Tag: Department of Health and Social Care

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 14 November 2024.

New legislation being introduced today will require millers and flour producers to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid from the end of 2026.

• Folic acid to be added to non-wholemeal flour to protect newborn babies from serious brain and spine problems
• Move will prevent around 200 cases of neural tube defects every year and improve health of pregnant women
• Measures to come into force at the end of 2026 to help businesses prepare

Around 200 cases of debilitating brain and spine defects in babies every year will be prevented by fortifying non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid.

New legislation being introduced today (14 November 2024) will require millers and flour producers to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid from the end of 2026.

Folic acid deficiency is a leading cause of neural tube defects, which can cause a large number of serious and debilitating conditions to babies in the womb, including spina bifida.

Flour is already fortified with calcium, niacin, thiamine and iron to improve public health. The move to include folic acid will reduce neural tube defects by 20% in the UK and improve the health of pregnant women. It will also deliver savings of around £20 million to the NHS over 10 years and boost the economy by more than £90 million over 10 years.

Andrew Gwynne, Minister for Public Health and Prevention, said:

Shifting care from sickness to prevention is one of the leading ambitions in our 10 Year Health Plan, as we work to make our NHS fit for the future.

These measures are a simple and effective intervention to improve health outcomes in babies, giving them the best start in life.

Baroness Merron, Minister for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, said:

Fortifying bread and flour with folic acid will help reduce neural tube defects and give women greater peace of mind throughout their pregnancy.

This government is determined to support women and turn around maternity outcomes so every child can live a long, happy and fulfilling life.

The NHS recommends that women who are trying for a baby take folic acid supplements for around 3 months before getting pregnant and for at least 12 weeks after becoming pregnant. This recommendation will remain in place after the new regulations on flour are brought in. It is estimated that half of all pregnancies in the UK are unplanned. The new regulations will help provide women with a higher baseline intake of folic acid, better protecting their babies in all scenarios.

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said:

The fortification of flour is a simple and effective way to help to reduce cases of neural tube defects, although it is important that women who are pregnant or intending to become pregnant continue to take folic acid supplements before and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The government is continuing to engage with the food industry to support them to implement the changes, which will apply to the whole of the UK. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will introduce their own regulations in due course.

Minister for Food Security, Daniel Zeichner, said:

When it comes to public health, prevention will always be better, and cheaper, than a cure.

Fortified flour has been providing our country with a public health boost for 80 years and this latest collaboration across government will help give the nation’s children a strong start in life.

We are grateful to industry for their efforts to support a smooth transition, with manufacturers having a 24-month transition period to adjust their processes.

Background information

The new measures will deliver the NHS £20 million in reduced costs over 10 years. This is in addition to £571 million in benefits to society through an increase in live births, as well as £54 million due to increased labour market participation and £39 million due to parents prevented from leaving the labour market.

This work forms part of a wider Defra review of the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 conducted under the Food Compositional Standards and Labelling (FCSL) UK Common Framework, working collaboratively with the devolved governments and the Department of Health and Social Care.

It included a UK-wide public consultation with the proposals also notified to the World Trade Organisation, fulfilling international obligations.

The key changes include:

• technical amendments to clarify requirements and definitions, to ensure consistency with other food standards legislation including increasing minimum levels of nutrients and updating specification criteria, enabling understanding and compliance
• an update to the compositional rules of wholemeal flour, removing barriers to compliance while maintaining consumer protection
• an exemption from fortification requirements for small-scale millers (producing less than 500 metric tonnes of flour per year). This removes disproportionate burden on smaller-scale producers without compromising the public health outcomes of the policy
• introducing the use of improvement notices. This is a more proportionate and efficient way to address non-compliance and reduces risk of excessive costs associated with court time when criminal proceedings are brought

The amending regulations published today in England ensure our rules are robust and fit for purpose, with the changes designed to lead to improved public health outcomes, protect consumers, support industry and assist enforcement authorities.

Further stakeholder quotes

Professor Ian Young, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), said:

SACN welcomes this important initiative which will reduce the number of lives adversely affected by neural tube defects. SACN has consistently recommended folic acid fortification since 2006, alongside ongoing monitoring and continued encouragement for women to take folic acid supplements before pregnancy. SACN is delighted to see these being implemented.

Kate Steele, CEO of Shine, the charity that provides specialist support for people whose lives have been affected by spina bifida and hydrocephalus, said:

After more than 30 years of campaigning, Shine can finally celebrate the introduction of this very important public health initiative.

It will improve the health of the general population across the UK but, more importantly, mandatory fortification will reduce the number of babies affected by spina bifida, a lifelong, complex disability. It also means that fewer families will be given the devastating news that their baby has anencephaly and will not survive.

I am so very grateful to everyone who has kept mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid on the government’s agenda, especially Lord Jeff Rooker and Shine’s Head of Health, Gill Yaz. Collectively, we have made our long-awaited goal a reality. It will make such a difference to so many lives!

Joe Brennan, Head of Technical and Regulatory Affairs at UK Flour Millers, said:

Flour is fortified with folic acid in many countries, such as Australia and Canada, and has proven an effective way of reducing neural tube defects in babies. The UK flour milling sector has been working closely with government to facilitate this public health initiative for some years.

Flour remains one of the most widely consumed ingredients, so there is a logic to fortifying flour with folic acid, supported by public health experts. Folic acid will join other fortificants including vitamins and minerals which have been added to flour since the 1940s, in line with government bread and flour regulations.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 13 November 2024.

