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: Minimum standards for keyworking services for autistic children and young people and children and young people with a learning disability [9/6].
- Guidance: Principles for providing patient care in corridors [11/6].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Press release: Millions to get faster eye care on the high street [8/6].
- Government invests £20 million to digitise referrals from the high street directly and digitally into NHS hospital eye services.
- Press release: Unpaid carers and parents of seriously ill children could get new rights under Government proposals [9/6].
- Press release: AI to speed up cancer diagnosis for millions of NHS patients [10/6].
- Press release: Free flu jabs for people experiencing homelessness [11/6].
- Speech: NHS reform, technology and the future of health and social care [11/6].
- Press release: Thousands of young people to be offered two-dose MenB vaccine [12/6].
UK Health Security Agency
- Correspondence: National flu immunisation programme plan 2026 to 2027 [9/6].
- Guidance: Understanding and addressing immunisation inequities toolkit [10/6].
- News: UKHSA update on the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak [10/6].
- News: UKHSA publishes first Health Security Risk Assessment in boost to pandemic preparedness [11/6].
- Guidance: Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers: outbreaks and case locations [11/6].
- News: Latest measles figures published as two deaths confirmed in 2026 [11/6].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Guidance: Clinical trials for medicines: modifying a clinical trial approval [8/6].
- Guidance: National AI Commission: Ask Me Anything [9/6].
- Guidance: AI Airlock Sandbox Phase 2 Programme Report [9/6].
- Press release: MHRA launches AI sandbox to accelerate medicines development and improve safety [9/6].
- Guidance: Opportunities for patients and the public to be involved in the work of the MHRA [10/6].
- News: MHRA landmark report reveals public views on AI in healthcare [11/6].
Cross-party Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
- Report: Rewiring the state: Delivering digital government is a report by the Science, Innovation and Technology committee looking at the government’s approach to digital transformation across public services, while also raising concerns about dependence on technology suppliers such as Palantir and questioning whether claims about AI, digitisation and other technologies delivering efficiency and financial savings are supported by sufficient evidence [3/6].
- Press statement: MPs warn that Palantir’s increasing presence in the UK public sector is an “unacceptable point of weakness” [3/6].
BMA
- Press release: Armed Forces doctors respond to pay review recommendation [9/6].
- Press release: Polling shows public back senior doctors, so why doesn’t the Government, BMA asks [9/6].
UK Parliament
- Report: Rewiring the state: Delivering digital government [3/6].
- The committee says digital transformation should focus on improving public services, efficiency and resilience, rather than being driven by hype around AI and new technologies or unproven claims of savings.
- MPs warn that government is becoming too dependent on a small number of major suppliers, particularly Palantir, Microsoft and AWS, creating risks around vendor lock-in, digital sovereignty and long-term resilience.
- The report calls for greater in-house digital capability, stronger scrutiny of technology investments, and more support for UK-based alternatives, including replacing the NHS Federated Data Platform’s current Palantir contract when the 2027 break clause is reached.
- Report: Supporting people with frailty outside hospitals [3/6].
- GPs are not assessing as many people for frailty as they should be doing, assessing 17% of those aged 65 and over in 2024-25.
- Those diagnosed with frailty are not getting follow-up assessments from GPs, only 16% got a medication review and 18% a falls risk assessment.
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The King’s Fund
- Merging the permanent secretary and NHS chief executive roles: ‘a major mistake’? [12/6].
- This blog argues strongly against proposals to merge the roles of Department of Health permanent secretary and NHS chief executive, warning that past experience shows it would be a mistake. Drawing on the early 2000s, when the roles were briefly combined, it suggests that any progress made in the NHS at the time was due to increased funding and wider reforms rather than the merger itself, and highlights how combining the roles contributed to governance challenges such as overspending. The piece emphasises that both positions are individually large and complex—covering NHS operations, social care, public health, and wider government responsibilities—and combining them risks weakening oversight and performance, reducing operational independence, and overburdening leadership, ultimately arguing the roles should remain separate.
- Waiting matters: bringing down NHS waiting lists is important but so is the experience of waiting [9/6].
- This blog highlights that while NHS waiting lists in England are beginning to fall and performance against targets has improved, patients’ experiences of waiting remain poor, with many facing uncertainty, lack of communication and little information about their care. Survey findings show large proportions of patients who do not know when they will be treated, receive no updates after referral, or feel dissatisfied with communication, leading to anxiety and frustration. The piece argues that reducing waiting times alone is not enough—improving communication, providing regular updates and ensuring patients feel informed and supported are equally critical to delivering a better overall experience and avoiding harm within the system
- Tackling recruitment in adult social care – time for a different conversation [9/6].
- This blog argues that while adult social care workforce numbers are improving and vacancies are falling, this masks a fragile reliance on international recruitment and a decline in domestic workers. It highlights that, despite extensive research identifying factors affecting recruitment—such as low pay, public perceptions, and complex entry routes—there is limited robust evidence on which interventions actually work to improve hiring. The sector’s fragmentation, with many small providers lacking resources to adopt strategic recruitment approaches, further limits progress and the sharing of best practice. The piece concludes that improving recruitment will require stronger evidence, better evaluation of policies, more coordinated action across providers, and greater leadership from government to support long-term solutions.
The Health Foundation
- Failure demand: the hidden work holding back NHS productivity [12/6].
- This blog argues that much NHS activity is driven by “failure demand” – avoidable work created when the system fails to meet patients’ needs effectively the first time, leading to chasing, duplication, delays and poor coordination. It highlights common causes such as operational inefficiencies, rigid rules, backlogs and fragmented care for complex patients, all of which generate unnecessary workload and reduce productivity. The piece suggests that improving NHS productivity will depend not just on increasing activity, but on reducing low‑value or avoidable care, better coordinating services, measuring outcomes more effectively, and giving staff greater flexibility to solve underlying problems in care pathways.
Ipsos
- Public Knowledge of Blood Types Low in Great Britain [12/6].
- An Ipsos survey finds that public knowledge of blood types in Great Britain is low, with many people unaware of their own blood group or basic facts about blood compatibility, despite its importance for safe transfusions and emergencies. The research highlights gaps in understanding across the population and suggests this lack of awareness could have implications for patient safety and blood donation efforts, underlining the need for better public education about blood types and their role in healthcare.
- Knowledge of blood type: More than half of Britons, 5 in 10 (56%), report that they do not know what their own blood type is based on standard categorisations (such as AB+, A-, or O+), while 4 in 10 (44%) state that they do know it.
- Donation history: Roughly 1 in 3 British adults (32%) say they have ever donated or given blood.
General Medical Council
- NHS can no longer assume much-needed international medics will stay, warns GMC chief [11/6].
- The GMC warns that the NHS can no longer rely on international doctors to remain in the UK, despite growing dependence on them, with overseas-trained medics now making up 42% of the workforce and previously accounting for most new joiners. Recent trends show increasing numbers leaving the country, a sharp slowdown in new arrivals, and falling demand for UK entry exams, highlighting a fragile pipeline. The GMC argues this reflects wider global competition and concerns about inclusion and support, urging NHS leaders to prioritise better induction, career development and working conditions—particularly for non-training roles—to improve retention and sustain the workforce.
- GMC tells medical schools: students must not fear consequences for reporting sexual misconduct [11/6].
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
- Article: New AI heart failure screening tool tested at Barts Health could cut hospital waiting lists for patients [11/6].
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust