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.
- Guidance: National medicines optimisation opportunities 2024/25 [16/2].
- Guidance: Tackling the uptake challenge: a review of progress and next steps – a review of progress and next steps in the NHS Breast Screening Programme [19/2].
- Report: Community Mental Health Survey 2024: national qualitative report [20/2].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Press release: Parents urged to protect children through vaccination campaign [16/2].
- Press release: £400 cash boost for disabled adults to tackle cost of living [17/2].
- Press release: New technology and medicines to combat drug and alcohol addiction [19/2].
UK Health Security Agency
- News: Yellow cold health alert issued for 7 regions of England [17/2].
- Guidance: Cold mortality monitoring report, England: quality and methodology information [18/2].
- News: Norovirus cases continue to remain stable but high [19/2].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Standard: Implementation of medical devices future regime [16/2].
- News: MHRA launches a consultation on indefinite recognition of CE-marked medical devices [16/2].
- Guidance: Clinical trials for medicines: modifying a clinical trial approval [17/2].
- Press release: UK medical device testing hits record high as MHRA backs growth in brain and AI technology [19/2].
- Guidance: Regulating medical devices in the UK [20/2].
BMA
- Press release: Overpayment errors show ‘astonishing incompetence’ leaving doctors to face stress and anxiety, says BMA [17/2].
- Press release: BMA responds to Employment Rights Act reforms, urging further action from Government [18/2].
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- What would it take to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy? [20/2].
- This blog explains that healthy life expectancy in England has stagnated and varies dramatically between regions, with people in the poorest areas living around 18 fewer years in good health than those in the most affluent. To halve this gap, major improvements are needed in regions such as the North East and Yorkshire, particularly in self‑reported health, which accounts for over 70% of the regional differences. While mortality rates matter, the biggest driver is how people experience and manage daily life with physical and mental health issues—something strongly shaped by deprivation, job quality, housing, financial security and local environments. Reducing the gap will require comprehensive action across prevention, long‑term condition management, and, crucially, improving the social and economic conditions in disadvantaged communities.
Nuffield Trust
- Will the recent raft of policy developments in palliative and end of life care make a difference for patients? [19/2].
- This article explains that while recent attention on assisted dying has highlighted end‑of‑life issues, several broader policy developments are underway that could meaningfully improve palliative and end‑of‑life care. These include the government’s 10‑year health plan promoting shifts toward prevention, community‑based services, and digital care; planning guidance that prioritises people at the end of life within neighbourhood health teams; and new requirements for Integrated Care Boards to better understand service use and costs. These changes aim to improve coordination across the NHS, social care, and hospices—areas where families currently struggle with fragmentation—though gaps remain, such as the lack of guaranteed 24/7 specialist palliative care. A modern service framework is also being developed to support more consistent planning and commissioning across England.
The King’s Fund
- England’s first men’s health strategy: will system design still leave some men behind? [19/2].
- England’s first men’s health strategy marks a long‑overdue national commitment to tackling men’s poorer health outcomes and lower engagement with services. This blog highlights that while the strategy sets an important vision, its success will depend on transforming how health systems are designed, particularly for men facing intersecting disadvantages such as deprivation, minority ethnicity, disability or insecure work. These groups bear a disproportionate burden of preventable ill health and often disengage not because of individual attitudes, but because services are built around assumptions that don’t match their lived realities. The article argues that focusing on system design—rather than solely on changing men’s behaviour—and applying intersectionality in practical ways will be crucial to ensure the strategy leads to genuinely healthier, longer lives for the men currently least well served.
General Medical Council
- GMC welcomes judgment following appeal by British Medical Association [20/2].
- The GMC has welcomed a Court of Appeal decision on 20 February 2026 that fully dismissed the British Medical Association’s (BMA) appeal challenging the regulator’s use of the term “medical professionals” in its core guidance, Good medical practice. The BMA had argued that applying this terminology—and the same professional standards—to doctors, physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) was inappropriate. The Court rejected all grounds of appeal, confirming the GMC acted lawfully and within its powers, noting that the term does not confer a protected title, has not misled patients, and accurately reflects the regulated roles of PAs and AAs. The GMC expressed regret that the matter reached litigation but welcomed the clarity and finality of the judgment.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
- Article: Clinicians could see more patients and offer them an enhanced experience by adopting a pioneering AI-powered tool successfully tested in hospitals [20/2].
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust