The NHS has announced that millions of children in England will be offered a flu vaccine as of September 2023 as part of its “life-saving” vaccination programme to protect the country against deadly viruses ahead of winter. School-aged children will receive the flu vaccine either at school or at community clinics, and those who are aged two and three years or have long-term health condition will be offered the vaccine at GP surgeries. The rollout follows the NHS’s winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme to provide protection to those eligible from developing serious illnesses and minimise hospitalisations during the winter months. Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said: “Vaccinations are our best defence against flu and COVID-19 ahead of what could be a very challenging winter.” By prioritising flu vaccinations for children, the NHS aims to “break the chain of transmission” to the wider population. Earlier this month, ...
The NHS has announced that almost a million more people (900,000) will become eligible for a shingles vaccination with the newly available vaccine, Shingrix, starting in September. The decision was made after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that the Shingrix vaccine be given to a wider cohort of people after trials showed that the vaccine was highly effective and safe for people in those groups. Shingles is an infection that can occur at any age. It causes a rash that can be extremely painful and the pain can remain for many years after the rash has disappeared. Although it cannot be transmitted from other people, it develops in people who have previously been infected with chickenpox over their lifetime. Studies have shown that nine out of ten adults are already infected with the virus that causes shingles, and around one in four ...
• IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES By Michelle Roberts Digital health editor https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65775159 A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer has shown real promise in a major NHS trial, researchers say. The test correctly revealed two out of every three cancers among 5,000 people who had visited their GP with suspected symptoms, in England or Wales. In 85% of those positive cases, it also pinpointed the original site of cancer. The Galleri test looks for distinct changes in bits of genetic code that leak from different cancers. Spotting treatable cancer early can save lives. • What is the Galleri test? • NHS launches world first trial of blood test for 50 cancer types The test remains very much a “work in progress”, the researchers, from Oxford University, say, but could increase the number of cancers identified. Often, patients have symptoms, such as weight loss, with a range of possible ...
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES By Nick Triggle Health correspondent Hospitals in England have failed to hit key targets to tackle the backlogs in cancer care and routine treatment. Waiting times show too many patients were still facing long waits at the end of March. The targets were to eliminate 18-month waits for planned care, such as knee and hip replacements, and to bring 62-day cancer waits to pre-pandemic levels. NHS England said huge progress had been made, particularly on routine care. The numbers waiting more than 18 months for treatment peaked in September 2021 at nearly 125,000. By the end of March, just over 10,700 were waiting that long – but NHS England said about 4,000 of them were complex cases or patients who had been offered treatment but had chosen to wait. Half of the people were concentrated in 10 NHS trusts. Overall, there are now a record 7.3 million ...
Ending performance-related payments for NHS GPs in Scotland was associated with a decline in the quality of some aspects of care compared with England where financial incentives have continued, finds a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers say further research is needed to better understand the full impact of withdrawal and the accompanying refocusing of quality improvement resources. The NHS Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) pay-for-performance scheme began in 2004. It was designed to remunerate general practices for providing good quality care across a range of key areas such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental health, and obesity. In 2016, Scotland abolished the QOF to reduce the bureaucratic burden on GPs and to free-up their time for patients, but continued collecting performance data for some QOF indicators for the next three years. Researchers were therefore able to use this data to evaluate the impact of ...
The pharmaceutical company that makes Wegovy slimming jabs is funding the expansion of weight-loss services across England as it seeks to boost sales of its obesity drugs, the Observer can reveal. Novo Nordisk is paying the salaries of staff on NHS obesity teams and financing the launch and redesign of services, including giving £206,000 to a health partnership to transform its treatment of obesity. The Danish firm also has financial links to the co-chair of an NHS England weight management advisory group, and paid her almost £50,000 in lecture, consulting and other fees in just two years. Novo Nordisk’s funding arrangements are under the spotlight after an Observer investigation in March found it had paid £21.7m to UK health organisations and professionals in three years before the approval of its Wegovy injections for NHS use. In some cases, recipients of the funding went on to praise Wegovy or support its approval for use on the NHS without ...
The state of clinical trials in the NHS is “much worse than it has been in years” with patients losing access to cutting-edge cancer and dementia treatments, one of the UK’s most senior clinicians has warned. Sir John Bell, the regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford and a government life sciences adviser, said the UK’s approach needed “a full overhaul, top to bottom” to prevent a collapse in the number of clinical trials being conducted in the NHS. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that companies are choosing not to evaluate their drugs in the UK,” he said. “The risks [to patients] are much bigger than have been alluded to.” The intervention comes after the government launched an independent review led by the former health minister James O’Shaughnessy into why the NHS had seen a 44% drop in participants recruited to commercial clinical trials in the past five years. The UK is rapidly ...
Thrive, a wellbeing approved for use by the NHS, has raising a total of £2.5m in funding in only ten days, the digital health company has announced. The latest funding round attracted investment from the Sumerian Foundation and Treebeard Trust, as well as from investment platforms such as Syndicate Room and Wealth Club. In a statement, Thrive said it would use the new funding to research and identify further areas of help that it can support and also develop the tech platform further. This will include increased integration with existing medical data, with the aim of giving users ‘seamless’ access to mental health care. Currently, the app provides whole-person solutions for workplaces and individuals, and is designed to help users overcome periods of stress while supporting long-term mental health. It uses clinical-grade, evidence-based techniques to achieve this, while also providing in-app access to trained therapists. The company was initially launched ...
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved NHS funding for four new medicines, including treatments for multiple myeloma and severe migraine in its April 2020 decisions. Firstly, Sanofi’s Sarclisa (isatuximab) has been accepted by the SMC for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, in combination with two other medicines – pomalidomide and dexamethasone. This treatment was accepted following consideration through the SMC’s Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) process, which is used for medicines for end of life and rare conditions. Another medication developed by Sanofi – Dupixent (dupilumab) – was also accepted for use on NHS Scotland, for the treatment of a subgroup of patients with severe asthma. Dupixent will be offered as an option for patients with severe asthma who do not fully respond to standard treatment and require more intensive therapies, such as oral corticosteroids, to control their symptoms. “This is a very positive day for ...
The NHS has announced that thousands of people will benefit from the extension of ‘COVID-friendly’ cancer treatments which can be taken at home. Since April, approximately 8,000 people have benefitted from treatment swaps, to enable cancer treatment to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 250,000 people beginning treatment for cancer since the start of the pandemic. The NHS will continue to fund effective and ‘less risky treatment[s]’ for patients during the pandemic, with access to these drugs now extended until summer and potentially continuing until the end of March 2022. Among the options available are targeted hormone therapies such as enzalutamide (Xtandi; Astellas/Pfizer) for prostate cancer and broadened use of lenalidomide (Revlimid; Bristol Myers Squibb) for myeloma. Some ovarian cancer patients will also be able to receive trametinib (Mekinist; Novartis) as a tablet alternative to chemotherapy, to help reduce the impact on their immune systems. “Cancer has been a priority throughout ...
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