Chronic workforce shortages have put nursing staff under unbearable pressure, says union chief
Nurses in England took an average of a week off sick last year because of stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures reveal.
The disclosure has prompted concern that the intense strains nurses face in their jobs, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and causing many to quit.
Continue reading...Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health urges ministers to follow lead of Scotland and Wales
Parents in England and Northern Ireland should be banned from smacking their children because doing so is unjust, dangerous and harmful, leading doctors have urged ministers.
It was “a scandal” that Scotland and Wales had outlawed smacking but not the other two home nations, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tactics include proposals to raise smoking age to avoid outright ban, and exemptions for cigars, says Cancer Research UK chief
Tobacco firms are lobbying MPs and peers in an effort to derail Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy to phase out smoking, the head of Britain’s biggest cancer charity has said.
The prime minister’s landmark legislation – which would bar anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes and make England the first country in the world to ban smoking – is due to be debated in parliament for the first time on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Lib Dems and health trusts say patient and staff safety being put at risk by poor state of ageing infrastructure
Millions of patients are being put at risk in crumbling hospitals that are unfit for purpose, MPs have said, as figures reveal more than 2,000 NHS buildings are older than the health service itself.
Health bosses have repeatedly warned ministers of the urgent need to plough cash into replacing rundown buildings in order to protect the safety of patients and staff. The maintenance backlog has risen to £11.6bn in England.
Continue reading...Former PM laments state of Tory party saying it is ‘mad’ that party of Winston Churchill is ‘banning cigars’
Boris Johnson has attacked Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, calling it “absolutely nuts” in a lament about the state of the Conservative party in Britain.
Speaking at an event in Canada on Wednesday night, Johnson said it was “mad” that the party of Winston Churchill was “banning cigars”.
Continue reading...Cass report calls for move away from mainly medical treatment as part of dramatic shift in approach to gender dysphoria
A long-awaited review by consultant paediatrician Hilary Cass into the NHS’s gender services for children calls for a dramatic shift in the type of treatment offered to children and young people with gender dysphoria.
The report proposes that instead of being offered mainly medical treatment, young people referred to NHS gender services should “receive a holistic assessment of their needs to inform an individualised care plan”, meaning that questions of gender identity should be treated alongside other possible mental health concerns.
Continue reading...Parents and NHS would be able to monitor vaccinations and checkups through digital version of ‘red book’
Labour plans to digitise the NHS “red book” that parents use for their children’s medical records as part of a series of changes to the NHS app.
Parents and the NHS would be able to see if children are behind on jabs or checkups through a new digital record, with automatic notifications to prompt them to book appointments under the party’s plans.
Continue reading...Act now on air quality in the Belgian capital, which is among the filthiest in Europe, say doctors and environmentalists
More than 100 doctors and environmentalists in Brussels have called on their politicians to follow London and Paris and take measures to improve the choking air pollution in the Belgian capital.
According to IS Global research, Brussels is ranked as the eighth worst of more than 800 European cities for nitrogen dioxide, which damages the lungs and is one of the main byproducts of internal combustion engines. The capital of the European Union is also ranked 308th out of 858 cities for PM2.5, or fine particulates, which can travel deep into the respiratory tract.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Treatments near approval but lack of diagnostic capacity means NHS unprepared for rollout, report says
Hundreds of thousands of dementia patients in England face being denied access to revolutionary new drugs because the diagnostic capacity of the NHS lags behind every other G7 country, according to a damning report.
After decades of research to find a cure for the condition projected to affect 153 million people worldwide by 2050, scientists have successfully developed the first treatments to tackle the underlying causes rather than only relieve the symptoms. Two new drugs could get the green light for use on the NHS within weeks.
Continue reading...Tests that can identify early changes in cells would give doctors more time to offer treatment, say Cambridge researchers
Scientists at a recently opened cancer institute at Cambridge University have begun work that is pinpointing changes in cells many years before they develop into tumours. The research should help design radically new ways to treat cancer, they say.
The Early Cancer Institute – which has just received £11m from an anonymous donor – is focused on finding ways to tackle tumours before they produce symptoms. The research will exploit recent discoveries which have shown that many people develop precancerous conditions that lie in abeyance for long periods.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Millions more GP appointments potentially created as a result of closures
Almost 1,000 pharmacies in England have closed since 2017, potentially leading to millions of extra GP appointments, the Guardian can exclusively reveal.
