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: Patient safety learning response toolkit [3/3].
- Guidance: Clinical response to local incidents and outbreaks of infectious disease: Commissioning guidance for ICBs [4/3].
- Data: NHS England service codes by year 2025/26 [4/3].
- Case study: Neighbourhood health – case studies of good practice [5/3].
- Guidance: Pre-election guidance for NHS organisations [6/3].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance: DHSC public appointments: 2024 to 2025 [3/3].
- Press release: New chief executive appointed at MHRA [3/3].
- Lawrence Tallon is appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
- Press release: Dr Penelope Dash confirmed as new chair of NHS England [3/3].
- Guidance: Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme [4/3].
- Guidance: Adult social care in England statistics: background quality and methodology [6/3].
- Press release: NHS patients receive first home-grown blood plasma treatments [6/3].
UK Health Security Agency
- News: Over a quarter of pupils missing out on HPV vaccine [4/3].
- On HPV Awareness Day, parents are reminded HPV vaccine gives protection against cervical cancer and protects both girls and boys from several other types of cancer.
- News: UKHSA publishes latest survey on healthcare-associated infections [5/3].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Good laboratory practice (GLP) for safety tests on chemicals [4/3].
- Press release: Members of the public asked to return Boots Paracetamol 500mg tablets due to packaging error [4/3].
- Press release: New study shows MHRA collaboration with hospital DNA sequencing service cuts time to diagnose infections [7/3].
- Guidance: UK-wide licensing for human medicines [7/3].
Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- Calm before the storm? Unpacking the new GP contract [5/3].
- The government and the BMA announced a new contract for general practice in 2025/26. The government claims the deal will help deliver on promises to ‘fix the front door of the NHS’, while the BMA says the agreement is a ‘crucial step’ towards rebuilding general practice in England. But what does the agreement really mean for patients and GPs?
- The agreement marks the first time in 4 years that the government and the BMA have reached a deal on the annual GP contract. Contract changes throughout that time have been imposed by the government, contributing to the decision last year for GPs to take collective action. The BMA has announced it is no longer in dispute with the government.
- Making it easier to get a GP appointment is now the public’s top priority for the NHS. The government’s ambitions include improving GP access, restoring continuity and delivering the three shifts for the NHS (from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, from sickness to prevention). Achieving these ambitions will need a more comprehensive vision for general practice, backed by concrete action and sustained investment. The government will also have to make general practice a more sustainable place to work.
Nuffield Trust
- Difficult conversations about the future of health and care [5/3].
- The Nuffield Trust Summit brought together influential stakeholders to discuss the main policy challenges facing the UK’s health and care systems. Key themes included system reform, focusing on shifts from hospital to community, cure to prevention, and analogue to digital.
- The financial crisis in the NHS was highlighted, emphasising the need for investment amidst tight budgets. Workforce challenges were also discussed, noting the pressure on front-line staff to deliver more with fewer resources, impacting patient care. Sessions covered the psychology of change, the role of contracts for general practitioners, and ethical conundrums such as racism, continuing health care, and end-of-life care.
General Medical Council
- More female than male doctors for first time ever in the UK [6/3].
- Female doctors are greater in number than their male counterparts for the first time ever in the UK, the General Medical Council has announced.
- Data collected by the regulator shows there are now* 164,440 women (50.04%) registered with a licence to practise, compared with 164,195 men (49.96%).
- One of the driving factors has been more women joining UK medical schools. Since 2018/19, there have been more female than male medical students in all four UK countries. In 2023/24 the UK medical student intake was 60% female, and in Northern Ireland even higher at 72%.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
- Article: A new approach to heart failure treatment is giving patients a better quality of life and reducing their risk of being readmitted to hospital [3/3].
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust