Gareth Iacobucci

Further escalation by GPs in collective action against changes to doctors’ contracts has been postponed. Instead, the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee in England (GPCE) said it will re-enter “bilateral” contract talks with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England as part of a reset of relations with officials. GPCE has been engaged in collective action since March, after GPs in England voted by 99% to reject the government’s changes to their contract for 2026-27.1 This action has included asking practices to stop signing up to voluntary data sharing agreements,2 switching off non-contractual medicines optimisation software,3 and rejecting what the GPCE labelled …

England’s most affluent areas have seen the fastest rise in the proportion of young people receiving benefits to support them with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, a new analysis suggests. The think tank the Nuffield Trust examined how Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipient rates for 16 to 17 year olds in England changed between 2019 and 2025 in areas of different levels of deprivation.1 It found that across England the number of 16 to 17 year olds with autism and ADHD who received PIP rose substantially to 51 148 (3.4% of that age group), from 16 045 (1.3%) in 2019. Recipient rates were highest in more deprived areas, where insecure employment and low educational achievement are more common. But growth has been faster in the wealthiest areas, the analysis found. PIP is a welfare benefit available to working age people with long term illnesses and disabilities to help them cover additional living costs. Claimants do not need a formal diagnosis and do …

UK officials are expanding wastewater and environmental surveillance to detect more dangerous pathogens that they say pose a significant public health threat. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that the new tool, called PRISM (Pathogen Risk Intelligence through Surveillance and Modelling), can detect multiple known and unknown threats from a single sample using sophisticated detection technologies. This contrasts with existing UK wastewater surveillance schemes that only target specific diseases such as polio. As part of the expansion, surveillance will be extended beyond traditional large wastewater sites to new settings such as hospitals, transport hubs, and other high footfall locations. …

Scotland saw a spike in deaths related to drug use last year—with a fifth of deaths linked to a group of highly potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes. Drug use deaths in Scotland rose by 11% (116 deaths) to 1133 in 2025, figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS) show.1 This means that Scotland continues to have the highest rate of deaths from drug use in Europe. However, the substances responsible for the deaths are changing. In 2025 more than a fifth of deaths (247, 22%) were linked to nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids that can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin. This was more than triple the number of deaths linked to these drugs in 2024. The NRS noted that etonitazene—the most common of …

Safety warnings about antidepressants are to be strengthened to emphasise to doctors and patients the risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and sexual dysfunction. The regulator the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is introducing the measures after a major review. This was initiated after patients and families raised concerns about the way the two key risks were currently communicated in patient information leaflets. However, some experts said the addition of the warnings didn’t “go far enough.” More than nine million people in England are estimated to take antidepressants.1 The drugs are commonly prescribed to treat the symptoms of depression along and also other conditions such as migraine, neuropathic pain, and anxiety. Following the review, patient information leaflets for antidepressants will be updated to include …

Sound advice. But examining them could actually be enlightening, scientists say. A new research project is aiming to reveal the connection between speedy digestion and quick thinking. Yes. The experts, from the University of Southampton, have come up with a toilet test that allows people to time how quickly their bodies digest an edible muffin made with blue dye. Once participants’ poo turns blue from the dye, they will be asked to play online games …

As the UK experienced its hottest summer on record, health services struggled to cope. Gareth Iacobucci reports This summer was the busiest ever for the NHS, officials have said.1 Record breaking heatwaves exceeding 38°C piled pressure on services and tested ailing infrastructure to the limit. Such was the danger that in June that officials issued “red” heat health alerts,2 reserved for the most life threatening events. This was only the second time these alerts have been triggered since the system was established in 2004. As the mercury soared, a string of NHS trusts declared critical incidents as hospitals struggled to cope.3 With extreme heat now a common occurrence in the UK, health leaders warn that the NHS is now facing a twin summer and winter crisis that requires an equal level of planning. BMA council chair Tom Dolphin said, “This summer was the worst yet, but going forward this won’t be exceptional, it will be the norm. Record temperatures coupled with long term underresourcing in health systems resulted in an NHS reaching boiling point.” “Extreme heat meant more people needed the NHS and services, only to be met with a system that does not have enough staff or the physical infrastructure to cope with such high temperatures.” But what do the data show about pressures this summer, and how did they compare with winter? A record 7.3 million people attended hospital emergency departments from June to August, data from NHS England show.4 Notably, this figure was almost 7.5% higher than the 6.8 million recorded last winter (December to February). This summer, the NHS also saw 1.6 million emergency department admissions, and although this was marginally lower than summer 2025 (1.62 million) it was higher than last winter (1.58 million). Reacting, Royal College of Emergency Medicine president …

Government failures to protect people in care settings during the pandemic led to “devastating consequences,” a damning report from the UK Covid Inquiry has concluded. The inquiry’s sixth report1 examined the impact of the pandemic on the publicly and privately funded adult social care sector across the UK. In her report the inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, concluded that the sector had “appeared to be something of an afterthought” during prior planning and response during the early stage of the pandemic—and that action to protect it came too late. More than 43 000 deaths involving covid-19 were recorded in care homes from March 2020 to July 2022. The report examines key areas, including infection prevention, visiting restrictions, the experiences of the care workforce, and decisions on discharge from hospitals. “The failures set out in this report created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire,” said Hallett. In May 2020 the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, claimed that the UK government had tried to throw “a protective ring” around care homes “right from the start.”2 But the report says that this “does not accurately reflect the lack of action” taken to protect care homes in March and …

Competition for NHS specialty training posts eased substantially for UK graduates in 2026, official data show. This follows new legislation to prioritise UK medical graduates over international medical graduates (IMGs) for posts in response to concerns about increasing competition.1 The BMA, which pushed for the law change, welcomed the figures. The NHS figures show that overall there were 39 387 applicants for 10 682 posts across all training levels in 2026, or 3.69 per post.2 But this fell to 1.86 per post for the priority applicant group—mostly UK graduates—who benefited from the Medical Training Prioritisation Act, which officially became law in March. Data show that applicants in the priority group—UK and Irish graduates and those from other European Economic Area (EEA) countries with which the UK has an agreement—accounted for around half of all applicants and applications to specialty training in 2026 (19 908 of 39 387).3 …

An all male panel at an international conference for breast surgeons has sparked outrage among senior doctors. The 14 member panel at the London Breast Meeting (LBM), staged last month, was described as “shameful” by commentators but has been defended by the organisers. The LBM describes itself as an international meeting dedicated to advancing the field of breast surgery through collaboration, innovation, and education. “With a rich history of bringing together leading surgeons, practitioners, and experts from around the world, our mission is to foster excellence in breast surgery and patient care,” it says. But a photograph of the all male panel (or “manel”) has prompted much criticism online. In a LinkedIn thread, Stella Vig, consultant surgeon and NHS England’s former medical director for secondary care said, “This is not a good look!”1 Helen Cocks, head and neck and endocrine surgeon said it was “shameful.” “It is not a reflection of a leaky pipeline but shows a lack of any engagement or understanding of any basic EDI principles,” she …