There are more than 11,000 pharmacies in England. Guardian analysis of the official register of these chemists has found that parts of the country have lost more than one in five pharmacies in the last six years, with poorer areas experiencing proportionally more closures.
Continue reading...BMA members overwhelmingly back further stoppages and overtime bans in long-running pay dispute
Junior doctors in England have voted to keep on striking until the middle of September in their long-running pay dispute, bringing a fresh wave of disruption to the NHS.
Those belonging to the British Medical Association voted overwhelmingly to stage further stoppages in addition to the 41 days of strikes held since last March.
Continue reading...Healthcare delays in deprived communities mean greater need for expensive emergency treatment, research finds
People living in poverty find it harder to live a healthy life and face barriers to accessing timely treatment, new research suggests.
A report by the King’s Fund, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, finds that the delays people living in deprived communities face for healthcare mean they are more likely to need expensive emergency treatment.
Continue reading...Long hours spent at desks and sofas leads to 21,000 deaths a year in the Netherlands from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer
The Dutch are perceived as a nation of healthy giants, leaping on their bikes to cycle energetically across flat lands. But new research suggests they are in fact the “sitting champions of Europe”, with a sedentary lifestyle that causes thousands of early deaths.
Health experts are calling for urgent action to stop so-called “chair-use disorder” spreading across western countries. A report by the research organisation TNO, published on Friday, found too much sitting costs the Netherlands €1.2bn (£1bn) annually and leads to 21,000 premature deaths a year from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. It is riskier, researchers found, to be a lawyer than a lorry driver.
Continue reading...Initiative before national rollout will allow review of care for patients whose condition is deteriorating
Patients whose health is failing will be granted the right to obtain an urgent second opinion about their care, as “Martha’s rule” is initially adopted in 100 English hospitals from April at the start of a national rollout.
The initiative will allow patients and their loved ones to get a review of their condition and treatment directly from doctors and nurses not involved in the medical team treating them.
Continue reading...Lib Dems say last month an average of 5,735 people a day faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen
More than 1.5 million patients in England had to wait 12 hours or longer in A&E in the past year, according to figures that MPs say lay bare the impact of the government’s neglect of the NHS.
Last month 177,805 patients faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen in emergency departments, an average of 5,735 a day. It means one in 10 patients (12.4%) arriving at A&E waited 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged.
Continue reading...Britain’s cancer survival rates are improving but the UK still lags behind comparable countries. The Guardian’s health editor, Andrew Gregory, reports
The announcement last week that King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer has been met with sympathy and support for the 75-year-old. But alongside the focus on what it means for his future role as monarch, it has also led to a closer examination of what cancer care looks like in the UK in 2024.
For many, such as 37-year-old Nathaniel Dye, it has meant a diagnosis that has come too late. He has stage 4 bowel cancer, which has spread to other parts of his body. Dye has been told that in similar cases only 10% of people survive five years.
Continue reading...BMA votes for further five days of action after meeting with health secretary fails to resolve grievances
Junior doctors are to stage fresh strike action in England for a 10th time after talks between their union and the government broke down again.
Ministers, health officials and representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA) had been locked in negotiations for weeks since last month’s record six-day stoppage, trying to find a resolution to the pay dispute.
Continue reading...Families who may have been affected by hormone pregnancy tests not included in patient safety commissioner’s review
Campaigners have accused the UK government of betraying them after a review of redress for victims of health scandals excluded families who may have been affected by the hormone pregnancy test Primodos.
A report published on Wednesday by the patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, found a “clear case for redress” for thousands of women and children who suffered “avoidable harm” from the epilepsy treatment sodium valproate and from vaginal mesh implants.
Continue reading...British Dental Association says government’s plan does not offer hope to millions struggling to access care
Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a U-turn on his pledge to restore NHS dentistry as experts say his “recovery plan” does not offer enough money to incentivise dentists to take on extra NHS patients.
The prime minister’s long-awaited proposals have been criticised for failing to ringfence funding for the dental sector and reform the NHS dentistry contract, which means millions across the country will continue to struggle to access care.
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