 2025
  16. News Article
    Trusts failing to meet cancer standards may be encouraged to use a new tool on the federated data platform, HSJ understands. NHS England today announced the launch of the Cancer 360 tool on the FDP, which it says will help clinicians to “identify and address delays immediately” in cancer treatment pathways. In a media briefing attended by HSJ, NHSE said no trust would be “forced” to take up the tool. It said there would be “no questions asked” if another system was already in place and the organisation was meeting performance targets, such as the faster diagnosis or 62-day referral-to-treatment standards. However, there “would be a conversation” about the need to use Cancer 360 if a trust had another system in place and was not meeting standards, officials confirmed. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 May 2025
  17. Content Article
    Orthopaedic surgeon Sunny Deo has spent three decades diagnosing and treating knee joint issues. In this blog, Sunny argues that the healthcare community needs to take a more nuanced approach to diagnosis and decision making so that it can provide patients with safer, more appropriate treatment options. He reflects on why medicine prefers simple answers and looks at how this affects patient care. He goes on to explore how better data collection and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) could provide a more accurate picture of complexity and allow treatment options to be better tailored to individual patients’ needs. "To know the patient that has the disease is more important than to know the disease that the patient has." William Osler, father of modern medicine, 1849-1919. Diagnosis is the process of identifying the nature of an illness or other problem by examining the symptoms and objective findings from investigations. In modern medicine, it is a key focal point of the assessment and management of all patients. A huge amount of clinical medicine training is focused on the art and science of obtaining a diagnosis, and this focus continues into medical practice. The ease of getting to a diagnosis ranges from the glaringly obvious, the so-called ‘spot diagnosis’, through to cases that are very difficult to solve. In between these extremes there is a range from delayed to missed to incorrect diagnosis. The aim of doctors over the centuries has been to work out diagnoses from patients’ symptoms, presenting features (clinical signs) and, in the past century or so, from the evidence of clinical investigations. Quite often, symptoms, signs and investigations produce consistent patterns, and it is these patterns that are taught to medical and other healthcare professionals. This is how diagnoses and outcomes are portrayed in television series or films—just think back to the last episode of Casualty or Grey’s Anatomy you watched. It's also how things often appear in internet searches and on websites and social media. Seeking simple answers to complex questions However, the reality is different. When a patient is sitting in front of me, what I hear and observe may not exactly be what the textbooks, evidence or research tells me I should be seeing. But because we are wired and trained to recognise patterns, we tend to look for diagnoses and solutions that fit within the well-worn narrative. What if the pattern doesn’t fit the actual diagnosis? There are classic presentations for nearly every condition, and these are what you tend to find at the start of a Google search or when using NHS Choices. The expectation of typical symptoms sometimes means we ignore what we might see as annoying variance, superfluous detail or the patient embellishing the truth. This discordance then causes tension with a very basic trait of humans: when we’re faced with a difficult problem, we still seek the simplest solution. This is an evolutionary feature hardwired into us to optimise survival chances. It means we often believe there is a truth to be found that will provide us with a definite answer. From this answer we will come to the best, and ideally only, ‘correct’ solution. Patients who don’t fit the set patterns of diagnosis may then run into trouble when we offer them what is considered to be the ideal treatment. This is an important problem in clinical thinking, language and practice. As a medical community, we tend to create oversimplified approaches based on research that looks for binary answers to complex questions. This research evidence may be based on a small, highly selective ‘typical’ patient cohort, but its findings and conclusions are then translated on to the entire population. This approach results in poor patient outcomes and experience for a small but significant proportion of patients. Pathways designed for ideal diagnoses can cause harm to patients Over my 30 years as an orthopaedic surgeon, 15 as a knee specialist, I have seen that the assessment and treatment of any given condition isn't quite as predictable as we would like it to be. While many patients fit the pattern we are expecting, some do not. I would empirically put the proportion at 60:40, but some unpublished research we did a decade ago suggested the proportion of truly ‘typical’ case presentations for a common condition is much lower. For example, we found that in the case of suspected meniscal tear, this diagnosis actually applied to only 33% of patients with a variety of other diagnoses accounting for the rest. It gets worse when large organisations start to lump patients into a category by condition in a ‘one diagnosis fits all’ strategy. When this approach is taken, there are winners and losers. The winners are those patients whose condition very closely matches the classic presentation of a given condition in isolation. Let’s take the example of knee osteoarthritis—patients with the ‘right type’ of symptoms, physical signs and x-ray changes are generally more likely to do well. Their recovery is more likely to sit within the knowledge base of treating the condition that has evolved over the past half-century. In contrast, patients whose symptoms and test results fall outside of this category may be less likely to do well or recover in the predicted timeframe. This also applies to patients with additional diagnoses or conditions, often termed comorbidities, which may interact, usually in a bad way, with the condition at hand. Failure to consider other diagnoses, either by over-focus on one condition causing wilful ignorance, inattention or lack of attention, may lead to unexpected poor outcomes from a given treatment. It may also mean that the symptoms from the condition that the patient presents with are worse than expected. This doesn’t mean that they won't gain any benefit from a particular treatment, but the risks and potential outcomes may not be communicated adequately by the patient’s healthcare team, if at all. For example, for patients with painful knee osteoarthritis, the current diagnosis to treatment logic runs like this: Knee osteoarthritis is a painful condition. Total knee replacement surgery is a validated safe procedure with significant improvements in quality of life. Other treatment options do not produce as much positive therapeutic benefit compared to total knee replacement surgery. Therefore, total knee replacement surgery is the only treatment for painful knee osteoarthritis. However, there are patients for whom knee replacement surgery is not a safe or practical option, and these patients may benefit from alternative treatments that are not currently offered as they are seen as providing limited benefit. This may be because the participants in trials undertaken over the years had varying diagnoses, meaning that true comparisons of alternative options may have had additional interacting diagnoses or failed to account for differing severity. Understanding the spectrum of complexity As healthcare professionals, we have a duty to diagnose patients as accurately as possible. In orthopaedics, if treatments go wrong or are poorly undertaken, it may lead to prolonged or permanent pain or disability, and we obviously want to avoid this as much as possible. Incomplete identification and documentation of all relevant symptoms and health conditions can potentially lead to an increased risk of treatment failure and complications. Our priority should be to identify these diagnoses or diagnostic clusters as accurately as possible. I think these are basic principles we need to apply to create better systems and improved care for as many patients as possible. In my view, there are grades of ‘atypical patients’ and I have devoted the past decade to trying to demonstrate this, with surprisingly stiff resistance from peer-reviewed journals and funding organisations. I have tried to move away from lumping all patients into a single category. I have done some research on seemingly straightforward soft tissue problems and osteoarthritis in the knee. My initial analysis suggests that we need to collect more detailed and accurate data, rather than simplifying data into minimum datasets. This is where AI can really come into its own, not as a diagnostic tool initially, but as a powerful aid to unlocking and interpreting some of the diagnostic interactions that create problems for patients. However, the use of AI does need to be undertaken with extreme care and consideration, and this isn’t always happening currently. To offer healthcare that is truly person-centred, we need to look beyond our well-worn simple answers and solutions. By using better data and new machine learning tools to understand the nuances of each person’s condition and how it relates to their wider health, we can offer treatment options that are safer, kinder and more cost-effective. Share your views We would love to hear your views on the issues highlighted in Sunny’s blog Are you a clinician who would like to share your experiences? Do these challenges resonate with you? Or are you a patient who has experienced complications because of poor, missed or inadequate diagnosis? Add your comment below (you will need to be a hub member and signed in) or contact us at [email protected] and we can share your story anonymously. Related content on the hub: Using data to improve decision making and person-centred care in surgery: An interview with Sunny Deo and Matthew Bacon Diagnostic errors and delays: why quality investigations are key
  18. News Article
    Drugs for diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and mental illness are being denied to people held in police cells after they are arrested, according to a shocking new report. Suspects detained in custody suites are even having emergency care withheld as a “form of punishment”, according to the study shared exclusively with The Independent. The report has sparked calls for healthcare for those in custody to be brought under the remit of the NHS, amid claims that basic standards are not being met by the private companies that currently provide it. Deborah Coles, chief executive of the charity Inquest, which represents families whose loved ones have died in custody, said the report is “deeply concerning” and urged ministers to respond before the situation results in “catastrophe”. “This is about the denial of life-protecting medication,” she said. “There is the ever-present risk of death and harm. It shines a light on the standards of healthcare in police custody suites. “This report lays bare many of the concerns Inquest has had for decades around the standards of care afforded to detainees in police custody. The reality of this, denying people medication that is life-protecting, does hold the risk of death and serious harm.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 April 2025
