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.
- Report: Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce [2/2].
- Guidance: Breast screening: digital mammography testing and commissioning [4/2].
- Guidance: Commissioning strategies for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [5/2].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Press release: Government to cover travel costs of children with cancer [3/2].
- £10 million financial support package for families of children and young people with cancer to cover travel costs to and from appointments.
- Press release: Advice accepted on extending the RSV vaccination programme [2/2].
- Press release: Every cancer patient to get individual support plan [4/2].
- Press release: Three in four cancer patients to survive long term under new plan [5/2].
- Guidance: Healthy child programme: commissioning public health nursing services [6/2].
UK Health Security Agency
- Correspondence: RSV vaccination for older adults: expansion of eligibility [2/2].
- News: Norovirus cases now 50% higher than average for this time of year [5/2].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Find product information about medicines [2/2].
- News: Public advised to stop using some non-sterile alcohol-free wipes [5/2].
BMA
- Press report: Resident doctors in England vote for six months more industrial action [2/2].
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- Building evidence on what works best will help strategic authorities lift health locally [6/2].
- This article explains that as strategic authorities gain a new legal duty to improve health and reduce health inequalities under the upcoming English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, building stronger evidence on what works at regional level is essential. It highlights how poor health undermines economic growth and varies sharply across regions, making local action on factors like transport, housing, jobs, and the environment vital. While there are successful examples—such as free school meals, clean air policies and integrated regional governance—evidence gaps remain about which interventions have the greatest impact. The piece argues that strategic authorities need better metrics, long‑term evaluation, and cross-regional learning, while national government must strengthen the bill to ensure accountability and coherence. Overall, it frames 2026 as a major opportunity to embed health into devolution and drive meaningful, long-term improvements for communities.
- One year on, have ‘crack teams’ cut NHS waiting lists? [5/2].
- This article reviews the government’s claims that the “Further Faster 20” (FF20) programme—deploying specialist clinical teams to 20 NHS trusts—has significantly reduced elective waiting lists faster than elsewhere. The Health Foundation’s analysis confirms that FF20 trusts saw larger reductions in waiting lists between October 2024 and October 2025, but shows this was mainly due to slower growth in referrals and a sharp rise in “unreported removals,” rather than increases in treatment activity, which actually rose more in non‑FF20 trusts. Because detailed data on referrals and removals is lacking, the article concludes that it’s unclear how much of the improvement is due to the FF20 programme itself versus other factors and stresses the need for more robust evaluation before drawing firm conclusions about its effectiveness.
- Getting electronic patient records right: from digital notebooks to intelligent assets [2/2].
- This blog argues that although most NHS trusts now have electronic patient records (EPRs), many are using only basic functions, meaning the technology’s potential to improve care, efficiency and productivity is largely unrealised. It highlights that successful EPR use requires far more than installation: staff need practical and purpose‑focused training, organisations need cultures that encourage digital confidence, and trusts must gain easier access to their own data for planning and improvement. To unlock real benefits, the NHS needs to invest in advanced functionality, operational research, and quality‑improvement work—areas currently under‑resourced. While challenges remain, there is optimism among clinical staff that EPRs could deliver major time savings, but the article stresses the urgent need for a clear national strategy to turn EPRs into true assets for patient care and system performance.
The King’s Fund
- A new National Cancer Plan for England – does it deliver? [5/2].
- The blog reviews England’s new 10‑year National Cancer Plan, describing it as ambitious and innovation‑driven, with major commitments to improve survival, expand early diagnosis, widen access to cutting‑edge treatments, tackle inequalities, and provide more personalised and holistic cancer care. While the plan includes welcome advances such as expanded genetic testing, AI‑supported detection, more clinical trials, better support for children and young people, and a stronger focus on quality of life, the author raises concerns about NHS readiness, workforce and diagnostic capacity, and a lack of bold action on cancer prevention. Delivering the plan will require significant resources, partnership working, and sustained effort to fix long‑standing performance issues — particularly long waits — and its credibility will ultimately depend on whether patients experience faster, fairer and more consistent cancer care in the coming years.
Ipsos
- Damp January? Just 14% of Brits who drink decided to have a sober start to the year [5/2].
- Ipsos in the UK has conducted new research, highlighting trends around alcohol consumption among British adults during the month of January.
- Just 14% decided to abstain from alcohol in January: Overall, 14% of those who drink decided to have a sober start to the year. Of those,
- 53% were successful
- 19% lasted a few weeks
- 18% lasted a week
- 10% lasted a few days
- Only 49% of the general public in England are aware of the heart and kidney risks associated with type 2 diabetes [3/2].
- Ipsos, on behalf of AstraZeneca UK, conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,701 adults in England (400 people living with type 2 diabetes and 1,301 members of the general public) to explore awareness and perceptions of heart and kidney (cardiorenal) disease risk, the extent of shared decision-making, and interest in patient-facing digital tools.
- Key findings:
- Awareness and perceptions of cardiorenal risk
- More people with type 2 diabetes show higher awareness of the complications associated with type 2 diabetes than the general public, but gaps remain around cardiorenal risk.
- Among people with type 2 diabetes, 76% were aware of the risk of developing kidney disease and 69% of developing heart disease; fewer than half of the general public (49%) were aware of these risks.
- Most people with type 2 diabetes tend not to feel personally at high risk of heart and kidney disease and feel they know how to reduce the risk, while the general public perceives the risk to be higher but is less sure how to lower it.
- Amongst people with type 2 diabetes, knowledge of different health tests and why they are conducted does exist; 62% were aware that urine tests were linked to kidney health and 78% were aware that blood pressure tests were linked to heart health. However, only 11% were aware that blood pressure tests were linked to kidney health.
Nuffield Trust
- Ambient voice technology in health care: what’s the evidence so far? [4/2].
- The blog explains that ambient voice technology (AVT) or “AI scribes” is being rapidly adopted across the NHS, with strong evidence that it can reduce clinicians’ documentation time — but very limited evidence on whether these time savings translate into meaningful outcomes like better patient care, reduced burnout, or increased capacity. The AVT market is expanding quickly and varies widely across settings, making evaluation challenging, and existing studies use inconsistent measures that prevent comparisons. Phase 1 of a national NIHR evaluation highlights the need for clearer logic models and standardised metrics to understand not just outputs (time saved) but real outcomes. The next phase will study AVT in real NHS sites to see how it affects workflows, staff experience, patient experience, and system value.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
- Article: A surgeon who helped save the hand of a police officer involved in a sword attack has been commended by the Metropolitan Police [6/2].
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust