RECENT NEWS

Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire is inviting innovators with ambitious healthtech solutions to apply for the next cohort of its flagship accelerator programme, supporting businesses to develop, test and scale innovations within the NHS and wider healthcare system.

Prescribing daily aspirin at the first prenatal visit to all pregnant patients was associated with an overall reduction in the development of severe preeclampsia.

​From pandemic preparedness and the rise of obesity drugs to personalised cancer care, infant health and loneliness as a global public health challenge, researchers at the University of Cambridge and beyond will take on some of the most urgent health questions facing the UK during the Cambridge Festival this March.

People across England and Wales are set to receive faster, fairer access to innovative HealthTech under the new National HealthTech Access Programme (NHAP).

The government has accepted advice on eligibility from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programme.

The widest survey of nurses, midwives and nursing associates by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) reveals that over half of respondents (58%) are satisfied in their work – motivated by making a difference to people’s lives.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has warned that obesity in women and people of childbearing age is an urgent and growing public health concern in the UK, and that action must be taken to reduce preventable risks to women and babies.

A Sheffield doctor leading the way in research for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other gut disorders, including those linked to the brain, has won an international award.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published annual coverage data for the HPV vaccination programme for the 2024/25 school year. Uptake has remained relatively stable since the previous report, with around 1 in 4 still leaving school without protection against HPV - missing out on vital protection against cervical cancer for young women and several other HPV-related cancers for both sexes.

Ambulances handed over patients more than 2 minutes faster last month despite facing their busiest January since before COVID-19. Provisional figures show there were 420,324 ambulances handovers with known times in January, the highest number for the month since 2020 and a 5.2% increase compared to 399,415 in January last year.

The government has acknowledged that cancer mortality rates in the UK are much higher than in other, comparable countries and has published a comprehensive National Cancer Plan to help drive improvement.

​Nuffield Health is celebrating a major accreditation in infection prevention, as more than 90 of its hospitals, medical centres, and even fitness and wellbeing clubs achieve the Gold standard in Aseptic Non Touch Technique (ANTT).

A wireless sensor the size of a paperclip could transform care for people living with chronic heart failure, enabling them to monitor their condition daily from home and catch warning signs before they become emergencies, NICE has said.

National charity Kidney Cancer UK has published the results of its 12th annual patient survey, revealing the stark reality of a kidney cancer diagnosis in the UK. The findings of the report show that one in five (20%) kidney cancer patients are now diagnosed at the most advanced stage of the disease, reflecting the growing mortality rate over recent decades, increasing by 73% since the 1970s.

The Central Sterilising Club (CSC) will consider risk at its Annual Scientific Conference. This year’s Kelsey Lecturer is Professor Didier Pittet. As WHO’s global ambassador for “Clean Care is Safe Care,” he led on the adoption of alcohol-based hand hygiene across the world. But how safe is safe care when applied to decontamination practice?

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says that the government has failed to tackle the issue of clinical negligence – despite repeated warnings for over two decades.

​Artificial intelligence (AI)-supported mammography identifies more cancers during screening and reduces the rate of breast cancer diagnosis by 12% in the years following, finds the first randomised controlled trial of its kind involving over 100,000 Swedish women published in The Lancet journal.

​Nuffield Health and GE HealthCare have launched a major new diagnostic hub at Nuffield Health The Manor Hospital in Oxford. Equipped with the latest generation of imaging technology from GE HealthCare, the hub will expand access to provide faster, more accurate and advanced diagnostics for people from the local community.

A team led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has succeeded in identifying biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease in its earliest stages, before extensive brain damage has occurred.

​NHS England has announced it is to lower the threshold for a home-screening kit to trigger urgent cancer testing from February 2026, with the NHS checking thousands more people identified with even smaller traces of blood in their stool samples.