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: Primary medical services policy and guidance manual (PGM) [23/9].
- Guidance: Integrated care system boundary changes and mergers procedure [23/9].
- Guidance/ Letter: Jess’s Rule: Three strikes and we rethink [23/9].
- Jess’s Rule is a primary care initiative to encourage GPs teams to rethink a diagnosis if a patient presents 3 times with the same symptoms or concerns, particularly if symptoms unexpectedly persist, escalate, or remain unexplained.
- Guidance: Patient safety incident response framework and supporting guidance [23/9].
- Policy: Scheme of delegation policy [23/9].
- Policy: NHS England standing orders [23/9].
- NHS Standard Contract: 2024/25 NHS Standard Contract and final 2025/26: Comparison documents [23/9].
- Guidance: Implementing patient initiated follow-up: guidance for local health and care systems [24/9].
- Guidance: Newborn blood spot screening: movers in with no available records [25/9].
- Guidance: Survey of adult carers in England 2025 to 2026 [25/9].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance: Independent maternity and neonatal investigation: terms of reference [23/9].
- Guidance: DHSC public appointments: 2025 to 2026 [23/9].
- Press release: AI to be trialled at unprecedented scale across NHS screening [22/9].
- Pioneering new cloud computer system will allow artificial intelligence (AI) tools to be tested on an unprecedented scale across the NHS to boost early diagnosis.
- Press release: Patients treated more quickly as NHS productivity rises over year [22/9].
- NHS productivity increases by 2.7% over the past year, new data shows meaning patients are being seen and treated more quickly due to investment and reforms.
- Press release: National vaccination campaign to protect newborns this winter [22/9].
- The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a new national vaccination campaign, ‘Stay Strong. Get Vaccinated’, to protect newborn babies.
- Press release: Jessica Brady’s legacy inspires new life-saving GP safety rule [23/9].
- Patients with a potentially deadly illness will be diagnosed sooner thanks to a new life saving patient safety initiative called Jess’ Rule.
- Guidance: Drugs and pharmaceutical electronic market information tool (eMIT) [24/9].
- Press release: Millions of vaccines to be made in Oxfordshire, and government unveils £50 million fund, in double boost for life sciences [25/9].
UK Health Security Agency
- Guidance: Supporting vulnerable people before and during cold weather: for healthcare professionals [24/9].
- Guidance: Raising awareness of cold weather and its impact on health [24/9].
- News: UKHSA urges vaccination against respiratory viruses ahead of winter [25/9].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- News: MHRA confirms taking paracetamol during pregnancy remains safe and there is no evidence it causes autism in children [22/9].
- Press release: New Commission to help accelerate NHS use of AI [26/9].
BMA
- News: GP premises survey results 2025 [23/9].
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- A new model of leadership [26/9].
- This blog discusses the emergence of NHS groups—collaborative arrangements between NHS trusts aimed at improving care and efficiency. These groups often adopt a dual leadership structure, with strategic oversight at the group level and operational management at individual sites. This model enables large organisations to balance day-to-day service delivery with long-term planning. While some groups, like University Hospitals Birmingham, have seen success through devolved leadership, others struggle due to unclear strategies and lack of infrastructure. The blog highlights a gap in evidence supporting the effectiveness of these models and calls for better leadership training tailored to the unique demands of group structures.
Ipsos
- What the UK thinks about AI [22/9].
- The latest wave of research exploring UK attitudes to AI considers how to build trust in AI given public concerns about risks to the economy and society. Key insights include:
- People in the UK are more likely to see AI as a risk than an opportunity in a range of areas. This includes 59% who view AI as a risk to the UK’s national security, 45% as a risk to UK society, and 39% as a risk to the UK economy. However, perceptions of whether AI is a risk or opportunity vary, including based on how often someone uses AI in their day-to-day life.
- A lack of trust (38%), concerns about privacy and data security (32%), and ethical worries (28%) are key barriers for UK adults when using or considering generative AI tools.
- How comfortable UK adults are with AI varies depending on the specific use case. For example, while people are open to the use of AI to personalise training programmes to support employees (40% comfortable), they are not comfortable for the use of AI to monitor employee performance to feed into evaluations of their performance (56% uncomfortable).
Nuffield Trust
- NHS continuing health care: a Q&A with Sharon Allen [26/9].
- Sharon Allen, Chief Executive of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, shares her deeply personal and professional experience with NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC). Her mother, aged 92 with advanced dementia, was denied CHC despite clear needs. The process was opaque, adversarial, and emotionally draining, involving lost paperwork, repeated assessments, and impersonal rejection letters. Sharon criticises the system for prioritising gatekeeping over person-centred care, burdening families and professionals alike. She calls for reform to make CHC more empathetic, transparent, and focused on individual needs rather than bureaucratic battles.
- NHS continuing health care: consigned to the too difficult box? [26/9].
- NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) is meant to support people with complex needs outside hospital, fully funded by the NHS. However, eligibility is unclear and inconsistently applied across regions. The assessment process is stressful and poorly understood, and fewer people are qualifying despite rising demand. Financial pressures and system fragmentation are contributing to inequity. Without reform, CHC risks being sidelined, undermining efforts to shift care into the community.
General Medical Council
- GMC publishes annual whistleblowing report [25/9].
- The report shows 45 concerns were raised with the GMC between April 2024 and the end of March 2025. These disclosures were made by 18 doctors, 11 other healthcare professionals and 16 were made anonymously.
Digital Health
- GP surgeries pilot proxy access for families on NHS App [26/9].
- A pilot programme involving 68 GP surgeries is testing proxy access on the NHS App, allowing parents and carers to manage healthcare tasks—like booking appointments and ordering prescriptions—for their loved ones. This digital feature replaces the old paper-based system, streamlining admin for GP staff and improving accessibility for people facing digital or language barriers. So far, nearly 12,000 people have signed up, with a full rollout expected in 2026.
Smart Thinking
Think tank: Re:State
- Operation automation: how to achieve productivity gains in the healthcare system [17/9].
- This blog argues that automation can significantly boost productivity in the NHS by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving patient care. However, adoption is slow due to funding, approval, and change management challenges. The authors call for better investment access and support to make automation a standard part of healthcare delivery.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
- Article: They shared that they have been shortlisted for five Picker Experience Network Awards [23/9].
- Article: Barts Health are working to improve care by making services more local and more digital, while placing greater emphasis on preventing illness. They are using a wide range of technologies to help people stay healthy and independent [24/9].
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust