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.
- Standard: Martha’s Rule: core standards – Martha’s Rule has now been included in the NHS Standard Contract [2/3].
- Guidance: Standardising community health services – core component descriptions [3/3].
- Report: National Qualitative Insight – Urgent and Emergency Care 2024 [4/3].
- NHS Standard Contract: 2025/26 NHS Standard Contract and final 2026/27 NHS Standard Contract: Comparison documents [4/3].
- Report: Children and young people’s patient experience survey 2024: national qualitative report [4/3].
- Guidance: Guidance on developing the joint forward plan [5/3].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance: Adult social care provider statistics, England: background quality and methodology [5/3].
- Correspondence: Letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to Baroness Casey [5/3].
- The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care responds to Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s recommendations for immediate action on adult social care.
UK Health Security Agency
- Guidance: One Health vector-borne disease surveillance [2/3].
- Guidance: Complete routine immunisation schedule [2/3].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Early Access to Medicines Scheme: Overview – EAMS aims to give patients with life threatening or seriously debilitating conditions early access to medicines that show early signs of having a major advantage over existing therapeutics [2/3].
- Standard: Implementation of medical devices future regime [2/3].
- Press release: Man jailed for ten years for convictions including selling prescription-only medicines worth more than £3.7million [3/3].
- Press release: UK sets out world‑leading pathway for space‑manufactured drugs [5/3].
BMA
- Press release: ‘Corridor care’ definition a small step forward in recognising scale of issue in hospitals, says BMA [4/3].
- Press release: Bupa reports soaring profits as patient choice in private healthcare continues to shrink, says BMA [5/3].
- Press release: BMA welcomes passage of the Prioritisation Act but warns further action is needed to fix the UK’s medical training crisis [5/3].
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- AI in health care must earn the public’s confidence [4/3].
- This blog argues that while the UK government’s 10‑Year Health Plan envisions a more technologically enabled NHS—with AI supporting tasks such as analysing results, dictating notes, creating summaries and predicting risks—successful adoption depends on earning and maintaining public confidence.
- To explore what the public values when difficult trade‑offs arise, the Health Foundation surveyed 8,000 UK adults. The findings show a consistent pattern: people prioritise safety, strong oversight, and reliable evidence over accelerating AI adoption or pursuing economic benefits. For example, 71% of respondents prefer stricter AI regulations even if it risks deterring developers, compared with only 29% who would support looser rules to encourage investment. This indicates limited public support for framing AI policy around competitiveness or economic growth. Overall, the blog concludes that deploying AI in the NHS raises political, ethical, and practical challenges—not just technological ones. Policymakers must recognise that the public expects robust safeguards and transparency. Only by demonstrating trustworthiness and prioritising patient safety can AI meaningfully contribute to the NHS’s long‑term vision.
Ipsos
- Obesity’s hidden toll: seven in ten people living with obesity report life-wide impact – and most still blame themselves [4/3].
- Ipsos’ syndicated Global Perceptions of Obesity Study reveals:
- The weight of blame – 66% believe obesity is preventable through personal choices.
- A revealing contradiction – 63% think diet and exercise alone can solve obesity; 71% still view it as a medical condition needing ongoing management.
- A chronic disease, still treated as a personal failing – 81% have tried or been advised to lose weight; only 35% saw a doctor in the past year; 33% tried a fad diet.
- Healthcare reinforcing outdated narratives – doctor advice focused mainly on lifestyle: healthier eating (60%), more exercise (60%), smaller portions (43%).
- Critical blind spots about health risks – only 53% link obesity to type 2 diabetes; 52% to heart disease; 18% to certain cancers.
- A hidden toll on everyday life -At least 70% report negative impacts on daily life, including confidence (85%), mental wellbeing (83%), and daily responsibilities (76%).
- The local story – patterns are consistent across 14 countries, but with notable national differences in blame, barriers to care, and risk awareness.
YouGov
- Weight loss drugs in Britain: How they’re changing grocery spending, takeaway consumption and food choices [6/3].
- Britons using GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs are significantly reshaping their food spending and eating habits, with YouGov data showing that around 8% have used the medications and 14% would consider them in future. Users report spending less on groceries and takeaways, eating fewer snacks and fast food, and showing reduced interest in junk food, while increasing their intake of vegetables, vitamins, and other nutrient‑dense foods. These shifts are already prompting retailers and food brands to adapt, with supermarkets like M&S, Morrisons, and Ocado introducing product ranges tailored to smaller appetites and higher nutritional needs. Overall, the rise of weight‑loss drugs appears to be steering consumers toward healthier choices and altering broader grocery market dynamics.
Nuffield Trust
- How do NHS staff earnings compare to 15 years ago? [5/3].
- This analysis shows that, despite recent pay uplifts, most NHS staff are still earning less in real terms than they were 15 years ago, with nurses and midwives hit hardest. Real‑terms earnings for key groups have fallen since 2010/11, including nurses (-10.7%) and midwives (-13.5%), as well as consultants (-10.0%), resident doctors (-8.6%) and ambulance staff (-8.1%). While pay has recovered somewhat since the inflation peak of 2022, these groups still lag behind the wider public sector, which saw a smaller real‑terms drop, and the private sector, where earnings rose over the same period.
- Navigating complexity: moral distress among NHS chief executives [3/3].
- NHS chief executives are facing growing moral distress as they navigate record waiting lists, financial pressures, strikes and intense public scrutiny, often knowing the right thing to do but being unable to act due to institutional constraints. This emotional strain, revealed through anonymous interviews, highlights how today’s conditions make NHS leadership more challenging than ever and underscore the need to better understand and support leaders’ wellbeing
- Clear the fog: charting a course towards an AI-enabled future that works for social care [2/3].
- This blog highlights how AI is gaining attention as a potential tool for improving social care but warns that the sector currently lacks a coherent strategy and clear evidence on what works. While AI could support tasks such as care planning, workforce scheduling, health‑risk monitoring and even providing companionship, its real‑world use remains patchy, and success stories are hard to separate from hype. The blog stresses that despite growing interest, scaling AI across social care will be challenging due to fragmented systems, uncertain returns on investment, concerns around privacy and workforce impacts, and the risk of eroding the human element of care.
The King’s Fund
- ‘You talking to me?’ The challenge of engaging with the public about adult social care [6/3].
- This blog argues that efforts to engage the public on adult social care have largely failed because conversations have been too inward‑facing and too focused on the system’s technical details, which most people do not understand. Despite repeated attempts, public awareness and prioritisation of social care remain low. The blog suggests that a national conversation led by the Casey Commission should shift towards what people want from a future system rather than explaining today’s complex structures, helping uncover public values, clarify expectations, and build a meaningful “social covenant” around roles and responsibilities in care.
London Trusts
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust