This report is a flexible summary, with the aim of sharing and highlighting a wide range of data and policy information relating to London general practice published in a given week. Where we view information to be of significant interest it is reproduced directly below the links to make the key points quicker to digest.
Please feel free to share any useful stats/links you think we could include in future reports.
Official bodies
NHS Digital
- All recent data releases can be seen here.
- Service: Specialised services for infectious diseases (adults) [11/2].
- Reports: Education quality assurance reports: London [13/2].
- Guidance: Engagement report – for sight testing and dispensing of spectacles to SEND children and young people in a special educational setting across England [14/2].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance:Public health grants to local authorities: 2025 to 2026 [11/2].
- Press release: UK-backed AI companies to transform British cancer care and spark new drug breakthroughs [11/2].
- Guidance:Guidance for government engagement with the tobacco industry [11/2].
- Press release: World-leading AI trial to tackle breast cancer launched [13/2].
- Guidance:DHSC public appointments: 2024 to 2025 [14/2].
UK Health Security Agency
- News:Increase in HIV testing in community settings [11/2].
- Guidance: Confirmed cases of mpox clade Ib in United Kingdom [13/2].
- Guidance:National flu immunisation programme plan 2025 to 2026 [13/2].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Exceptions and modifications to the EU guidance on good pharmacovigilance practices that apply to UK MAHs and the MHRA [11/2].
- Guidance:Importing investigational medicinal products into Great Britain from approved countries[12/2].
- Press release: Medical imaging agent gozetotide approved for diagnosis of prostate cancer [12/2].
Infected Blood Compensation Authority
- Press release: Infected blood compensation payments to be scaled up in 2025 [10/2].
BMA
- Press release:BMA takes GMC to court over blurring of lines between doctors and physician associates [12/2].
Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- NHS nursing apprenticeships – breaking down barriers to nursing careers? [13/2].
- The NHS is a major employer of apprentices. In 2023/24, around 20,000 people started an apprenticeship in the NHS, equivalent to 1 in 4 (29%) of the new apprenticeships across the public sector. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published in 2023, projected a major expansion in the use of apprenticeships, with an aim to increase the share of nurses trained through apprenticeships from 9% in 2022/23 to 28% in 2030/31.
- Along with improving recruitment and retention, a major rationale for expanding apprenticeships was widening access to clinical training to those from a broader range of backgrounds and to people living in underserved areas.
- How do we make a success of Artificial Intelligence in health? [17/2].
- Hetan Shah, Chief Executive Officer of the British Academy, says developing AI interventions will require meaningfully involving the public, investing in data and IT, and adopting proven technology worthy of our trust.
- The government recently published it’s AI Opportunities Action Plan with a view to ‘mainlining AI into the veins’ of the nation. Given this major political focus on AI, it is timely to review how we enable its successful adoption in health. Especially given the UK’s poor record on the digital transformation of public services.
Care Quality Commission
- New self-assessment and improvement framework for integrated care systems to address health inequalities through engagement with people and communities [12/2].
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC), in partnership with National Voices and the Point of Care Foundation, has developed a self-assessment and improvement framework.
- The aim of the framework is to support integrated care systems (ICSs) to improve how they tackle health inequalities through honest conversations, gathering insights and developing practical actions through engagement linked to people and community strategies. The project was supported by funding from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund (RPF).
Nuffield Trust
- Autism and ADHD: a Q&A with Thea Stein [13/2].
- There has been a lot of recent interest in the rising demand for NHS autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) services. In this Q&A, Thea Stein shares her thoughts on how big the problem is and whether there is a way to improve it.
- ‘The latest figures on autism waiting times published today are striking, but they’re sadly not surprising any more. As we showed in our analysis last April, the unprecedented rise in demand for NHS autism and ADHD services has completely overtaken the system’s capacity to meet people’s needs.’
- NHS provider deficits are back: how bad is the situation? [12/2].
- The fragile state of NHS provider finances has often been well publicised, even if those finances have not made quite the same headlines in the past few years. As Sally Gainsbury and Sophie Julian point out, however, provider deficits are certainly back, which raises questions about how feasible it is to hold down health care spending while increasing activity and performance standards.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust