Health landscape report: 27 January – 31 January

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 Patient Safety Alert – Transition to NRFit™ connectors for intrathecal and epidural procedures, and delivery of regional blocks [28/1]. 
• Report:NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme: screening quality assurance visit reports[29/1]. 
• Guidance: Newborn and infant physical examination (NIPE) national IT system: what to do if it’s unavailable [30/1]. 
• Guidance:Standardising community health services – Phase 1 codifying core community health services[30/1]. 
• Data: NHS England high cost drugs commissioning list [31/1]. 

Department of Health and Social Care 

• Press release: Government opens discussions with Community Pharmacy England over 2025 to 2026 funding contract [28/1]. 

 UK Health Security Agency 

• Guidance: Methyl bromide: health effects and incident management [27/1]. 
• News: Human case of avian flu detected in England [27/1]. 
• Guidance: PCV risk groups: patient group direction template [29/1]. 
• News:Antibiotic ‘Access’ list updated for the UK [29/1]. 
• Guidance:Post-exposure prophylaxis for chickenpox and shingles[30/1]. 
• News: A third of birthing women vaccinated in the first month of RSV offer [30/1]. 
• News:Tuberculosis cases in England continued to increase in 2024 [30/1]. 
• Guidance: High consequence infectious disease: country specific risk [31/1]. 
• Guidance:Confirmed cases of mpox clade Ib in United Kingdom [31/1]. 

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 

• Guidance: Drug Safety Update: monthly PDF newsletter [28/1]. 
• News:UK patients enabled access to transformative new medicines in shortest time possible via new, integrated Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway [30/1]. 
• Guidance: Regulating medical devices in the UK [31/1]. 

UK Parliament 

• The government’s 2025 mandate to NHS England and NHS Operational Planning Guidance 2025-26 [30/1]. 

BMA 

• Media release: Resident doctors in England vote to go into dispute over lack of progress on reforms to overtime and safe-working systems [30/1]. 

Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies  

The Health Foundation 

• Health care across Europe – shared challenges, lessons to learn [31/1].  
• The NHS has embarked on a new year and the headwinds are strong. Cold weather and viruses are putting huge strain on hospitals, threatening the fragile progress in reducing record waiting lists. The report, published late last year, presents a range of data on spending and health outcomes, and an in-depth look at workforce shortages and the challenges of promoting healthy ageing.   
• Understanding the crisis in young people’s mental health [27/1].  
• Mental health issues among young people are becoming more prevalent – and more visible. Among those aged 16–34, there has been a significant rise in reported mental health challenges, especially non-work-limiting conditions. 
• The burden on the NHS has surged correspondingly. Between 2020/21 and 2022/23. 
  • Mental health referrals for children and young people increased by over 50%, rising from 821,734 to 1,288,653. 
  • For individuals aged 10–24, mental health disorders now account for a staggering 45% of the overall disease burden, with suicide tragically the second leading cause of death. 

Ipsos 

• The economy, NHS and immigration remain the big three issues facing Britain [31/1]. 
• The January 2025 Ipsos Issues Index reveals that the economy continues to be seen as the most important issue for the country, while concern about the NHS has risen to equal immigration as the joint-second biggest issue. 
  • The proportion mentioning the NHS as a big issue has risen five points since November to 33%. However, it remains below the score of 47% recorded at the time of the General Election in July 2024. 

The King’s Fund 

• NHS priorities for 2025/26: our expert insights [31/1].  
• The NHS has published its national planning guidance for 2025/26 – an annual suite of documents that set out the national priorities and targets for local systems, alongside funding and financial planning assumptions. Against the backdrop of an extremely tight financial settlement, the focus this year is on performance recovery – bringing down the hospital waiting list, cutting long A&E wait times, and enabling more people to access GPs. 
• Can NHS digitalisation improve women’s health? [27/1].  
• For too long, the health of 51% of the population has been overlooked. Although women have more contact with health care providers – during maternity, for health screenings and due to their roles as carers – they still experience structural barriers that leave them feeling unheard, dismissed and underrepresented. 
• So how can digitalisation improve women’s health? 
  • Health systems can use digital technology to make it easier for women to access fragmented services.   
  • The health system can adopt and embrace technology that empowers women to make informed decisions about their health. 
  • It is imperative that clinicians and health providers are open to different ways of working. Increased access to information and knowledge may help women feel empowered to advocate for themselves, especially women from underserved groups. 

London Trusts    

Barts Health NHS Trust 

• Article:Lois Whittaker, managing director of the Barts Health Education Academy, leaves Barts at the end of January [28/1]. 

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust 

• Article: World-first gene-editing treatment for blood disorders including sickle cell disease approved for use in the NHS[31/1].