Radiographers voice concerns about being filmed without consent and say trend could violate other patients’ privacy
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.
Continue reading...High numbers of staff leaving because of high pressure, lack of support, verbal abuse, long shifts and low pay, union says
NHS call handlers are quitting amid burnout at dealing with 999 calls about suicides, stabbings and shootings and the long delays before ambulances reach patients.
The pressure is so intense that 27% of control room staff in ambulance services across Britain have left their jobs over the last three years, NHS figures show.
Continue reading...Government announces £9m funding to make specialist blood machines more widely available across NHS
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.
Continue reading...Nottingham university hospitals is subject of maternity care investigation involving nearly 2,500 cases
A missing data file containing the details of hundreds of maternity cases was most likely deleted “intentionally or maliciously”, a police investigation has concluded.
Nottinghamshire police began an investigation in February into the temporary loss of the computer file at Nottingham university hospitals (NUH) NHS trust.
Continue reading...Chancellor still at negotiating table on Sunday as Home Office demands more cas
Rachel Reeves has been locked in a standoff over the policing and council budgets just days before this week’s spending review, which is set to give billions to the NHS, defence and technology.
Yvette Cooper’s Home Office and Angela Rayner’s housing and local government ministry were the two departments still at the negotiating table on Sunday fighting for more cash, after weeks of trying to reach a settlement.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Letter from six top figures says more walkouts by junior colleagues would help those who oppose the NHS
Six senior figures in England’s medical profession have criticised potential strikes by resident doctors as “a futile gesture” that will harm patients and help those who oppose the NHS.
The move is the first public evidence of the significant unease many senior doctors feel about the possibility of their junior colleagues staging a new campaign of industrial action in England.
Continue reading...Move is part of £450m Wes Streeting plan to tackle long delays and end hospital overcrowding
Hundreds of thousands of patients needing urgent medical help will be treated in settings other than A&E as part of a drive to cut “corridor care” and avoid another NHS winter crisis.
The move is a central plank of a government plan to improve urgent and emergency care in England, tackle the long delays many patients face in A&E and banish overcrowding in hospitals.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government-ordered review concludes term in NHS should be changed because of risks to patients’ safety
Physician associates in the NHS will be renamed to stop patients mistaking them for doctors after a review found that their title caused widespread confusion.
Thousands of physician associates who work in hospitals and GP surgeries across the UK take medical histories, examine patients and diagnose illnesses but are not doctors.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Cost-saving for 2024-25 follows pledge by Wes Streeting to cut the amount going to agencies by 30%
Spending on agency staff across the NHS in England dropped by almost £1bn in the last financial year, ministers have said, after a pledge by Wes Streeting to cut the amount going to agencies by 30%.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, the total spent by trusts on agency staff during 2024-25 was nearly £1bn lower than the previous year.
Continue reading...PM on trip to announce increased cooperation against people smugglers alongside Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama
All Commons Speakers, at least for the past 30 years, have complained about the government making major announcements to the media first, and not to parliament first. But rarely have any of them sounded quite as furious about this as Lindsay Hoyle, who this morning delivered an extended reprimand to the government about this at the start of an urgent question.
The UQ was about plans to limit the use of prison recall – something announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, at a press conference yesterday, while the Commons was still sitting. After pointing this out, and reminding MPs that details of the immigration white paper were given to the media extensively, long before the ministerial statement about it was delivered in the Commons on Monday, Hoyle went on to imply that, as well as regularly breaking the ministerial code, ministers were also guilty of hypocrisy. He said:
I note that those who now occupy senior ministerial roles were not slow to complain when the previous government made major policy announcements outside this house.
I will continue to uphold and defend the rights of this house, the rights of backbenchers, to be here, and hear it first, the most important announcements of government policy, and the right of honourable members to question ministers on those announcements in person.
When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.
If the government is not going to take the ministerial code seriously, who will?
I’ve got to say, I don’t like this. I believe I am here to represent all backbenchers and backbenchers have the right to ask questions. I’m not interested in Sky News or the BBC or political programmes. I’m here to defend all of you. I will continue to defend. Please do not take MPs for granted. It is not acceptable.
Continue reading...About 300 families may not have been told whether children carry trait for genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease
Hundreds of families in Nottinghamshire have potentially been left unaware of whether their babies may be carriers of certain genetic blood disorders, the second such NHS error to come to light since the start of this year.
About 300 families whose children were born between 2004 and September 2024 in Bassetlaw and mid-Nottinghamshire were identified by the NHS as being affected.
Continue reading...Exclusive: RCN’s Nicola Ranger says nurses could ‘bare our teeth’ as they seek restoration of lost earnings
Nurses deserve a 25% pay rise and may go on strike again unless ministers dramatically improve their “completely unacceptable” 2.8% offer to NHS staff, the profession’s leader has said.
Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses wanted full restoration of lost earnings and could “bare our teeth” in pursuit of that goal.
Continue reading...Trusts having to ‘think the previously unthinkable’ to make savings demanded by new NHS England boss
Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make “eye-watering” savings demanded by NHS bosses.
Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapies services cut and beds for end-of-life care reduced as part of efforts by England’s 215 NHS trusts to comply with a “financial reset”.
47% were cutting services and another 43% were considering doing so.
37% were cutting clinical posts and a further 40% may follow suit.
26% were closing some services and 55% more may do so.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Can a partial U-turn on the winter fuel allowance help the party set a new agenda – and keep support for Nigel Farage at bay?
Good morning. After Reform UK’s resounding success in last week’s local elections, Keir Starmer has faced relentless questions over how Labour will change tack to deal with the problem. Now, we may have the beginning of an answer.
On the front page of today’s Guardian, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report that Downing Street is seriously rethinking the cuts to the winter fuel payment – the policy that above all others summarised Starmer and Rachel Reeves’s shaky start to life in government. While a full reversal is not on the cards, No 10 sources say that the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance could be increased in the autumn.
Israel-Gaza war | Israel is to expand its military operations in Gaza in the coming weeks, with the aim of “conquering” and establishing a “sustained presence” in the Palestinian territory, Israeli officials have said.
Film | Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on movies made outside the US could wipe out the UK film industry, ministers have been warned, as they came under immediate pressure to prioritise the issue in trade talks with the White House.
Charities | Macmillan Cancer Support is to scrap its £14m-a-year specialist advice service, which helps tens of thousands of people every year, in what has been described as a betrayal of vulnerable patients. With the charity’s income falling behind its expenditure, it said that the service was no longer sustainable.
Wildfires | After the warmest start to May on record, a wildfire has destroyed about 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres) of moorland on Dartmoor in Devon. Emergency services were called to the blaze at about 2.25pm on Sunday, and firefighters spent almost 24 hours at the scene before it was extinguished on Monday.
VE Day | The UK marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day with military pomp before large crowds who had gathered in central London. The royal family and war veterans were among the attendees at a 1,300-strong military procession while street parties were held around the UK.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Too many people at risk of becoming ‘martyrs’ by not getting symptoms checked as they do not want to burden health service, report warns
Too many people are at risk of becoming “martyrs” by not getting symptoms of cancer checked out because they do not want to burden the NHS, warns a report, which calls for earlier testing to diagnose those at higher risk.
The report, by the health consultancy Incisive Health, sets out ways in which the NHS in England can catch more cancers early and thus save lives by becoming more of an “early intervention service”. It comes as the government draws up its first dedicated cancer strategy since 2015.
Continue reading...Cancer 360 will help collate patient information from spreadsheets, emails and records into single digital system
Millions of cancer patients have been promised faster diagnosis and treatment, with the rollout of a new technology across the NHS in England.
The tool, called Cancer 360, is designed to bring cancer patients’ data into one central system in order that doctors and nurses can prioritise those most in need and see them more quickly.
Continue reading...Linzagolix hailed as a possible ‘gamechanger’ in tackling the painful condition for some patients in England
More than 1,000 women a year in England could benefit from a new pill for endometriosis.
The condition occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body, such as the pelvis, bladder and bowel. It can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, extreme tiredness and fertility problems.
Continue reading...Up to 15,000 could be given nivolumab in injectable form to treat 15 cancers including lung, bowel and skin cancer
Up to 15,000 cancer patients a year could be treated with a quick injection, NHS England has announced.
It is the first health service in Europe to offer patients the injectable form of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab.
Continue reading...New accreditation for PAs and anaesthesia associates is ‘important milestone’ for patient assurance, regulator says
More than 1,000 physician associates (PAs) could begin their careers in the NHS every year after regulators approved dozens of courses to teach them.
The General Medical Council (GMC) said it had given 36 courses formal approval to teach PAs and anaesthesia associates (AAs).
Overall, these courses had capacity for up to 1,059 PAs and 42 AAs to qualify each year.
The GMC said approving training courses would mean that “patients, employers and colleagues can be assured that PAs and AAs have the required knowledge and skills to practise safely once they qualify”.
PAs are graduates – usually with a health or life sciences degree – who have undertaken two years of postgraduate training.
According to the NHS, PAs work under the supervision of a doctor and can diagnose people, take medical histories, perform physical examinations, see patients with long-term conditions, analyse test results and develop management plans.
There were calls for more clarity in the PA role and better patient protection after the death of Emily Chesterton, 30, in November 2022 from a pulmonary embolism.
Chesterton was misdiagnosed by a PA in London on two occasions who said her calf pain was a sprain, when she actually had a blood clot.
Most associates work in GP surgeries, acute medicine and emergency medicine while AAs work as part of the anaesthesia and wider surgical team.
The GMC, which took over the regulation of PAs and AAs in December, said it had approved 33 PA courses.
Four of these – at Bradford, Greater Manchester, Queen Mary University of London and Sheffield Hallam – had been approved with “conditions” after some concerns were identified during the approval process.
The GMC said each of these courses had a “targeted action plan” in place to address concerns.
The regulator did not approve the course at the University of East London.
There are only three courses for AAs – in Birmingham, University College London and Lancaster – that were all approved, the GMC said.
Prof Colin Melville, the GMC’s medical director and director of education and standards, said: “This is an important milestone in the regulation of PAs and AAs and will provide assurance, now and in the future, that those who qualify in these roles have the appropriate skills and knowledge that patients rightly expect and deserve.
“As a regulator, patient safety is paramount, and we have a robust quality assurance process for PA and AA courses, as we do for medical schools. We have been engaging with course providers for several years already, and we only grant approval where they meet our high standards.”
In November, Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, announced an independent review of the PA and AA professions led by Prof Gillian Leng, the president of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “The formal accreditation of the courses of study that PAs and AAs must complete is an essential component of regulation and public safety.
“We await the outcome of the Leng review but recognise that individual NHS organisations also have a responsibility to support PAs and AAs to both use their knowledge safely with patients, and to ensure appropriate professional development and supervision.”
Prof Phil Banfield, the council chair at the British Medical Association, said it was “difficult to understand” how the GMC could approve the courses when the Leng review into PAs and AAs has not concluded.
He added: “The medical profession has alarming worries about the quality and robustness of these courses, with reports of exams with 100% pass rates.
“We have made doctors’ concerns clear in our submission to the Leng review, which includes a call for an independent body of doctors, without links to course providers, to determine proportionate and safe expectations of what can be covered in curricula for assistant roles within a two-year training period.”
PA Media contributed to this report
PM says supporters of both groups are being misled and a tie-up would be a ‘disaster’ for Britain. This live blog is closed
Downing Street has described the alleged comments by the band Kneecap in the ‘kill MP’ footage (see 12.10pm) as “completely unacceptable”.
At the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson described the comments as “completely unacceptable”.
We do not think individuals expressing those views should be receiving government funding.
That’s up to the group, but clearly the PM rejects the views expressed … does not shy away from condemning them.
I don’t want to see strike action, I don’t think anybody wants to see strike action.
And certainly here we are in a healthcare environment with all the staff working really hard. The last thing they want to do is to go into dispute again.
Continue reading...