Health and Social Care Secretary will outline how government and NHS leaders have a duty to patients and taxpayers to get the system working well.

• Wes Streeting to reveal package of reforms and announce new league table of NHS providers, with top talent attracted to most challenging areas and persistently failing managers to be sacked
• Turnaround teams sent into struggling hospitals, while best performers given greater freedoms over funding to modernise technology and equipment
• No more rewards for failure, with reforms to ensure every penny of extra investment into NHS is well spent and waiting times for patients slashed

NHS league tables will be introduced to help tackle the NHS crisis and ensure there are ‘no more rewards for failure’, as part of a tough package of reforms to be announced by the Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting today (13 November 2024).

Addressing the nation’s health leaders at the NHS Providers annual conference in Liverpool, he will outline how government and NHS leaders have a duty to patients and taxpayers to get the system working well and get better value for money.

NHS England will carry out a no holds barred sweeping review of NHS performance across the entire country, with providers to be placed into a league table. This will be made public and regularly updated to ensure leaders, policy makers and patients know which improvements need to be prioritised.

Persistently failing managers will be replaced and turnaround teams of expert leaders will be deployed to help providers which are running big deficits or poor services for patients, offering them urgent, effective support so they can improve their service.

High-performing providers will be given greater freedom over funding and flexibility. There is little incentive across the system to run budget surpluses as providers cannot benefit from it. The reforms today will reward top-performing providers and give them more capital and greater control over where to invest it in modernising their buildings, equipment and technology.

The government will deliver a health service fit for the future, fixing the foundations while delivering change with investment and reform to deliver growth, get the NHS back on its feet and rebuild Britain.

Health and Social Care Secretary,Wes Streeting, said:

The budget showed this government prioritises the NHS, providing the investment needed to rebuild the health service. Today we are announcing the reforms to make sure every penny of extra investment is well spent and cuts waiting times for patients.

There’ll be no more turning a blind eye to failure. We will drive the health service to improve, so patients get more out of it for what taxpayers put in.

Our health service must attract top talent, be far more transparent to the public who pay for it, and run as efficiently as global businesses.

With the combination of investment and reform, we will turn the NHS around and cut waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS Chief Executive, said:

While NHS leaders welcome accountability, it is critical that responsibility comes with the necessary support and development.

The extensive package of reforms, developed together with government, will empower all leaders working in the NHS and it will give them the tools they need to provide the best possible services for our patients.

The NHS Oversight Framework, which sets out how trusts and integrated care boards are best monitored, will be updated by the next financial year to ensure performance is properly scrutinised.

Deep dives into poorly performing trusts will be carried out by the government and NHS England to identify the most pressing issues and how they can be resolved.

Louise Ansari, Chief Executive of Healthwatch England, said:

People value the hard work of NHS staff, but it’s frustrating when services fail to operate effectively. So, a fresh approach to improving NHS performance is welcome.

Currently, living in an area with either an outstanding or poorly performing NHS trust feels like a postcode lottery. When a service is underperforming, it often takes far too long for patients to see the necessary improvements.

This is because the current system focuses on evaluating service performance based on the number of tasks it completes and it does not do enough to measure patients’ overall outcomes and experiences.

Establishing a better system that encourages NHS managers to focus on delivering the best care as efficiently as possible, and leads to quicker changes at struggling trusts, would be good news for everyone.

NHS senior managers who fail to make progress will also be ineligible for pay increases. There will be financial implications for very senior managers (VSMs) such as chief executives if they are failing to improve their trust’s performance, or letting patients down with poor levels of care.

A new pay framework for VSMs will be published before April 2025. Senior leaders who are successfully improving performance will be rewarded, to ensure the NHS continues to develop and attract the best talent to the top positions.

The changes are made in response to Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS, which found that:

The only criteria by which trust chief executive pay is set is the turnover of the organisation. Neither the timeliness of access nor the quality of care are routinely factored into pay. This encourages organisations to grow their revenue rather than to improve operational performance.

The cost to the health service of hiring temporary workers sits at a staggering £3 billion a year. Under joint plans to be put forward for consultation in the coming weeks, NHS trusts could be banned from using agencies to hire temporary entry level workers in bands 2 and 3, such as healthcare assistants and domestic support workers. The consultation will also include a proposal to stop NHS staff resigning and then immediately offering their services back to the health service through a recruitment agency.

Rachel Power, Chief Executive, Patients Association, said:

We welcome today’s commitment to improving NHS performance and accountability. These reforms signal an important drive for positive change in our health system. The focus on tackling poor performance and rewarding excellence sends a clear message about raising standards across the NHS.

At the same time, we know from the experience of patients that real transformation comes through genuine partnership with patients. We look forward to working with NHS England to ensure patient voices help shape how any league tables are developed and how success is measured.

The proposed support teams for struggling trusts could be particularly effective if they include patient representatives and focus on building a culture of patient partnership. This is an opportunity to combine better management with deeper patient involvement – creating an NHS that is both more efficient and more responsive to people’s needs.

We hope trusts who receive greater funding freedom will use this money wisely – to cut waiting times, make the waiting experience better for patients, and strengthen the ways they work with patients to improve services. These are the things that matter most to people using the NHS.

Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS found that hospital productivity has nosedived in the past 5 years. During that time resources have increased by 20%, but the number of patients treated has only increased by 3%.

This comes a month after the Health and Social Care Secretary kicked off the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth, calling on the entire country to share their experiences of our health service and help shape the government’s 10 Year Health Plan.

Members of the public, as well as NHS staff and experts, are sharing their experiences, views and ideas for fixing the NHS via the Change NHS online platform, which will be live until the start of next year, and available via the NHS App.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 11 November 2024.

Wes Streeting will set out plans to clamp down on temporary workers in speech at NHS Providers conference.

• Trusts could be banned from using agencies to cover gaps in entry level positions, and agencies could be banned from re-introducing NHS workers that leave permanent jobs
• Understaffed NHS forced to spend £3 billion on agency staff last year
• Wes Streeting to address healthcare leaders in Liverpool and unveil package of radical reforms to ensure every penny for NHS is well spent

The government and NHS England are set to reveal bold plans to reduce the NHS’ reliance on agency staff, as the cost to the health service of hiring temporary workers sits at a staggering £3 billion a year.

Under joint plans to be put forward for consultation, NHS trusts could be banned from using agencies to hire temporary entry level workers in band 2 and 3, such as healthcare assistants and domestic support workers.

The consultation will also include a proposal to stop NHS staff resigning and then immediately offering their services back to the health service through a recruitment agency.

The proposed measures could save the NHS significant sums, improve quality of care and enhance patient safety, as reducing reliance on agency staff has been shown to decrease clinical incidents.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:

For too long desperate hospitals have been forced to pay eye-watering sums of money on temporary staff, costing the taxpayer billions, and pulling experienced staff out of the NHS. We’re not going to let the NHS get ripped off anymore.

Last month the Chancellor made a historic investment in our health service which must reform or die. I am determined to make sure the money is well spent and delivers for patients.

These changes could help keep staff in the NHS and make significant savings to reinvest in the frontline.

Recruitment agencies have charged NHS trusts up to £2,000 for a single nursing shift, thanks to the 113,000 staffing vacancies across the service.

Costs of this kind were driven up further thanks to periods of strike action. The move, announced this week, will form part of government efforts to reform and improve efficiency in the NHS – with more action planned in the future to cut reliance on short-term agency staffing.

The proposals will also provide greater fairness in the workplace by ensuring staff carrying out the same roles are not paid significantly different sums.

Julian Kelly, NHS Chief Financial Officer, said:

The NHS is committed to ensuring every penny of taxpayer money is used wisely to the benefit of patients and to ensure fairness for our permanent staff. While agency spend is at a record low, with trusts on track to save £1 billion over two years, we want to go further still.

That’s why the NHS, working alongside the government and providers, will launch a consultation with a view to stop using agencies to fill entry level posts, building on the approach we have successfully imposed for administrative and estates staff.

The Health and Social Care Secretary will unveil a package of tough reforms this week to cut wasteful spending in the NHS and ensure the health service delivers greater value for money. This follows the Chancellor’s investment in last month’s Budget to mend crumbling wards and bring healthcare tech into the 21st century.

Kicking off the biggest ever conversation on the future of the NHS last month, Mr Streeting announced how reforms in the 10-Year Health Plan will shift healthcare from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

Addressing the nation’s health leaders at the NHS Providers Conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, he is expected to announce a series of rigorous measures to make sure the investment announced in the Budget delivers shorter waiting times for patients.

A consultation will be launched by NHS England in the coming weeks, seeking views on the new proposals from staff, unions, and NHS provider organisations.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 7 October 2024.

Programme to help avoid brain injury in childbirth piloted from today to boost maternity safety.

• Scheme forms part of government’s ambition to urgently improve maternity outcomes for women and babies
• Backed by £7.8 million in government funding, training will help maternity staff better identify and act quickly when babies are in distress during labour

NHS maternity staff in England will take part in a new pilot programme to help reduce avoidable brain injuries in childbirth, the government has announced.

The Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) pilot is launching today (7 October 2024) across 9 maternity units at NHS trusts and aims to improve maternity outcomes for women and babies.

The programme will help maternity staff to better identify signs that the baby is showing distress during labour so they can act quickly. It will also help staff deal with important obstetric emergencies that occur where the baby’s head becomes lodged deep in the mother’s pelvis during a caesarean birth.

The ABC programme aims to improve clinical practice, communication and care for women and families and result in better outcomes and experiences, while reducing variation and inequality of care.

The most recent data from the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit at Imperial College London shows around 2,490 babies received at least one episode of care for a brain injury during or after birth (in 2021) equating to 4.2 per 1,000 live births.

The programme could be rolled out nationally next year if the pilot is successful.

Baroness Gillian Merron, Minister for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, said:

This is a critical step towards avoiding preventable brain injuries in babies, as we work to make sure all women and babies receive safe, personalised and compassionate care.

This government is working with the NHS to urgently improve maternity care, giving staff the support they need to improve safety and ensure women’s voices are properly heard.

The scheme is also expected to reduce the rising cost of clinical negligence. At present, maternity cases account for around 10% of clinical negligence claims and equate to more than 50% of the total value of clinical negligence payments. In 2018 to 2019, claims related to brain damage at birth had a value of £1.86 billion, with individual cases costing up to £30 million.

So far, the Department of Health and Social Care has contributed £7.8 million to the ABC consortium, which consists of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute.

Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said:

The ABC programme will help maternity teams to improve safety by giving them the tools, resources and training they need to respond effectively when a baby might be deteriorating during labour and to handle a major obstetric emergency. Including support for teamwork and culture, ABC makes best practice easier and puts those in labour and their birth partners at the centre of their care.

Donald Peebles, NHS national clinical director for maternity, said:

We welcome the opportunity to further enhance the skills of NHS staff so they can provide the best possible care for women and babies.

The NHS is already making progress on reducing rates of brain injuries in childbirth and we look forward to continuing this work with royal colleges and other partners as part of our commitment to improving services.

Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, Director of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, said:

Any effort to improve care must put families at the centre. The ABC programme has been developed in partnership with women, birthing people and their birth partners and reflects the importance of listening, inclusion and respect as part of keeping those in labour and their babies safe.

Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the RCM, said:

Improving the safety of maternity services by supporting staff is a priority for the RCM and something we are absolutely committed to working in partnership to achieve. Any event of avoidable brain injury is devastating for the mother, for the families and for all the staff involved. Improving multidisciplinary training is key to improving pregnancy outcomes, equally sharing good practice, and learning from mistakes is crucial.

We are confident that the ABC tools and training will equip maternity staff at these pilot sites with the skills they need to ensure best outcomes for both mother and baby.

Background information

The selected sites that are participating in the pilot of impacted fetal head during caesarean birth are:

• Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
• Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The selected sites that are participating in the pilot of detection and response to fetal deterioration are:

• Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
• Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
• St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 6 October 2024.

New UK-created therapies for cancer will be trialled in the UK – furthering the nation’s life sciences industry as one of the great drivers of economic growth.

A raft of new UK-created therapies for cancer will be trialled in the UK – furthering the nation’s life sciences industry as one of the great drivers of economic growth.

New partnerships backed by public and private sector investment will trial new ways to tackle cancer and other life-threatening diseases with faster diagnoses and better treatments, deploying innovative technologies and approaches .

This could unleash a raft of new medical tech products onto the global market, including more flexible medical scanners and an AI tool to help spot lung cancer sooner. The potential of these breakthrough technologies to give new hope to patients, and to become commercial successes, is a demonstration of this government’s ambitions for the UK’s R&D base and the NHS to work hand-in-hand with the private sector, to bring the latest high-tech innovations into daily use across the health service as part of the government’s wider mission to reform the NHS.

Medical technologies like these not only offer the hope of longer, healthier lives to people living with diseases like cancer, but also drive economic growth through the UK’s world leading life sciences industry. Their adoption is also critical to building an NHS that is match-fit for the future, as emphasised in the findings of the recent Darzi Review. This independent report laid bare the current problems facing the NHS, including the fact that the cancer survival rates in England are lagging far behind other countries. Today’s package of investment will play a crucial role in the government’s plans to address these challenges and rebuild and reform the NHS, which will prioritise the adoption of innovative technologies and approaches and identify ways to do things differently across the health service in order to provide a better service for patients.

It comes as UK Research and Innovation announces a £118 million fund that will create five new hubs across the country, from Glasgow to Bristol, to help develop new health technologies. The funding will be split between government funding and partner support – inviting business to help the mission to kickstart the economy and build an NHS fit for the future. The Hubs will work in intimate partnership with the private sector – with experts at UCL developing scanners to improve cancer surgery, delivering their research together with both large MedTech multinationals and British start-ups, for example.

The International Investment Summit, taking place in a matter of days, will see government form a new partnership with business to grow our economy through more high quality, long-term investment and innovation.

Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

Cancer is a disease that has brought pain, misery and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own. But through government working in partnership with the NHS, researchers, and business, we can harness science and innovation to bring the detection and treatment of this horrendous disease firmly in to the 21st century, keeping more families together for longer.

The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:

As a cancer survivor, I know how vital an early cancer diagnosis and the latest treatments are. This investment will not only save lives, but also secure Britain’s status as a powerhouse for life sciences and medical technology.

When we combine the care of the NHS and the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, we can develop life changing treatments for patients and help get Britain’s economy booming.

The Science Secretary will be speaking to business leaders across the life sciences sector, encouraging a raft of investment into the UK for drug development, clinical trials and MedTech production.

Already contributing £108 billion to the UK economy, the life sciences industry drove £800 million in foreign direct investment into the UK in 2023, and supports around 300,000 jobs up and down the country.

Today’s announcements showcase the impact that could potentially be made to cancer, as well as other diseases, through ensuring the government and NHS works hand in hand with life sciences research institutions and industry, to drive the development of new treatments and diagnostics.

New medical tech and treatments that could eventually be brought to market include:

• Developing cheaper, more easily usable scanners that will help surgeons detect early signs of cancers and remove tumours with greater success. These tools could be more readily available than those currently in use across the NHS.
• Speeding up the time required to bring new drugs to market by testing ‘micro-dosing’ – an approach which sees a tiny amount of a drug delivered to a small part of the body. This work could provide a new
• pathway for clinically trialling new treatments for lung infection and inflammation much faster and cheaper than at present.
• Driving forward personalised treatments for cancer patients who are receiving immunotherapy – using their own immune system to identify and attack cancer cells. New ways of monitoring patients could allow a real-time view of how a therapy is working, offering the opportunity to tweak it to the patient’s needs.
• Training AI models to be used in quickly and accurately diagnosing cancer through a new cross-NHS data network that researchers can access.

