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 cancer waiting times monitoring dataset guidance [8/4].
- Guidance: National infection prevention and control [9/4].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance: Medicines that you cannot export from the UK or hoard [7/4].
- Press release:Prime Minister turbocharges medical research[7/4].
- Better and faster access to NHS data for researchers, with gold standard security and privacy measures.
- Press release: Over 1,500 extra GPs recruited to fix front door of the NHS [8/4].
- Correspondence: Government response to the separate pay spine for nursing call for evidence [9/4].
- Press release:One million NHS staff to benefit from new support measures [9/4].
- Speech: Zero tolerance for violence and harassment of NHS staff [9/4].
- Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting spoke at Unison’s annual health conference in Liverpool.
- Guidance: International recruitment regional fund for the adult social care sector 2025 to 2026 [10/4].
UK Health Security Agency
- Guidance: Vaccination against mpox: information for healthcare practitioners [7/4].
- News:UKHSA launches campaign to tackle misconceptions on antibiotics [7/4].
- Guidance: De-isolation and discharge of mpox-infected patients [11/4].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Early Access to Medicines Scheme: Overview [8/4].
- Press release: First-ever MHRA analysis of UK clinical trial applications finds new opportunities to drive medical breakthroughs for patients [10/4].
- Press release:Clinical Trials regulations signed into law [11/4].
BMA
- Press release: Nearly 700 final year medical students given “placeholder” spot instead of first doctor job [8/4].
Policy, think tanks, charities and representative bodies
Ipsos
- Evaluation of the targeted lung health check programme for NHS England [9/4].
- Between 2019 and 2024, Ipsos, working with the NHS Strategy Unit, delivered an evaluation of the targeted lung health check programme for NHS England. The programme and its evaluation set out to test whether the results displayed in earlier pilots and trials were replicated at a larger scale and in real world, busy NHS settings.
- The study included:
- An impact evaluation, assessing whether the programme had impacted on cancer stage at diagnosis, mortality and service use (and any inequalities within these outcomes); and
- A process evaluation, exploring the uptake of the health checks, staff and patient experiences of the health checks, the implementation and design of the health checks, and their costs.
- The public are largely supportive of government public health interventions [7/4].
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the public support extending the indoor smoking ban to specific outside spaces to protect children and vulnerable people, including playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals.
- This is followed by introducing a tax on organisation that produce foods high in sugar or salt, with some of the revenue used to fund fresh fruit and vegetables for low income families (62% support) and reducing the number of retailers with licenses to sell tobacco to limit tobacco availability (61% support).
- Public holds misconceptions about antibiotic resistance [7/4].
- Ipsos data collected in March 2024 for the UK Health Security Agency shows that around two in five of the public (42%) are concerned about antibiotic resistance for themselves personally.
- The survey was conducted online between 15th and 27th March 2024 among 5,914 UK residents aged 16 and over.
- Over half (54%) are either unsure if there’s anything they can individually do to prevent antibiotics becoming less effective at treating infections (28%) or incorrectly believe there’s nothing they can personally do (26%).
The King’s Fund
- What does ‘place’ mean to us as clinicians? [11/4].
- This blog explains the concept of ‘place’ in healthcare, which refers to local areas within Integrated Care Systems that serve 250,000 to 500,000 people. Clinicians initially found this idea abstract, but it’s important for improving health outcomes through local partnerships. The blog highlights the challenges of integrating ‘place’ into clinical practice and calls for clearer guidance to help clinicians understand their role in these changes.
- Integrated care board cuts – what does it all mean? [9/4].
- This blog discusses the implications of the Integrated Care Board cuts, which involve a 50% reduction in ICB operating costs by October 2025 as part of the NHS England reorganisation. These cuts could impact on the day-to-day running of services since ICBs commission nearly all local NHS services. The role of ICBs will shift to strategic commissioners, focusing on long-term care transformation and integration. However, the cuts may hinder collaboration and progress towards integrated care systems. Additionally, ICBs’ role in digital leadership is crucial for improving interoperability and implementing digital tools, but the financial constraints may affect this aspect. The blog emphasises the need for ICBs to adapt and focus on their core objectives despite these challenges.
Healthcare Leader
- NHS bricks-and-mortar pharmacies drop below 10,000 in England [11/4].
- The number of bricks and mortar community pharmacies providing NHS services in England has dropped to 9,999, the latest figures from the NHS Business Services Authority have revealed.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust