NHS patients with a life-threatening heart condition are set to benefit from a cutting-edge new medicine which can significantly reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death. The drug, tafamidis, is the first ever approved treatment for a cohort of patients in England with a rare heart condition known as transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), where clumps […]

More than half of England’s care home residents have received their spring covid-19 vaccine from the NHS in the past four weeks.  Over 155,000 people (52%) have received the potentially life-saving jab since the NHS began administering it in older adult care homes on Monday 15 April. Overall, 2.5 million people across England have now […]

Thousands of people with sight loss in England will find it easier to participate in life-saving bowel cancer screening thanks to a new specially designed NHS tool. People who are blind or partially sighted will be offered a specially designed tool to support them complete faecal immunochemical test (FIT) kit, which can detect signs of […]

The NHS is to roll out a “game-changing” new laser beam therapy next month to help reduce seizures for patients with epilepsy. The cutting-edge fibre optic laser therapy, known as Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT), targets the part of the brain causing seizures without the need for invasive surgery. The treatment will now be rolled out […]

An expansion of same day emergency care services across the country has seen thousands more people every week get the rapid tests and treatment they need to avoid an overnight stay in hospital – with the total up by more than a tenth in just a year. New data shows there has been an 11% […]

A blood test which could help thousands of people receive earlier, more targeted, lung cancer treatments is being trialled by the NHS. The circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) test, which will be offered to 10,000 patients by next March, can identify genetic variants in a tumour through a simple blood sample. Patients that receive CT scan […]

Hundreds of NHS patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease are set to benefit from a portable drug infusion that is gradually released around-the-clock to help better control their symptoms. The treatment, called foslevodopa–foscarbidopa, will now offer an additional option for certain patients experiencing movement-related symptoms and whose condition is no longer responding to their oral medicines. […]

The head of the NHS has today announced the rollout of ‘Martha’s Rule’ in hospitals across England from April, enabling patients and families to seek an urgent review if their condition deteriorates. The patient safety initiative is set to be rolled out to at least 100 NHS sites and will give patients and their families […]

Two million more GP appointments a month are being delivered for patients compared to the same month before the pandemic, as part of the NHS primary care access recovery plan. New NHS data published today shows more than 25.7 million appointments (excluding Covid vaccinations) were delivered by GP practices in December 2023, an increase of […]

Patients in England will be able to get treatment for seven common conditions at their high street pharmacy from today without needing to see a GP, as part of a major transformation in the way the NHS delivers care. More than nine in ten community pharmacies in England – 10,265 in total – will be […]