The life sciences sector is one of the crown jewels of the British economy – exemplified by the work by Oxford University and AstraZeneca that produced the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, as well as the government’s 10-year partnership with Moderna to anchor the production of millions of lifesaving vaccines here in the UK.

The MedTech sector specifically is also booming, supporting more than 138,000 jobs and exporting more than £5.6 billion in products annually. And there are life sciences clusters right across the UK that provide high-skill, high-wage jobs from Merseyside to the North East.

Support for today’s announcements

Commenting on MANIFEST, Professor Samra Turajlic, project lead, Clinical Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:

In the last ten years we have made huge progress in the treatment of cancer with immunotherapy, but we are still underserving many patients due to treatment failure and side effects. We have a unique opportunity in the UK, especially given the NHS, to address this challenge.

We are hugely excited to work together with such a large group of clinicians, patients and our industry partners, each with unique experiences and expertise. Research on this scale can get us one step closer to better tests in the clinic, but also fuel more discoveries regarding cancer immunology and new therapies. Ultimately, we want to speed up the delivery of personalised medicine for a disease that affects huge numbers of people across the UK every year.

Also commenting on MANIFEST, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Michelle Mitchell, added:

The Francis Crick Institute is carrying out world-leading research with the backing of Cancer Research UK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. Further funding from the UK government to support promising immunotherapy research at the Institute is a welcome boost towards kinder, more personalised treatments for cancer. It’s crucial for the UK’s economic wellbeing, as well as its health, for the UK government to be ambitious in funding world-class cancer research.

Commenting on the UKRI Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs, EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said:

The five new hubs bring together a wealth of expertise from across academia, industry and charities to improve population health, transform disease prediction and diagnosis, and accelerate the development of new interventions.

They represent an exciting range of adventurous techniques and approaches that have great potential to improve the lives of millions of people here in the UK and across the world.

Commenting on the pathology data network, Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England said:

The investment in AI pathology represents new hope in helping us to treat and cure a range of diseases. By supporting secure access to this unique dataset, we can help researchers to learn more about various conditions, including cancer, so that they can both spot how to prevent disease and also find the next generation of treatments and cures faster.

The NHS is globally unique in holding data for the entire population. This makes the test result information we hold particularly valuable for AI training as we know that it represents the population properly.

Like all data in NHS secure data environments, there are strict access rules, meaning the information will remain under the control of the NHS at all times and will only allow secure access to approved researchers who are conducting analysis which improves health and care.

Commenting on the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call, Professor Mike Lewis, Scientific Director for Innovation at NIHR said:

Developing early diagnosis technologies that are closer to cancer patients is a key aim of this NIHR funding – the potential to find cancers earlier will give patients more choice of treatment, and enable us to save lives in the future.

Funding breakdown

• MANIFEST: £9 million; £4 million from Office for Life Sciences, £5 million from the Medical Research Council
• UKRI–EPSRC Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs: £118 million; £54 million from government, £64 million cash and in-kind backing from partners
• AI digital pathology data platform: £6.4 million from government
• NIHR i4i Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call: £11 million from government
• Advancing Precision Medicine funding call: £4 million from government

Notes to editors

The £9 million MANIFEST (Multinomic Analysis of Immunotherapy Features Evidencing Success and Toxicity) consortium is led by the Francis Crick Institute together with the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, as well academic and industry partners. It will support the better targeting of immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer.

Led out of the world-leading Francis Crick Institute, MANIFEST will examine the biomarkers – measurable signs of a patient’s health status – present in patients before they start immunotherapy, with a view to developing tests that can monitor these biomarkers during treatment.  These tests could help indicate if a given treatment is likely to work, helping doctors to personalise immunotherapy treatments to individual patients. MANIFEST is co-funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and the Office for Life Sciences.

£6.4 million is being invested by the government in new data infrastructure which will pull together digital pathology data from across the NHS to make it easier for researchers to access. Researchers will be able to train AI models on this unique set of information, in order to improve how quickly and accurately cancer and other diseases can be spotted. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical to cancer survival and recovery. This project is led by the NHS Data for Research and Development Programme. The programme is establishing a health data research infrastructure to provide rapid access to the world’s largest linked data sets for research.

Full details of the £118 million UKRI–EPSRC Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs

• Optical and Acoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Sciences (OASIS) Hub – led by University College London. Working on new imaging tools to help surgeons identify cancers – including breast cancer – and remove tumours with greater success.
• MAINSTREAM research and partnership hub for health technologies in Manufacturing Stem Cells – led by University of Glasgow. Working on potential therapies using adult stem cells, which could help cancer patients regenerate bone marrow after chemotherapy.
• Research and Partnership Hub in Microscale Science and Technology to Accelerate Therapeutic Innovation (MicroTex) – led by University of Edinburgh. Working on a new method for clinically trialling new drugs with lung disease patients, which could lead to much faster and cheaper results.
• The VIVO Hub for Enhanced Independent Living – led by University of Bristol. Developing wearable technologies to help people with age-related mobility issues manage health conditions that impair their mobility.
• National Hub for Advanced Long-acting Therapeutics (HALo) – led by University of Liverpool. Looking into the potential of Long-Acting Therapeutics, drugs where the patient only needs to take one dose, which could then last for weeks or even months, rather than having to take doses daily or multiple times daily (which can become a burden, and lead to missed doses and subsequent complications).

Winners of the £11 million NIHR i4i Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call.

Professor George Hanna, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
PANACEA: PAN Alimentary Cancer Exhaled breath Analysis
Researching the accuracy of a new breath test for multiple gastrointestinal cancers (oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, liver and colorectal) as well as studying how to introduce it into primary care.

Dr Carlos Arteta Montilva, Optellum Ltd
CLEAREST: Clinical evaluation of lung cancer detection and diagnosis software
Studying how artificial intelligence (AI) software could help medical imaging experts to find suspicious ‘spots’ in the lungs and assist them in deciding if they could be early lung cancer.

Professor Ros Eeles, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Integration of the PRODICT TM test into the cancer risk pathway
Evaluating a genetic test to identify people at risk of developing cancer, to find out how it can be integrated into the NHS.

Dr Andrew Shapanis, Professor Paul Skipp, XGENERA Ltd
miONCO-Dx: A novel multi cancer early diagnostic test
Improving the efficiency and evaluating the performance of a new cancer blood test for use as a screening tool.

Professor Andrew Davies, University of Southampton, and Dr Emma Yates, Proteotype Diagnostics Ltd
Cost-effective multi-cancer early detection by measuring patient plasma amino acid cross sections with the Enlighten test
Testing how a new type of multi cancer early detection test performs in an NHS context. Researchers will also plan for how the test could be used within deprived communities.

Professor Brendan Delaney, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Artificial Intelligence to support cancer early diagnosis in general practice. (AI-DIP)
Developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistant to improve the early diagnosis of cancer in general practice, using pancreatic and lung cancer as case studies.

Second round of winners of Innovate UK’s £4 million Advancing Precision Medicine funding call

AI-VISION: An observational study validating a predictive algorithm integrating multi-modal data for patient prognostication and treatment stratification in triple negative breast cancer
– Project lead: Concr Ltd
– Project partner: Durham University; Institute of Cancer Research

AIPIR – Development of an advanced AI proteomic platform to identify, track and predict host response to solid tumour immunotherapies
– Project lead: Eliptica Limited
– Project partner: University of Edinburgh

ST TCR – Unlocking the discovery of novel shared targets and T-cell receptors for precision cancer therapies
– Project lead: Exogene Limited
– Project partner: Outsee Limited

End-to end AI-assisted workflow for prostate-specific membrane antigen PET/CT reporting
– Project lead: Mirada Medical Limited
– Project partners: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Bristol

Revolutionising breast cancer prognosis with OncoSignatur: an innovative, cost-effective qPCR profiling test for improved, personalised patient pathways
– Project lead: Signatur Biosciences Ltd
– Project partner: University of Oxford

AI digital diagnostics platform to streamline the diagnosis of blood cancers
– Project lead: Spotlight Pathology Ltd
– Project partner: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 4 October 2024.

The Health and Social Care Secretary confirmed the update during a speech at the Royal College of GPs’ conference in Liverpool.

• 111 online trial will refer women with ‘red flag’ symptoms, saving them the stress and time of booking a GP appointment
• Health and Social Care Secretary confirmed update during speech at the Royal College of GPs’ conference in Liverpool

Women with worrying lumps are to be directly referred to a breast diagnostic clinic using the NHS App as part of a new trial, the Health and Social Care Secretary announced today.

This will lead to faster diagnosis for cancer patients and free up more GP appointments.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, confirmed the update during a speech at the Royal College of GPs’ conference in Liverpool.

From November the local pilot will see 111 online – available on the app – refer women in Somerset who need diagnostic testing, saving them the stress and time of booking a GP appointment.

The scheme will be evaluated before any further roll-out could be considered.

He also outlined the series of steps the government is taking to support the primary care sector, including better use of NHS data.

The Health and Social Care Secretary said:

The other frustration I hear from staff and patients alike are the pointless appointments you’re forced to hold and patients are forced to attend. You didn’t go through 5 years of medical school plus 5 years of training to tick boxes.

So where there are appointments that can be cut out, with patients seen by specialists faster and GPs’ time freed up to do what only GPs can do, we will act.

Starting in November, 111 online, which is available through the NHS App, will pilot directly referring women with a worrying lump to a breast clinic. That means faster diagnosis for cancer patients.

And more GP appointments freed up. Better for patients and better for GPs. I suspect there are cases that come across your desks every week, where a patient has been passed to you by someone else in the NHS to refer them on to someone else in the NHS.

It is a waste of everyone’s time, including yours, and where you give us examples of patient pathways that can be simplified through appropriate patient self-referral or direct referral by other NHS services to save your time, we will act.

Data is the future of the NHS and will enable innovation across the health service. Creating single patient records will form a vital part of the ‘10-Year Health Plan’ – ensuring that crucial information is held electronically and connected across hospitals and general practices.

This will let NHS staff make effective decisions that get patients the care they need faster.

Alongside this, the government will take action to support ground-breaking research. If a patient consents to the data in their GP records being shared with certain approved studies, NHS England will take responsibility for making this happen, while making sure patients’ data is kept safe by requiring the highest standards of data security and patient consent processes from these studies.

Discussing the single patient data record, the Health and Social Care Secretary said:

We need to work together to create a single patient record, owned by the patient, shared across the system so that every part of the NHS has a full picture of the patient.

This applies as much to research as to care. The two go hand in hand. World-leading studies like the UK Biobank, Genomics England and Our Future Health are building up incredibly detailed profiles of our nation’s health.

Patients have given their consent for their data to be shared with these studies. But we still see, far too often, that this data is not shared according to patients’ wishes.

That’s why I am directing NHS England to take away this burden from you. Just like they did during the pandemic, if a patient explicitly consents to sharing their data with a study, NHS England will take responsibility for making this happen. In return, we will demand the highest standards of data security.

Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS Medical Director for Transformation, said:

New technology has the power to transform how we manage our healthcare – we’re excited to be piloting in Somerset whether 111 online could refer women with red flag symptoms for breast cancer checks without the need to see a GP, and this is just the start of our plans to bring NHS services to patients through the app.

Our ambition is to create a single patient record so that health staff can see your medical history at the touch of the button without you needing to repeat it again and again, and we want to create a future where the data that the NHS holds can be used to save lives by predicting who is most at risk of developing cancer or other diseases, and taking action to prevent them.

While UK Biobank, Genomics England and Our Future Health are building the profiles of people’s health, too often this data is not shared according to patients’ wishes.

This change will ensure it happens and demand the highest levels of data security.

Doing so will make new treatments available, bolster the life sciences industry, and make the NHS more sustainable for the long term by accelerating the shift from sickness to prevention.

A Red Tape Challenge will also be launched to free up GPs time and cut down on bureaucracy.

The challenge will be led by Claire Fuller, Primary Care Medical Director for NHSE, and Stella Vig, Medical Director for Secondary Care and Quality.

They will ask GPs, hospitals and integrated care boards what works well and what needs to change before the feedback is considered by a review group made up of frontline doctors in primary and secondary care.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 September 2024.

Devastating strikes come to an end as junior doctors accept pay offer by 66%.

Junior doctors have accepted the government’s pay offer by 66%, after the most prolonged industrial dispute in the NHS’s history.

Under the deal – which the Health Secretary agreed with BMA leadership within 3 weeks of coming into office – the government and junior doctors will work together to turn the health service around and resolve wider issues affecting the workforce, including training and rotational placements.

As Lord Ara Darzi set out in his probe into the NHS, this government inherited a broken NHS which is in a critical condition. This is a sentiment shared by doctors, and has been seriously compounded by the impact of strikes.

The deal comes days after the Prime Minister delivered a major speech on NHS reform, saying the government has a profound responsibility to do the hard work required to fix the NHS with long-term reform, and the NHS workforce will play an integral part in both designing and delivering the government’s 10-year health plan to deliver the necessary reform.

The price of not settling the pay dispute has seen catastrophic impacts not just on the country’s economy – with NHS strikes costing the taxpayer almost £1.7 billion since April last year – but to patients and the nation’s health, with over 1.5 million appointments cancelled. Ending this chaos is a necessary first step in turning around the NHS.

Doctors can now focus on treating their patients, and work with the government to recover and reform the NHS. The government has already taken action to remove red tape preventing general practices from hiring doctors – ensuring more than 1,000 newly qualified GPs can be recruited by the end of the year.

NHS patients will have earlier access to new treatments and the UK will become the home of cutting-edge health research after the launch of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicine Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) Investment Programme last month – a joint public-private investment programme worth up to £400 million.

The Darzi report has also been welcomed by NHS England and health organisations who have pledged to work closely with the government on its mission to rebuild the NHS.

The Health and Social Care Secretary made reaching a deal his top priority on coming into office, and first spoke with the BMA’s junior doctors committee on his first day, ahead of the offer being agreed within weeks.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:

We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March.

Things should never have been allowed to get this bad. That’s why I made ending the strikes a priority, and we negotiated an end to them in just three weeks.

I am pleased that our offer has been accepted, ending the strikes ahead of looming winter pressures on the NHS.

This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service, and make it fit for the future.

The cumulative impact of the uplifts mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see their basic pay increase to £36,600, compared to around £32,400 before the deal.

Recognising how disruptive the system of rotations can be for junior doctors, their partners and families, the department will lead a review of the current system, with the intention of reforming the number and frequency of rotations.

We will also be working with NHS England on a review of training numbers, both to address the training bottlenecks which already exist and the planned expansion of medical school places, to ensure patients have access to the junior doctors they need today, and the consultants and GPs they will need in the future.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 10 September 2024.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced the appointment of Tom Riordan to the role of Second Permanent Secretary. The appointment has been made with the approval of the Prime Minister.

Tom brings his 14-year experience as Chief Executive of Leeds City Council to the role, where he oversaw reforms to integrate health and social care. This included prioritising preventative health measures and tackling health disparities to improve public health and protect the health system.

Having also focused on health improvement – a key driver of growth – at Leeds City Council, Tom’s recruitment signals the government’s focus on health reform and the integration of health, social care and prevention.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, said:

I am delighted to be welcoming Tom to this role. He is a proven public service reformer with extensive experience in health and social care system transformation and preventative healthcare. His experience will be invaluable as we deliver the mission of this government to build an NHS and social care system fit for the future.

DHSC Permanent Secretary, Sir Chris Wormald, said:

Tom has a fantastic record in health reform, public service and local government, and I am delighted he will be bringing his expertise and leadership to the department. I very much look forward to welcoming him at the end of the month and working together to deliver on the government’s health mission.

Tom Riordan said:

I’m really excited to be joining the team at the department and coming back to the Civil Service where I started my career. There are few bigger challenges than health and social care, and not many bigger opportunities to make a positive difference to people. I’ll miss my brilliant colleagues and partners in Leeds, and in the local government family, and it’ll be great to be working in the city now as a stakeholder. I can’t wait to get started.

The role of Second Permanent Secretary was held by Shona Dunn until June 2024.

Tom will begin the role on 23 September 2024. The appointment follows an open recruitment competition overseen by the Civil Service Commission.

Background information

Tom has been the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council since 2010 during which time he led the regeneration of Leeds city centre and modernised services to improve children’s services and pioneer the Home First adult social care programme.

Tom undertook a secondment to NHS Test and Trace in 2020. His earlier career included his role as Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward between 2005 and 2010, and earlier roles in the Department for Environment.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 6 September 2024.

Paul Corrigan brings extensive sector experience and will work on emerging policy to support the government on successfully delivering better health services.

• Paul Corrigan has accepted a direct ministerial appointment to the Department of Health and Social Care
• Paul will work closely with Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, to shape the government’s 10-year health plan and provide independent scrutiny of its structure and implementation

The government has committed to 3 strategic shifts in its mission for health: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention.

These ambitions have been long held in the health and care sector but have not, as yet, been successfully delivered.

With this in mind, Secretary of State, Wes Streeting, is bringing in additional experience to support the government to turn visions for better health services into successful delivery.

Paul has previously worked as a government adviser, and has undertaken several executive and non-executive roles across the health and care sector, including positions held at NHS London Strategic Health Authority, Care Quality Commission and Care City. He joins the department to work on emerging policy and delivery issues.

The appointment is a paid role, which began on 11 July 2024 and is for a 12-month period with the possibility of extension. It is not a Civil Service appointment.

Paul’s arrival reflects the scale and complexity of the challenges facing the health and care system. He brings a combination of intellect, experience managing organisational change, and a history of personal effectiveness in all his previous roles.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 30 August 2024.

More than 130,000 people across the country will be better protected from diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

• Life-saving health checks being rolled out to more than 100,000 people across the country
• NHS Health Check could save hundreds from preventable deadly diseases, along with freeing up NHS appointments to cut waiting lists
• Local authorities in Norfolk, Medway and Lambeth selected as pilot sites to trial digital checks at home

More than 130,000 people across the country will be better protected from diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes, as the government today (30 August 2024) rolls out a life-saving health check programme to workplaces across the country for the first time.

The checks, which can be completed quickly and easily for employees at work, record a range of information about each patient, which is then used to determine their cardiovascular risk.

Employers from a range of professions will take part in the programme including those from the building, hospitality and transport sectors, and social care.

Today’s announcement is part of the Health and Social Care Secretary’s commitment to supporting the government’s mission to boost economic growth by improving the health of the nation.

With every check providing the equivalent of an NHS appointment, these checks will save thousands of hours of valuable NHS time, helping to cut waiting lists and rebuild the NHS.

Andrew Gwynne, Minister for Public Health and Prevention, said:

We know so many deadly diseases can be avoided if we seek help in enough time. That’s why we’re working to improve access to treatment while also taking steps to address the preventable causes of cardiovascular disease.

This innovative new programme is an important step towards community-focused healthcare and supporting economic and productivity through improving health, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention, easing the strain on the NHS and helping people to live well for longer.

Over 16 million people are eligible for an NHS Health Check, but current data shows that only around 40% of those invited went on to complete one. This is especially true for men, who are less likely to get early help but who are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease at an earlier age than women. This new programme aims to reach more people through their place of work and make it more convenient for people to understand and improve their cardiovascular health.

NHS National Clinical Director for Stroke, David Hargroves, said:

Convenient and efficient NHS checks in the workplace could spot thousands of people at risk of a range of cardiovascular diseases, and with high blood pressure the biggest risk factor for stroke, early detection will undoubtedly save lives.

This new programme shows the NHS is committed to preventing ill health and I would urge anyone invited for a check to come forward and get support to improve their cardiovascular health.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Chair of the Local Government Association, said:

Health checks can save lives. They can prevent people from developing largely preventable diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

Councils are exploring new ways to boost uptake, targeting individuals or communities at increased risk, and using proactive outreach programmes to get into those communities who are less likely to attend their general practice.

However, there is more that can be done, and by partnering council and employers, we can make sure more people get a health check and hopefully prevent illness later on.

Jaguar Land Rover Chief Medical Officer, Dr Steve Iley, said:

Jaguar Land Rover is investing £15 million a year in its global health and wellbeing programmes because we know that healthy and happy colleagues help us to deliver high-quality products and ensure a positive future for our business. Health checks are a fundamental part of prevention and therefore feature in many of our programmes.

Our collaboration with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council on the workplace cardiovascular disease checks pilot presents a unique opportunity to work together on providing awareness and signposting for our employees.

We are excited to provide these vital checks to approximately 4,500 of our Solihull employees before the end of this financial year, thus supporting the great work of our NHS.

In addition, the government has today also announced the development of a new digital version of the NHS Health Check which will be ready for testing early in 2025.

The service will be available through the NHS App, meaning users can undertake their health check at home and have the results automatically written back into their GP electronic health record, within a few clicks.

Local authorities in Norfolk (East of England), Medway (South East) and Lambeth (London) have been selected to pilot the new digital health checks in early 2025.

The digital programme will deliver around one million checks in its first 4 years. Plans are being put in place to make digital NHS Health Checks available nationally, alongside the face-to-face programme to give patients more choice.