NHS National Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “The NHS is set to experience the equivalent of five ‘Christmas Days’ in the next three weeks, where many routine services and appointments may not be delivered. While colleagues are working hard to ensure we keep patients safe and prioritise emergency and critical care, the collective […]

Millions of eligible people in England can book their life-saving autumn Covid vaccine online from today (18 September) as the NHS steps up its winter vaccination programmes early in response to the risk of the new Covid variant. Anyone eligible can book their Covid vaccinations via the NHS website, by downloading the NHS App, or […]

The NHS is preparing for a historic walkout which will affect almost all planned care as the first ever joint strike by consultants and junior doctors begins this week. Consultants begin their strike action on Tuesday (19 Sept) and are joined by junior doctors on Wednesday (20 Sept). On Wednesday from 7am, both junior doctors […]

The NHS has delivered a record number of potentially lifesaving tests and checks with over 25 million carried out in the last year, new data shows. Figures released this week show NHS staff delivered more than 25 million checks (25,377,280 August – July) in a year for patients – two million more compared to the […]

Ambulance response times improved for the third month in a row despite A&Es facing their busiest summer ever, new figures show. There were more than 6.5 million attendances in A&Es (6,522,000) across June, July and August – more than 20,000 higher than the previous record in 2019 (6,498,472). Following the publication of the Urgent and […]

Residents of older adult care homes and people who are housebound will begin receiving their covid and flu vaccinations from today, as the NHS kickstarts the winter vaccinations campaign. The adult covid and flu vaccination programme, which was brought forward based on the latest expert advice following the emergence of a new covid-19 variant, will […]

More than one million people (1,052,083) have been invited for a lung cancer check, as part of the biggest programme to improve early lung cancer diagnosis in health service history. The NHS has invited former and current smokers to attend a consultation in convenient locations such as football stadiums, shopping car parks and town centres […]

Rising temperatures have led to a surge in people seeking heat exhaustion advice from the NHS website this week – with visits peaking at one every eight seconds on Thursday.  Figures released by NHS England, which runs the NHS website, show there were 32,130 visits to the health advice page on heat exhaustion and heatstroke […]

NHS boards have more disabled members than ever before, new NHS data shows. Published today, the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) annual report shows disabled people make up 1 in 20 (4.8%) of voting members on NHS boards – up from 3.8% in 2021, the last time this was measured and the highest number on […]

More support will be provided to NHS staff who have suffered harassment or inappropriate behaviour, thanks to a first of its kind sexual safety charter. The charter is an agreement with 10 pledges including commitments to provide staff with clear reporting mechanisms, training, and support. NHS chiefs are today calling on organisations across the health […]