Patients

Exclusive: Oxevision system used by 40% of NHS mental health trusts being scrutinised by information commissioner over privacy concernsThe information commissioner has launched an investigation into a controversial camera-based system for monitoring patients in their bedrooms, used by 40% of NHS mental health trusts, over data protection concerns.Oxevision is described by patients as “creepy” and a form of “spying”, and has been blamed by a bereaved mother for contributing to her daughter’s sense of paranoia before she took her own life.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Supply problems pose risk to health, with common painkillers, epilepsy medication and HRT affectedBritons are facing some of the “most severe” shortages of NHS medicines on record including common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and HRT, health leaders have warned, even forcing some patients with impaired digestive systems to skip meals.The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that medicine shortages pose a “serious risk to patient safety”. Continue reading...

Doctors say therapy that genetically modifies person’s T-cells could offer cure for chronic autoimmune diseaseFive lupus patients in England are in remission after being treated with a revolutionary therapy that genetically modifies their own cells, in a medical breakthrough that could offer people a cure, doctors have said.CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy involves removing a type of white blood cell also called T lymphocytes, which are crucial for hunting out infected or damaged cells, and engineering them to spot and destroy disease. The T-cells are then fed back into the patient via an infusion to reset their immune system. Continue reading...

Regulator approval means patients who meet criteria such as having obesity will be able to purchase pills with private prescriptionPatients will soon be able to buy the Wegovy weight-loss pill, the medicines regulator announced today.It is the first GLP-1 receptor agonist tablet for weight-loss to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), making the UK the third country to authorise the pills, behind the US and the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading...

Published for the first time, the data recorded 2,241 daily cases of A&E corridor care, with 699 patients also treated in other inappropriate settingsAlmost 3,000 patients a day in England are receiving care in hospital corridors due to an unavailability of beds in A&E units across the country, according to official figures.Corridor care occurs when a patient receives treatment in a setting that is clinically inappropriate and is deemed to be undignified and unsafe. Continue reading...

NHS bosses urge all hospitals to use ‘digital triage’ process to combat overcrowding in emergency servicesPatients who turn up at A&E with non-urgent ailments could be told to come back another time under NHS plans to stop hospitals becoming overcrowded and avoid the service’s usual winter crisis.Eighteen hospitals in England are already using “digital triage assessment” to help A&E staff decide which patients need to be seen right away or be dealt with in another way. Continue reading...

Lord Mann’s review prompts new training for health bosses and restrictions on political symbols on uniformsThe NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service.Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and staff “suffer in silence”, a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, has found. Continue reading...

Durvalumab shows promising results in trial led by London-based Institute of Cancer ResearchDoctors are hailing a drug that spares bladder cancer patients “life-changing” surgery and stops tumours coming back.Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world. Advanced or aggressive forms are often treated with surgery to remove the entire bladder, with patients left having to find alternative ways to pass urine for the rest of their life. Continue reading...

• Following the resignation of Commissioner Marty Makary, the FDA is seeking a new leader to oversee the agency's commitment to accelerating treatment access for rare disease patients. • The urgency is highlighted by UX111 gene therapy, which clinical trials show can reduce toxin buildup for over eight years and slow cognitive decline if administered early. • This transition is critical because children unable to access UX111 through clinical trials continue to suffer irreversible losses while awaiting formal FDA approval.

• A study by researchers from University College London, King’s College London, and the University of Oxford found that younger UK generations are becoming sicker earlier than previous ones. • The research analyzed health trends across cohorts born between 1946 and 2000–02, identifying a rise in early-onset illness. • This trend is primarily attributed to increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, and mental health issues among younger populations.

Jab brought ‘unprecedentedly strong responses’ in patients whose disease had become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapyDoctors have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients.In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments. Continue reading...

Results presented at oncology conference in Chicago show Galleri test failed to reduce late-stage cancer diagnosesA blood test for more than 50 types of cancer that was billed as the holy grail of oncology has failed to achieve its main objective in a major clinical trial, according to data presented at the world’s largest cancer conference.The goal of the study involving 142,000 NHS patients in the UK was to assess whether adding the multi-cancer early detection test Galleri to standard screening could shift diagnoses to earlier, more treatable stages. Continue reading...

Registration form informs patients that if they do not wish AI to be used, they will need their referring doctor to refer them to a different service providerGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Melbourne psychiatrist has refused new patients unless they agree to allow her to use an AI scribe to transcribe the conversations in their sessions.AI-driven note taking tools are becoming popular within the medical industry – with two in five general practitioners now using such scribes, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Continue reading...

Union to urge ministers to bring in mandatory minimum staffing, as ageing population increases demand for careAlmost two-thirds of nurses believe there are too few of them working in the NHS to keep patients safe and give them proper care, a survey has revealed.Understaffing and the increasingly complex medical needs posed by an ageing population are creating a “deadly mix” for patients, the Royal College of Nursing warned on Monday.64% expected to cut services this year.83% feared financial constraints will impact planned patient care and 78% worry it will affect emergency care.57% expected to cut their clinical staffing this year to save money. Continue reading...

• Researchers at UCL and UCLH conducted a trial where patients with stage 2 or 3 colorectal cancer received just nine weeks of pembrolizumab immunotherapy before surgery, challenging the standard approach of surgery followed by months of chemotherapy. • Early results showed 59% of patients had no detectable cancer after completing immunotherapy and undergoing surgery, and after 33 months of follow-up, none of the patients have experienced a relapse. • This outcome represents a significant shift in colorectal cancer treatment protocols, suggesting that short bursts of targeted immunotherapy prior to surgery may deliver more durable results than conventional post-operative chemotherapy regimens.

Alzheimer’s Research UK says patients at risk of being left behind as lack of formal or accurate diagnoses closes door to trialsPeople with Alzheimer’s disease are missing out on experimental treatments because they are not diagnosed early or accurately enough to be enrolled in clinical trials, a UK charity has said.Trials of Alzheimer’s drugs reached a record high this year, according to data published on Tuesday, but Alzheimer’s Research UK said too few UK patients were taking part because their diagnoses were delayed or were not specific enough. Continue reading...

• The Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services notified hospitals and nursing homes on May 4, 2026, to prioritize 'real food' over sugary drinks and dietary supplements in patient meals. • The policy shift faced immediate backlash from healthcare providers concerned about implementation and patient preferences. • This agenda aims to combat diet-related diseases amid rising obesity rates, potentially affecting millions of inpatients annually.

Injectable pembrolizumab can treat several types of cancer and can be administered in under two minutesThousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. Continue reading...

People with meniscus tears who underwent surgery had poorer knee function and worse osteoarthritis after 10 years than those who did notA common knee surgery for cartilage damage does not benefit patients and may lead to worse outcomes, a 10-year trial suggests.The study tracked outcomes for patients treated for a meniscus tear, who were given a partial meniscectomy, one of the most common orthopaedic surgeries. Their trajectories were compared with patients who had randomly been assigned to receive “sham surgery”, in which no procedure was carried out. Continue reading...

The drug industry’s self-regulatory body criticised Theramex for ‘alarming’ compliance issuesOne of the biggest producers of hormone replacement therapy has been censured by regulators for “systemic failures” that put patient safety in jeopardy.Theramex, the UK producer of HRT drugs Evorel and Intrarosa was found to have breached fundamental compliance standards including not updating crucial prescribing information – in some cases for several years – and not making it clear that a drug must not be used during pregnancy. Continue reading...

• Thomas Jefferson University launched a multicenter clinical trial led by Manisha Verma, MD, and Victor Navarro, MD, at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital to improve palliative care for advanced liver disease patients. • Advanced liver disease causes significant scarring and loss of function, leading to serious health challenges with limited quality-of-life support. • Funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the trial addresses a major care gap for ALD patients nationwide.

Exclusive: Pre-chemotherapy tests previously did not look for gene variant that put some ethnicities at higher risk of serious side effectsThousands of cancer patients from minority ethnic backgrounds will have access to “groundbreaking” genetic testing on the NHS that previously discriminated against them.This routine form of genetic testing, used before chemotherapy treatment, could save the lives of Black and minority ethnic cancer patients who already face poorer health outcomes after diagnosis compared with their white counterparts. Continue reading...

PhenMap tool could spare thousands of patients from treatment that would be ineffective for themA new AI-driven way of identifying how patients with advanced bowel cancer will respond to a drug that was recently introduced by the NHS has been announced.Researchers at London’s Institute of Cancer Research and the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin have developed the method with the goal of sparing potentially thousands of patients from being given drugs that would be ineffective in fighting their cancers. Continue reading...

• Eisai and Biogen announced positive top-line results from CLARITY AD trial extension on April 7, 2026, with lecanemab reducing cognitive decline by 27% over 18 months in 1,795 US patients. • Drug cleared 59% more amyloid plaques vs. placebo, with ARIA side effects in 12.6% of participants; full data at June AD/PD conference. • Approval could expand to mild cases, addressing 6.7 million US Alzheimer's sufferers; analysts predict $2.4 billion annual sales.

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...

People receive rehab only three to four days a week in hospital – and one to two days once they are discharged, data suggestsThe NHS is failing stroke patients and limiting their chances of recovery because of a shortage of rehabilitation care staff, health leaders have said.More people are surviving strokes than ever before in the UK. But their hopes of getting better are being dashed because of a lack of physiotherapists and other specialist staff, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Neurology. Continue reading...

• The SPIRIT-HF study, presented at ACC.26 in New Orleans (March 28-30, 2026), found that spironolactone increased hospitalizations and serious adverse events in patients with HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction) or HFmrEF (mildly reduced ejection fraction). • Results raise significant safety questions about the drug's efficacy in these patient populations, potentially challenging current treatment protocols. • The findings were presented to cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists at the American College of Cardiology's annual conference, the largest gathering of heart disease specialists.

Patients experiencing raised bedside rails, doors and pathways blocked by furniture and physical interventionsPeople with dementia are being subjected to restraints and non-consensual sedation while in hospitals in England, according to the first study of its kind.These restrictive practices were found to be an “embedded aspect of routine ward care”, according to the analysis, with such examples including dementia patients having their bedside rails raised, doors and pathways blocked by furniture, experiencing verbal commands to sit down or go back to bed, and physical interventions such as non-consensual sedation. Continue reading...