  19. Content Article
    Thyroid disease is a common endocrine disorder in women of childbearing age. There is variation in clinical practice and approach to thyroid diseases globally, in part influenced by differences in population iodine status. There remains controversy regarding testing for and management of thyroid disorders before conception, during pregnancy and postpartum. This guideline presents the available evidence for best practice and where evidence is lacking, consensus opinion by a multidisciplinary, cross-specialty team of authors is presented. Both inadequate and excessive treatment of thyroid disorders, the choice of treatment, as well as delayed commencement and adjustment of treatment, can result in detrimental effects on the pregnancy and fetus. Therefore, care should be optimised when planning pregnancy, during pregnancy and after birth, and where possible, provided by clinicians with appropriate obstetric and endocrine experience.
  20. News Article
    British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a leaked report warns. Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential. But five years after the UK’s exit from the EU, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind concludes that while patients across Europe are benefiting from a golden age of pioneering research and novel treatments, Britons with cancer have “lost out” thanks to rising prices and red tape. Brexit has “damaged the practical ability” of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international clinical trials, according to the 54-page report obtained by the Guardian. In some cases, the cost of importing new cancer drugs for Britons has nearly quadrupled as a result of post-Brexit red tape. Some trials have had shipping costs alone increase to 10 times since Brexit. The extra rules and costs have had a “significant negative impact” on UK cancer research, creating “new barriers” that are “holding back life-saving research” for Britons, the report says. In some cases, the impact has been devastating. Children are among the NHS cancer patients whose tumours have returned or treatment has stopped working, leaving them in limbo and denied drugs that could extend or save their lives, senior doctors told the Guardian. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2025
  21. News Article
    People in Britain with heart failure are being given larger doses of drugs at the start of their treatment after a global study found that this led to a huge fall in deaths. Experts say the new approach could mean those with the potentially fatal condition start receiving their ideal amount of medication within two weeks of diagnosis rather than after many months. Evidence from other countries that have already used the treatment found it cut deaths from heart failure by 62% and lowered their risk of ending up back in hospital by 30%. St George’s hospital in London and Morriston hospital in Swansea have begun treating patients with the innovative method, which those involved say “is a total gamechanger” for the condition. Clinical staff likened the approach – known as “rapid titration” – to how cancer patients are given a full dose of chemotherapy medication from the start of their treatment to improve their chances of recovery. “Heart failure is a silent killer, so this new way of treating patients is a total gamechanger that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It will save many lives and bring hope to so many families,” said Matthew Sunter, the lead heart failure nurse at St George’s. “In days gone by, we would start patients on a very low dose and increase it by very small doses. It could take nine to 12 months to reach the optimal dose. “Strong-HF has allowed us to think completely differently. For the first time ever, we offer patients a review one week after discharge and we can catch them before they get sick enough to need to come back into hospital. “And we can get them on to the recommended therapy for their heart failure within two to three weeks instead of nine to 12 months.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 April 2025
  22. News Article
    Lung cancer patients at a major trust were on waiting lists for so long that their disease progressed to a stage where it was no longer treatable. Following a harm review, Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust discovered two dozen patients whose cancer had progressed to a stage where it was more serious and difficult to treat. Within this group of 24 patients, six were moved straight to end of life care when doctors finally decided on their treatment plan. Between 1 January 2024 and 31 January 2025, a total of 160 lung cancer patients at Newcastle FT waited longer than 104 days for treatment after an urgent or suspected cancer referral. The national target is for 85% of cancer patients to receive their first treatment within 62 days, although it has not been met since 2015. “Stage migration” was the biggest concern in those cases, meaning the patient’s cancer progressed while they waited for treatment, making it harder to treat. In papers submitted to a board meeting on Friday, the trust accepted its performance on cancer was still “clearly below” the standard required. The data on lung cancer in particular “underscored” the need for a “specific and continued” focus on treatment for the disease, the trust said. Naser Turabi, Cancer Research UK’s director of evidence and implementation, said the trust’s disclosure has drawn attention to the issue of the impact of missing waiting times standards on patients. “Delays to treatment negatively impact patients, but it’s hard to know just how badly,” he told HSJ. “One study suggests that for many cancers, a four-week delay to surgery increases the risk of dying by 6-8 per cent, but we know that long waits can reduce the treatment options that are available, and have significant psychological impacts too.