NHS has target of eliminating the cancer by 2040, but up to 4 million eligible women are not up to date with screening
Millions of women in England who have missed cervical screening appointments will be offered free home testing kits on the NHS.
The move comes amid concerns that only two-thirds of women attend in-person cervical screening appointments when asked to do so, leaving as many as 4 million women not up to date.
Continue reading...PM touts ban on disposable barbecues as areas hit by wildfires – but some Labour MPs will be hoping for more ambitious ideas to tackle crisis
Andy Burnham will chair an emergency Cobra meeting in response to extreme heat, which has caused wildfires and plunged many parts of Britain into drought.
The prime minister will meet ministers, officials and agencies as high temperatures continue across the UK, with temperatures of 33C forecast on Wednesday and up to 38C on Thursday.
Continue reading...Calls for speed limiters or mandated helmet use after research into injuries at three paediatric trauma centres
The number of children involved in crashes on e-scooters has soared in recent years, with some as young as nine involved in collisions, research has found.
Researchers carried out a review of injuries among the under-16s at three specialist paediatric trauma centres – Alder Hey in Liverpool, and Sheffield and Royal Manchester children’s hospitals – between January 2019 and December 2024.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Seven in 10 survey respondents expect services to be reduced or shut, while more than half anticipate job losses
Millions of adults and children in England face being forced to wait longer for mental health care, with more than two-thirds of NHS providers planning to cut services and half expected to axe jobs, the Guardian can reveal.
With mental health services already under extraordinary pressure amid soaring demand for support, experts warned the proposed cuts – drawn up by trusts to plug holes in their finances – would also have “significant” consequences for the wider NHS, the economy and public services.
Continue reading...Average 25% increase for letters such as marketing, bills and medical appointment notices from 5 October
Royal Mail will increase the price of its wholesale postal service by as much as a third, in a multimillion-pound blow to the NHS and other large organisations.
The postal company has warned customers who use its wholesale postal service for mail including marketing letters, household bills and medical appointment notices that it is raising prices by an average of 25% from 5 October.
Continue reading...King’s Fund report finds men and women live, on average, for 80 years and nearly 84 years, but gains are in south
The north-south divide in life expectancy in England has grown over the past decade, with people in northern regions facing more illnesses such as heart disease and cancer, but also suicides and deaths related to alcohol and drug misuse.
Provisional figures show life expectancy reached an all-time high in 2025, with men and women in England living, on average, for 80 years and nearly 84 years respectively, but the gains were overwhelmingly in the south, the King’s Fund said.
Continue reading...Health Foundation paper argues health is an economic asset and improving it could generate £72bn for public finances
Restoring the deteriorating health of the UK’s population to the level of 2014 would boost GDP by 2% and generate a £72bn dividend for the public finances, research suggests.
A paper by the Health Foundation thinktank, published on Sunday, argues the nation’s health should be valued by policymakers as an economic asset.
Continue reading...For one placement, black applicants had a less than 1 in 100 chance of being offered a place, NHS data shows
Black doctors in England are four times less likely to be offered a training place than their white counterparts, according to analysis.
As part of their medical training, doctors across the NHS are able to apply to placements within specific branches of practice such as psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, and emergency medicine.
Continue reading...Doctors say survey shows need for morning-after pill to be available at corner shops, petrol stations and supermarkets
Almost half of the UK population believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception on a Sunday, while nearly two-thirds think they would struggle after 10pm, according to a survey.
The research, carried out by YouGov, found that only 7% of people believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception during the daytime on a weekday.
Continue reading...Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistenly managed, according to Nice
Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.
PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.
Continue reading...British-born, older men among those most likely to have disease found only postmortem, say researchers
One person a week dies with undiagnosed and therefore untreated tuberculosis in England, a study has found.
British-born, older men were among those most likely to have TB diagnosed only after death, researchers said, suggesting healthcare workers could be overlooking the possibility of the disease in these patients.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says 1.5m vulnerable people not getting the right care, as specialism is ‘consistently undermined’
The specialist learning-disability nurse workforce is in “absolute crisis” with the number of specialist nurses falling by a third across the UK since 2009, leaving many vulnerable adults with inadequate care, according to a report by the largest nursing union.
The Royal College of Nursing review revealed that the number of learning-disability nurses employed by the NHS has fallen from 7,083 in 2009 to 4,768 in 2026. As a result of these falling numbers, 1.5 million people with learning disabilities were not being provided with their legal right to equitable access to health and care services.
Continue reading...Doctors say therapy that genetically modifies person’s T-cells could offer cure for chronic autoimmune disease
Five lupus patients in England are in remission after being treated with a revolutionary therapy that genetically modifies their own cells, in a medical breakthrough that could offer people a cure, doctors have said.
CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy involves removing a type of white blood cell also called T lymphocytes, which are crucial for hunting out infected or damaged cells, and engineering them to spot and destroy disease. The T-cells are then fed back into the patient via an infusion to reset their immune system.
Continue reading...One in five of the 1.92m patients on list wait longer than six weeks for tests such as CT and MRI scans, analysis shows
A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.
A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.
The diagnostic waiting list has grown by 500,000 since 2022.
It is 83% higher than before the Covid pandemic.
On current trends the waiting list will hit 2 million in March 2027.
Continue reading...Lord Mann’s review prompts new training for health bosses and restrictions on political symbols on uniforms
The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service.
Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and staff “suffer in silence”, a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, has found.
Continue reading...Research suggests NHS trusts with higher empathy ratings also benefit financially and have improved staff wellbeing
Patients and staff fare better at hospitals that rank highly on empathy, research suggests, with institutions also benefiting financially by spending less on agency staff, locums and consultants.
The finding comes from the first study to rate NHS trusts in England according to an empathy score that is drawn from information on the organisation’s culture, leadership behaviour and practitioner empathy, among other factors.
Continue reading...Elahere is first new drug for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer to be approved by NHS for 20 years
Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer can now be offered a new life-prolonging treatment, after NHS England approved its introduction. It is the first new drug for resistant ovarian cancer to be approved for more than 20 years.
Ovarian is the 18th most common type of cancer globally, affecting more than 300,000 women a year. More than three-quarters of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making it harder to treat.
Continue reading...Health secretary announces expansion of Transform trial but does not back population-wide testing
Thousands more black men will be invited to take part in a prostate cancer screening trial as the health secretary insisted he was “following the science” in not backing population-wide testing.
James Murray accepted a recommendation from the UK national screening committee (UKNSC) that will result in only a few thousand high-risk men with a gene mutation being screened for the disease.
Continue reading...NHS bosses giving evidence to public accounts committee admit current position is unacceptable
GPs in England are so “overloaded” that they cannot help older people who are at risk of falling in what NHS bosses accept is an unacceptable failure of care, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has said.
Pressure on GPs’ time has intensified as a result of the government’s decision to give patients online access to their services, according to a report by the influential cross-party group of MPs.
Continue reading...Health organisations refute assertion by Sunbed Association that tanning is protective and warn it could increase risk of skin cancer
The body that represents the UK’s sunbed salons is wrongly insisting that a tan protects against sunburn, even though leading medical bodies (contacted by Full Fact) say that claim is untrue.
Health organisations have challenged the accuracy of information being disseminated by the Sunbed Association, which on its website asks: “Is it true there is no such thing as a safe tan?”
Continue reading...