Thousands of lives could be saved thanks to the roll-out of an improved anti-smoking pill on the NHS in England, the head of the health service will announce today. Varenicline has been shown to work as well as vapes to help people stop smoking and be a more effective aid than nicotine-replacement gum or patches. […]

Smoking-related hospital admissions in England increased by nearly 5% in 2022-23, compared to the previous year, but remain lower than before the Covid pandemic. Latest statistics from NHS England show that in 2022-23 there were an estimated 408,700 hospital admissions due to smoking, a rise from 389,800 in 2021-22 (an increase of 4.8%). The newly […]

Thousands of lives have been saved and almost 17,000 strokes prevented, thanks to the rapid roll-out of blood-thinning drugs on the NHS, the head of the health service will announce today. New data shows almost half a million people at increased risk of strokes have started taking life-saving direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), in the last […]

The NHS is expanding blood pressure checks available in local communities including barbershops, mosques and at a dominoes club, as part of a major drive to prevent strokes and heart attacks. Thanks to the learning from the NHS covid vaccination programme, local teams are reaching out into their neighbourhoods to find potential health problems before […]

A post-pandemic drive to help people stay well, greater use of technology to put power into the hands of patients and treating people closer to home should be at the heart of NHS plans, an independent report said today. The NHS Assembly, an independent advisory group established in 2019, consulted staff, patient groups, carers, charities, […]

TV presenters Tommy Walsh and Alan Titchmarsh have joined forces with the NHS to support a first-of-its-kind cancer awareness campaign. In a new film discussing the importance of bowel cancer screening, the famous faces will urge those eligible to return their lifesaving bowel cancer screening home tests. Recent data showed almost one third (30%) of […]

The NHS has stopped thousands of people from getting type 2 diabetes, thanks to the world leading NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, new research shows today. Analysis by University of Manchester researchers shows the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was one fifth lower in people with raised blood sugars referred to the programme, compared to […]

The burns and scalds page is viewed once every 16 seconds as the nation gets cooking. Visits to the NHS website’s advice on burns and scalds nearly doubles on Pancake Day, latest figures show. The number of page views for help with burns injuries jumps from a daily average of 3,200 to 5,300 on Pancake […]

Millions of people in England who have been sent a lifesaving home testing kit that can detect early signs of bowel cancer are being encouraged to use it and return it, as part of a new, first-of-a-kind NHS campaign. Launching today across TV, radio, video on demand and social media, the NHS national campaign aims […]

More than 86 million Covid vaccination appointments have been arranged using the NHS’s national online booking system since its launch two years ago. The national booking service, which is managed by NHS England, launched in January 2021 to allow people to book their Covid vaccine online and via the 119 phoneline. The service is easy […]