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 March 2025
  23. News Article
    Health officials in England are raising concerns about a surge in antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea cases, warning that the sexually transmitted infection could become “untreatable” if the trend continues. Some infections have shown resistance to ceftriaxone, the primary antibiotic used. More alarmingly, some cases are classified as "extensively drug resistant" (XDR), meaning they don't respond to ceftriaxone or the secondary treatment. New data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reveals a concerning increase in resistant cases. Between January 2024 and March 2025, 17 cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea were reported, 13 in 2024 and four in the first three months of 2025. Dr Katy Sinka, consultant epidemiologist and head of the STI section at UKHSA, said: “Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, which could make it untreatable in future. “If left untreated, it can cause serious problems like pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 March 2025
  24. News Article
    Almost three-quarters of people undergoing fertility treatment in the UK are using “unproven extras” to increase their chances of having a baby, despite little evidence that they work. The findings, from the UK’s fertility watchdog, mean that about 40,000 people a year wanting to conceive are spending money on acupuncture, supplements and drugs, even though they are largely unproven. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) issued the caution in its latest annual national patient survey, which captures patients’ experiences of NHS and private fertility care. Overall, 73% of patients are using at least one additional test, treatment or emerging technology when undergoing IVF or donor insemination treatment, the survey of 1,500 people showed. The regulator has been trying since 2017 to reduce the use of such extra treatments “since almost all remain unproven in increasing the chance of having a baby for most patients”. More than half (52%) of patients who opted to pay for what the HFEA calls an “unproven extra” did so after discussing with their doctor how effective it was likely to be. Even more (59%) went ahead based on their clinic’s recommendation, the HFEA found. The regulator voiced concern about the fact that “only 37% of patients said their clinics explained the risks of using an additional test, treatment or emerging technology”. “It’s disappointing to see a significant number of patients are still using add-ons and emerging technologies, and particularly disappointing that only half of patients had the effectiveness explained to them, let alone the risks”, said Julia Chain, the HFEA’s chair. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2025
  25. News Article
    New research has revealed the number of NHS clinics for people living with Long Covid has more than halved, from a peak of 120 services in 2022 to 46 today. Services for children and young people are also affected with 13 specialists hubs reduced to eight. The BBC also discovered the NHS in England no longer monitored the status of Long Covid clinics and stopped doing so nearly a year ago. Spokespeople for NHS England and the Department of Health confirmed they were no longer tracking how many Long Covid clinics were still operating. Birmingham-based charity Long Covid Support used Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to ask hospitals about what clinics they have for patients. Margaret O'Hara, from the group, said changes in the way clinics were funded inside the NHS had led to many services being merged or stopped altogether. She told the BBC many parts of the NHS were "struggling to cope" and the picture for patients was one of "utter confusion". After the initial infection with coronavirus, rather than getting better, patients are instead left dealing with any number of problems including fatigue, pain and breathing difficulties. For many, getting any sort of diagnosis let alone treatment in a specialist NHS clinic is a long and sometimes fruitless journey, according to the support group. In a survey of patients affected by the condition, a spokesperson for Long Covid Support said they found about half of those they talked to considered themselves disabled by the condition. A similar number of adults surveyed also said they were not followed up by a healthcare professional and still had ongoing symptoms, despite when the NHS discharged them from treatment. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 March 2025 Further reading on the hub: "Why should a vulnerable person be expected to tolerate lack of protections against Covid?"
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