Doctor

Exclusive: Doctors say ‘highly concerning’ poll highlights risk to patients of turning to AI for medical adviceOne in seven people are using AI chatbots for health advice instead of seeing their GP, a UK study has found.The poll of more than 2,000 people found that – of the 15% turning to chatbots – one in four had done so because of long NHS waiting lists. Continue reading...

The First Nations woman has been on the priority public housing list in WA since 2023. Despite nearly dying from sleeping rough, she still has a two year wait.Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe family of a homeless First Nations woman who is sick with septicemia fear she will die without a safe home, but advocates warn it could be years before she reaches the top of the public housing waiting list.Andrea Woodley has been in and out of hospital for weeks with sepsis, triggered by infected blisters on her feet after sleeping rough in inner city Perth. The Noongar, Budimaya and Nyikina woman and her loved ones fear that without a home she is at risk of death. Continue reading...

British Medical Association says review into gender identity services was ‘robust’ after previously rejecting findingsThe trade union representing doctors across the UK has dropped its opposition to the findings of the Cass review of gender identity services across the NHS.The British Medical Association (BMA) had previously rejected the findings of the landmark review of transgender healthcare, with the medical body refusing to endorse the report’s findings. Continue reading...

Quashed studies, halted publications and canceled research threaten damage to public health, critics saySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A series of high-profile and under-the-radar decisions by US health agencies have scientists and doctors questioning the extent of the agencies’ control over public communications – and they say the debate is obscuring the most important part, which is informing the public about key updates in science and medicine.Studies on the safety of vaccines against shingles and Covid were reportedly quashed before publication by officials at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The news follows the hasty halt on publication of a study on the effectiveness of Covid boosters by the top acting official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and research terminated or never approved in the first place because of keywords such as “hesitancy” and “misinformation” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Continue reading...

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) inadvertently exposed Social Security numbers of thousands of doctors through a data breach. • The agency failed to adequately secure sensitive personal information in its systems, raising concerns about federal data protection practices. • The breach has prompted investigations into CMS security protocols and potential regulatory reforms.

Researchers say results mark a ‘profound change in technology that will reshape medicine’From George Clooney in ER to Noah Wyle in The Pitt, emergency department doctors have long been popular heroes. But will it soon be time to hang up the scrubs?A groundbreaking Harvard study has found that AI systems outperformed human doctors in high-pressure emergency medicine triage, diagnosing more accurately in the potentially life and death moments when people are first rushed to hospital. Continue reading...

Hisham Abugharbieh has been charged in the deaths of his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriendSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe man charged with killing two University of South Florida doctoral students from Bangladesh allegedly asked ChatGPT about what happens if a person has been put in a garbage bag and “thrown in a dumpster”, according to prosecutors in a court filing.He also allegedly bought duct tape and trash bags in the days leading up to the students’ disappearance. Continue reading...

Hisham Abugharbieh was arrested after standoff with police and charged with killing Zamil Limon and Nahida BristyThe man who was detained after two Bangladeshi doctoral students went missing from the University of South Florida (USF) has been booked with two counts of murder.Hisham Abugharbieh faces two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, the Hillsborough county sheriff’s office announced on Saturday. Continue reading...

Hisham Abugharbeih, 26, taken into custody after remains of Zamil Limon found, as search for Nahida Bristy continuesThe body of one of two Bangladeshi doctoral students missing from the University of South Florida (USF) was found on a bridge over Tampa Bay, and his roommate has been taken into custody, law enforcement authorities said Friday.Zamil Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Frankland Bridge on Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing, Hillsborough county sheriff’s office chief deputy Joseph Maurer said. Continue reading...

• Gallup survey of over 5,500 U.S. adults from Oct-Dec 2025 finds 25% use AI for health info, with 59% researching before doctor visits. • About 14 million adults skipped provider visits in past 30 days after AI advice, though only 4% strongly trust its accuracy. • Low trust levels (33% trust, 34% distrust) raise concerns on AI's role in U.S. healthcare decisions amid access barriers.

Deal for resident doctors was in sight when sudden change by ministers forced latest action, says Jack FletcherMinisters killed the chance to end strikes by resident doctors when they suddenly reduced the amount of money they were offering to secure the peace deal, the doctors’ leader claims.Dr Jack Fletcher accused the government of “playing games” and forcing resident doctors to embark on their 15th strike over pay and jobs, which is disrupting the NHS this week. Continue reading...

Cuba accuses US of ‘extorting’ countries in pushing them to axe deals with Havana to send doctors on medical missionsCuba’s foreign minister has accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries by putting pressure on them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors.Bruno Rodríguez said the United States was trying to “strangle” the economy of the communist island, which earns billions from its foreign medical missions, after several countries stopped deploying Cuban doctors. Continue reading...

Prosecutors alleged Gerhardt Konig, 47, had planned to kill Arielle Konig during a birthday trip to HonoluluA Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a cliffside hike last year has been convicted of attempted manslaughter, a lesser charge.A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations. Continue reading...

Sir Jim Mackey said hospitals were struggling to fill rotas because six-day walkout was scheduled over holidayThe latest strike by resident doctors in England has been “deliberately timed to cause havoc” by coinciding with hospital staff’s Easter holidays, the head of the NHS has claimed.Hospitals have struggled to find enough doctors to replace those who have refused to work during the six-day walkout, Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, said. Continue reading...

The health secretary and the BMA trade accusations over who bears responsibility for the collapse of talksGood morning. Resident doctors in English hospitals started a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many of them will continue to work, but there will be enough of them joining the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can deliver. It is the 15th resident doctors (who used to be known as junior doctors) have been on stage since they launched a campaign in 2023 to get their pay back to the equivalent level it used to be before austerity kicked in after the financial crash.This morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, deployed a new statistic in his PR battle against the BMA, the doctors’ union organised the strikes. He confirmed a figure highlighted in the Daily Mail’s splash saying strikes by resident doctors have now cost the country £3bn.We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health secretary says industrial action in England also threatens to derail NHS progress on waiting timesWes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England.The health secretary said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages but that the British Medical Association had scuppered any chance of a breakthrough when it rejected what he said was a serious offer from the government to transform medics’ conditions. Continue reading...

Withdrawal of additional speciality training roles amid strike deadlock has left some doctors with uncertain futureAfter almost two years on the NHS frontline as a resident doctor, Heather Gunn says she is bracing herself for unemployment. Like many of her colleagues, she was desperate to secure one of the up to 4,500 additional training posts the government agreed to introduce in England over three years to help doctors progress into more specialised fields.The posts were promised in negotiations between the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the government in a long-running dispute over resident doctors’ pay and job security. Continue reading...

People encouraged to ‘come forward as normal’ when BMA members begin industrial action over pay on TuesdayThe NHS is urging patients not to put off seeking the care they need when resident doctors press ahead with strike action from Tuesday, a stoppage that the health secretary has called “disappointing”.Tens of thousands of resident doctors in England are to stage a six-day strike after the government took a key part of its offer off the table. Continue reading...

Senior figures express concerns over medical union’s refusal of pay rise that is higher than offer to other NHS staffTrade unions have privately expressed qualms about the forthcoming doctors’ strikes, expressing frustration at the conduct of the talks and the demands of the British Medical Association.The BMA is pushing for a pay rise higher than the 3.5% offered to doctors by the government, with strikes planned for next week. Continue reading...

Episodes from William Hartnell era are from mostly lost 12-part adventure called The Daleks’ Master PlanTwo episodes of Doctor Who from the William Hartnell era, which have not been seen since 1965, have been released after being discovered in a private film collection.The two episodes, released on Friday and starring Peter Purves as the Doctor’s companion, are parts one and three of a mostly lost 12-part adventure called The Daleks’ Master Plan, written by the Dalek creator Terry Nation and broadcast as part of the third series of Doctor Who in November 1965. Continue reading...

Six-day stoppage in England next week to go ahead and minister confirms offer of extra training places withdrawnThe NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Many thousands of resident – formerly junior – doctors across England will stage a six-day stoppage over pay and jobs starting at 7am on Tuesday, just after the Easter weekend. A deadline for agreement ended on Thursday. Continue reading...

British Medical Association leaders say PM’s threat to axe posts makes strike action more likelyResident doctors have accused Keir Starmer of damaging the prospects of a deal to end their pay and jobs dispute by threatening to axe 1,000 new jobs for medics in the NHS.The claim from the British Medical Association leaders came just before the Thursday deadline given by the prime minister for the union to accept the government’s final offer. Continue reading...

Jurors hear 19-year-old recount FaceTime call after alleged cliffside attack on Oahu during wife’s birthday tripSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe son of a Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife testified on Tuesday that his father told him that his wife had been cheating on him and that he had “tried to kill her”.Emile Konig, 19, told jurors that he had received two FaceTime calls from his father, Gerhardt Konig, 47, on the morning of 24 March 2025 – the same day prosecutors allege that Gerhardt attempted to murder his wife, Arielle Konig, 37, during a hike on Oahu’s “Pali Puka” trail. Continue reading...

Union says there has been ‘far too little progress’ in talks over pay and career developmentUK politics live – latest updatesSenior doctors in England are to be balloted over the prospect of strikes, the British Medical Association has announced.The union said that simultaneous ballots of consultants and specialist, associate specialist, and speciality (SAS) doctors would run from 11 May to 6 July as both sets of medics escalate their disputes with the government. Continue reading...

Prime minister threatens to withdraw NHS training posts for residents doctors if they don’t call off strikeGood morning. Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee later to discuss the Iran war, but domestic issues don’t go away and he (or, to be more accurate, his staff) have also found time to write an article for the Times delivering a warning to resident doctors in England planning to go on strike. As Jamie Grierson reports, the PM is threatening to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts for resident doctors if they do not call off the strike within 48 hours.Judging by what Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA resident doctors committee, told the Today programme in an interview this morning, Starmer may have as little success with his ultimatum as Donald Trump seems to be having with his inconsistent and increasingly apocalyptic warnings to what is left of the Iranian government.I’m very happy to sit down with the government at any point to try and negotiate a settlement, but I don’t think that’s done by writing in newspapers and issuing threats unilaterally.The government made very late changes to the pay offer, reducing the pay investment and stretching it over a longer period in a way that had not been previously talked about.Ministers effectively moved the goalposts on the deal at the last minute.Two weeks ago, the government took that investment, reduced it, and then stretched it over three years. That is a very, very, very different outcome to the one that we were discussing just two weeks ago. Continue reading...

PM says decision by union to reject offer including thousands of extra training posts and 7.1% pay rise without putting it to members for a vote is ‘reckless’Keir Starmer has threatened to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts if resident doctors do not call off a six-day strike after Easter.The prime minister has given the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, 48 hours to ditch its plans for industrial action or the government will pull the current offer from the table. Continue reading...

• A new COVID variant is under monitoring as medical experts assess potential health risks and transmission patterns. • Dr. Alok Patel of Stanford Children's Health discussed emerging trends in AI-driven health advice and its growing adoption among patients. • The simultaneous focus on variant surveillance and AI health tools reflects evolving healthcare delivery and disease monitoring approaches.

BMA’s decision to withdraw from talks with government and NHS chiefs has sparked a war of wordsNHS bosses have accused resident doctors of seeking to cause “maximum harm” to patients by striking for six days next month over pay and jobs.Wes Streeting has given resident – formerly junior – doctors in England until 2 April to reconsider their rejection on Wednesday of his “generous” offer to end the dispute. It would have given them £700m in extra pay over the next three years. Continue reading...