Wes Streeting says legislation will save lives, but GPs are concerned about liability for errors introduced by other providers
GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.
Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.
Continue reading...Contradictory policies that gut harm reduction programs while supporting naloxone access are confusing experts
Within just a few weeks, the Trump administration has proposed multiple contradictory policies related to overdose prevention – some that could help save lives and others that experts say could further strain health resources and put people at risk for overdose.
These policies include a new prohibition on funding for fentanyl test strips, which help people avoid overdoses; proposed budget cuts that would gut the country’s overdose prevention efforts; and an ambitious drug control strategy that will be impossible to implement if the aforementioned cuts go through.
Continue reading...Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Liverpool-born actor says depression and anxiety followed death of his father when he was 15
The actor David Morrissey has spoken of how “terrible” social anxiety contributed to him becoming an alcoholic.
“I am a recovering alcoholic,” Morrissey, who has been sober for 21 years, told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “Drinking first was about anxiety. I’ve had this terrible social anxiety and that helped me get through it.”
Continue reading...Thirty years after first person-to-person transmission was documented in Patagonia, scientists say global heating could increase world’s exposure
An outbreak in rural communities 30 years ago in the Patagonia area of Argentina led scientists, for the first time, to document person-to-person transmission of hantavirus, which until then had been known only to spread through contact with rodents.
Nearly a decade ago another outbreak, also in Patagonia, provided detailed evidence of inter-human transmission when an infected 68-year-old rural worker attended a birthday party in a small village. The infection spread and resulted in 11 deaths.
Continue reading...US CDC personnel are reportedly meeting ship in Canary Islands to accompany Americans on a flight to Nebraska
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly sending personnel to the Canary Islands to meet the cruise ship affected by the hantavirus outbreak, with plans to accompany American passengers back to the US on a chartered flight and place them into quarantine in Nebraska.
An additional CDC team is already headed to Nebraska, according to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN. The sources indicated that passengers are expected to undergo quarantine measures there to help prevent any possible spread of the virus. Nebraska is home to both the federally supported National Quarantine Unit and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
Continue reading...‘Clinical consensus statement’ also urges heart doctors to advise patients to not eat late at night, and chew slowly
Want to reduce your intake of ultra-processed food? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night and chew your food more slowly.
Those are among some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health worldwide.
Continue reading...Tent where twins were born up to a 15-minute walk away from nearest public toilets or running water
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The tent where a newborn baby was found dead at Wagga beach at the weekend was part of a homeless encampment up to a 15-minute walk away from the nearest public toilets or running water, with residents in a nearby apartment block saying conditions were “worse than a Syrian war camp”.
The tragedy has prompted fury in the community, with residents of Wagga Wagga calling on authorities to take urgent action to make the encampments safe and sanitary.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sperm re-transplant offers hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could have biological children one day
In a groundbreaking fertility trial, a man whose testicular tissue was frozen before he underwent chemotherapy as a child to be re-transplanted 16 years later has been able to produce sperm.
It is the first time a transplant of cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissue has been demonstrated to restore sperm production in an adult patient. The 27-year-old man had the sample frozen when he was 10, before undergoing potent chemotherapy as part of treatment for sickle cell disease.
Continue reading...WHO prequalification of Coartem Baby means newborns can be safely treated rather than using medication for older children
The first malaria treatment for babies has been approved by the World Health Organization, opening the door to widespread use around the globe.
In parts of Africa, up to 18% of children under six months will be infected with malaria, but there has historically been no safe treatment for the smallest of them. There were 610,000 deaths from malaria in 2024, about three quarters of which were under-fives in Africa.
Continue reading...Report calls for tough action to combat ‘escalating and unsustainable burden’ of liver-related problems in Europe
Governments in Europe should impose much higher taxes on alcohol and unhealthy food to tackle the continent’s 284,000 deaths a year from liver disease, experts say.
Taxes on those products should rise sharply enough for the money raised to cover the huge costs they place on health services, the criminal justice system and social services.
Continue reading...Results suggest radiotracer maraciclatide can ‘light up’ condition on scan and reduce need for investigative surgery
A non-invasive scan for endometriosis has shown promising results in a trial, boosting hopes for far quicker diagnosis.
The trial, which included 19 women with the condition, suggests that an experimental radiotracer, called maraciclatide, can “light up” endometriosis on a scan. The current need for a surgical investigation is seen as a major obstacle to timely diagnosis, with women in England typically waiting nearly a decade.
Continue reading...People with meniscus tears who underwent surgery had poorer knee function and worse osteoarthritis after 10 years than those who did not
A common knee surgery for cartilage damage does not benefit patients and may lead to worse outcomes, a 10-year trial suggests.
The study tracked outcomes for patients treated for a meniscus tear, who were given a partial meniscectomy, one of the most common orthopaedic surgeries. Their trajectories were compared with patients who had randomly been assigned to receive “sham surgery”, in which no procedure was carried out.
Continue reading...Consumption is at a record high along with that of cocaine, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission figures show
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Methamphetamine use in Australia has almost doubled in the past decade and stimulants are being taken at record highs, new wastewater monitoring reveals.
On Wednesday evening the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (Acic) released its latest annual report after testing wastewater samples from 64 treatment plants across the country between August 2024 and 2025.
Continue reading...Case centers on glyphosate, pesticide used in Roundup and other products that has been linked to cancer in some studies
Members of the US supreme court peppered lawyers for the former Monsanto Company with a barrage of questions over pesticide regulation on Monday, wrestling over whether federal law preempts state actions that permit consumers to sue companies for failing to warn of product risks such as cancer.
The case, Monsanto v Durnell, centers on glyphosate – a weedkilling chemical used in the popular Roundup brand and numerous other herbicide products sold by the former Monsanto company, which is now owned by Germany’s Bayer.
Continue reading...Critics hit out at ‘dire’ situation in the country which has the strictest laws around abortion in western Europe
Rights campaigners have affixed lockboxes containing abortion pills to sites across Malta, in a campaign designed to highlight the country’s near-total ban on abortion.
The 15 black boxes aim to provide practical help to women grappling with the EU’s strictest abortion laws; anyone who is less than nine weeks pregnant and in need of an abortion is invited to send an email to obtain the location and codes to access the pills.
Continue reading...Half of respondents to RCN poll said patients ‘frequently come to harm’ because caseloads are too high
Mental health patients in the UK are routinely coming to harm because of high caseloads, understaffing and overwhelming administrative work, according to a poll that found only a fifth of specialist nurses felt their workload was manageable.
Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said mental health nurses were caught in a “perfect storm” and unable to keep up with rising demand, with patients paying the price by missing out on crucial care.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Health Foundation says Britain is ‘going backwards’ compared with most other rich countries
People in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago, prompting concern that the population’s health is “going backwards”.
The sharp decline in Britain’s healthy life expectancy, the amount of time someone spends free of illness or disability, is in sharp contrast to its recent rise in most other rich countries globally.
Continue reading...Strict protocols violated by corrections staff who wrongly believed sexual assault cases were ‘closed’, ombudsman finds
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Men charged with alleged prison rapes were allowed to stay in shared cells – against strict protocols – by Queensland corrections staff who mistakenly believed their cases were “closed” and that they posed no risk, a report by the state’s ombudsman has found.
The ombudsman’s inspection report of the Brisbane correctional centre raises a number of concerns about the facility, including extensive overcrowding, health facilities that are not fit for purpose and complaints that chicken served to detainees and staff is often undercooked.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
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The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler, says Queensland will be “answerable to their community” if they don’t sign on to NDIS reforms, with billions of dollars of hospital funding on the line.
Every state and territory except for the sunshine state has signed a bilateral agreement with the government for the Thriving Kids program, which is designed to take children under nine with developmental delays or low to moderate autism off the NDIS.
Now every state and territory has signed a bilateral agreement with us that details the broad details of the Thriving Kids program … The only state that hasn’t signed yet is Queensland.
I tried to make clear again last week that is part of the deal that sees them get additional hospital funding and, frankly, they are answerable to their community if they don’t put the additional supports.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report shows cost of first appointment rose $20 in one year, with steeper rises in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania
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Patients are increasingly going without medically necessary dermatological care, the head of the Consumers Health Forum said, as new report reveals the rising cost of the specialty in Australia.
Dermatology is expensive and getting pricier, with an average first visit now costing an adult patient without concessions $230 out-of-pocket, while follow-up appointments cost almost $190, the report from health directory Cleanbill found.
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