News
NHS England South East is urging people to think before heading to emergency departments this Easter weekend and beyond as upcoming resident doctors’ strikes take place
People across the South East are being urged to use NHS 111 online as their first port of call for non-emergency medical advice over the Easter bank holiday weekend (3–6 April). With health services expected to be busy over the long weekend, and resident doctors due to start industrial action for six days from 7am […]
Hundreds of thousands more older people in the South East now eligible for NHS RSV vaccine
Hundreds of thousands of older people across the South East can now get protected against a serious lung infection, as the NHS expands its Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination programme. An estimated 530,000 adults aged 80 and over, as well as all residents in care homes for older adults, in the South East are now […]
NHS England South East to introduce an automated cataract care pathway
NHS England South East has successfully procured a new, regionwide automated cataract care pathway, jointly funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England South East region. The platform will modernise and standardise the cataract pathway, making the patient journey simpler and faster, while maintaining strong clinical oversight and patient safety. Anne Eden South East Regional Director NHS England, said: “This is a major […]
NHSE South East announces new Regional Chair
NHSE South East announces the appointment of Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery as NHS England South East Regional Chair, following an open and competitive appointment process. Sir Jonathan joins us from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where he has been Chair since April 2019. As set out in the Model Region Blueprint, as Regional Chair Sir […]
Urgent Community Response teams helping more people avoid hospital admissions across the South East and consistently beating target response rates
Urgent Community Response (UCR) teams across the South East are helping more people receive rapid care at home, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and easing pressure on busy emergency departments and ambulance services. Figures show that in December 2025, UCR teams in the South East reached 86% of people referred to them within the national two‑hour standard — above the national average of 84% and […]
NHS urges people to ‘tap the app’ as one in five miss appointments in South East
Nearly 1 in 5 of people in the South East have missed an NHS appointment because they forgot or arrived too late, according to a new survey. The findings come as the NHS launches a new campaign urging people to turn on ‘push alerts’ from the NHS App so they get reminders about appointments and can rearrange any they can’t make, helping to free up millions of appointments […]
New bone scanners in the South East to help prevent fractures and cut waiting times
Thousands of patients at risk of osteoporosis and other bone conditions will benefit from faster access to vital bone scans, as new DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scanners are rolled out across the South East of England. The new machines at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust will help diagnose fragile bones earlier and prevent painful, lifechanging fractures — particularly […]
NHS in the South East steps up action to tackle cancer inequalities with community‑led programmes and earlier diagnosis initiatives
Across the South East the NHS is stepping up action to tackle cancer inequalities, with new community‑led programmes and early diagnosis initiatives helping more people access life‑saving information, screening and support. The work underpins the ambitions of the national cancer plan: diagnosing more cancers earlier, reducing variation in outcomes, and ensuring people from every community can access timely, high‑quality care. Across the South East, Cancer […]
South East leads the country for breast cancer screening uptake as more women come forward for lifesaving checks
Women across the South East are leading the way in protecting their health, with the region achieving the highest breast screening uptake in England. New NHS data shows 73.3% of women aged 50–70 attended their appointment between 2024-2025 with almost 19,000 more women screened than the year before. The latest figures also show that 347,407 women in the region […]
“NHS Talking Therapies was a life saver”: NHS South East urges people to seek support as new campaign highlights how Talking Therapies can help with common anxiety conditions
Nearly 6 in 10 people in the South East delay seeking help for anxiety‑related mental health conditions because they worry their symptoms ‘aren’t serious enough’, new NHS survey data shows. Almost one in five (19%) do not seek help at all. To encourage more people to come forward, NHS England South East is supporting a […]