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The results of a national NHS staff survey, published recently, revealed that frontline healthcare workers are facing record levels of discrimination at work, with 58,000 respondents reporting that they experienced "unacceptable" levels of unwanted sexual behaviour from the public last year. Concerningly, 8.67 per cent of 675,140 NHS workers who responded to the poll said they suffered sexual harassment from patients, patients' relatives, or other members of the public in 2023. Particularly, ambulance staff were affected, with nearly 25 per cent of staff reporting unwanted sexual behaviour from the public last year. According to the survey findings, 3.84 per cent of staff also encountered unwanted sexual behaviour from their colleagues. Dr Navina Evans, Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer, described the survey results as "very distressing" and said that "such conduct should not be tolerated in the NHS." On the positive side, more NHS workers reported being happier at work and experiencing less burnout than before. Over half of the participants stated they look forward to coming to work, the highest number since 2020, as per the NHS. Dr Evans attributed this improvement to initiatives such as flexible working hours, clinical support squads to help menopausal women at work, and human resources stay advocates.

Health leaders have said that delivering faster and more productive patient care would be difficult unless NHS capital budgets are nearly doubled to at least £14.1 billion from the current spending of £7.7 billion. The NHS Confederation has highlighted the impact that low levels of capital investment have had over the last decade in its report published today (29 November). The report, 'Investing to save: The capital requirement for a more sustainable NHS in England', revealed that the UK has lagged behind other comparable countries in terms of health capital investment for more than five decades, resulting in less productivity. It revealed that the NHS now has the sixth lowest number of CT and MRI scanners per million people of the OECD countries.

The National Health Service (NHS) has said that the roll-out of blood-thinning drugs has helped save thousands of lives. In January 2022, the NHS launched a drive to rapidly expand the use of life-saving direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in people who are at increased risk of strokes. Since then, more than 24 million prescriptions have been given to such patients and around 460,000 more people have started taking the drugs. This prevented an estimated 17,000 strokes and 4,000 deaths in the last 18 months, as revealed by the new NHS data. Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, hailed the "lifesaving NHS rollout" at the King's Fund annual conference. It is part of a major NHS drive on "prevention" - to catch more killer conditions earlier and save more lives.

The NHS Confederation and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published a report that demonstrated the importance of the collaboration between industry and the NHS to improve patient outcomes across the UK. Analysis from the report has shown a significant variation in access to innovative medicines for patients across the UK and showed that uptake of new treatments in these areas continues to be below the average of similar countries in Europe. The report, 'Transforming Lives, Improving Health Outcomes', has highlighted four initiatives where effective partnerships between the NHS, patient organisations and industry have helped to tackle unwarranted variation in the uptake of innovative medicines. Transforming Lives, Improving Health Outcomes also called for a systemwide secondary prevention strategy covering all parts of the health system creating a barrier to wider and consistent uptake of innovative medicine. It also noted that newly created Integrated Care Systems have the potential to improve preventative treatment. The report data also showed a 51% variation of uptake of three types of medicines related to diabetes between NHS Trusts in England.

Starting from January 2024, it will be compulsory for medicine suppliers in the NHS supply chain in England to submit an Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment each year. Suppliers who fail to submit the sustainability assessment will not be placed on medicines contracts, said NHS England. The NHS has taken this move as part of its ambition to reach carbon net zero by 2045. The Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is a self-assessment and reporting tool for suppliers to share sustainability information with the NHS. Chris McAleer, medicines net zero project delivery manager at NHS England, announced this new rule at the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists' Procurement and Distribution Interest Group Autumn Symposium held in Birmingham on 2 November 2023.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has created a form to help locum and other pharmacists to report about breach of NHS contract by community pharmacy. According to the association, they have been told by increasing number of pharmacists about contractors closing pharmacies, despite a locum readily available to cover the shift. The PDA said this is an issue of NHS contractual breach and creates difficulties for patients, and so they have created the form to assist members to report unnecessary closures to the relevant NHS England & Improvement pharmacy contract team. A locum pharmacist, who does not wish to be named, has alleged that a community pharmacy declined their offer to cover an extra shift for £5 more per hour, and decided to close the store, denying the public access to services. The pharmacist recalled the occasion while writing in the PDA's latest member voice article.

A recent survey conducted by the British Society Attitudes (BSA) and published by the King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust highlighted people's satisfaction with the National Health Services (NHS) to be a new record low since the survey's inception in 1983. The latest findings that are based on the public satisfaction and opinion with the NHS and social care, and funding in the context of prominent national debate about taxation and healthcare spending reveal the satisfaction with the NHS to have dwindled across all services and demographics in 2023. Public contentment has sharply declined, with only 24 per cent expressing satisfaction in 2023, a significant drop from 2020. Factors contributing to this dissatisfaction include prolonged waiting times for GP and hospital appointments, staffing shortages, and perceived inadequate government spending.

NHS England has urged the pharmacy owners to continue to voluntarily submit New Medicine Service (NMS) quarterly summary data to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022/23 (January to March 2023). Community Pharmacy England have agreed with NHS England that the quarterly returns will continue to be on a voluntary basis, with Q4 (January to March 2023) as the second quarter to be reported. It has thanked all the members that submitted NMS quarterly summary data for Quarter 3. The mandatory requirement to submit this data has been suspended since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "NHS England wants to continue collection of the quarterly returns to provide baseline data to support a long-term evaluation that will be conducted as part of ongoing work to expand the scope of NMS," said Community Pharmacy England. Voluntary submissions can be made via the NHSBSA website, where an updated reporting spreadsheet is also available for head offices to use who are able to submit data on behalf of multiple pharmacies.

Pharmacies and other spaces should be able to facilitate the provision of health care to bring services closer to patients and reduce demands on general practice, suggested a report by Tony Blair Institute. In a paper 'Modern and Sustainable NHS Providing Accessible and Personalised Care for All', it has propose six areas for reform where radical-but-practical policy action will begin to transform the future of the NHS and deliver better patient care. It has proposed to create new access routes for services and providers. It added: "The range and availability of health-care services must increase to reflect citizens' demands and their increasingly complex needs. "Pharmacies, gyms, supermarkets, workplaces and other spaces should all be able to provide or facilitate the provision of health care, bringing services closer to patients and reducing demands on general practice. It suggested: "We must move towards greater community-based care and the creation of a neighbourhood health service, with more routes for direct patient access, to ensure services are available when and where people need them. These should all be accessible through a single, simple digital front door to the NHS."

Poverty not only takes a significant toll on people's health but also leads to additional costs for the National Health Service (NHS). Rise in deep poverty, cost-of-living crisis, and high pressure on NHS services have worsened the situation, according to a study published by The King's Fund this week. The report underscored that poverty and deprivation contribute to a greater prevalence of diseases, difficulties in accessing health care, late or delayed treatment, and worse health outcomes. These challenges could be seen across various NHS services, spanning from emergency care to dental services Additionally, it revealed that 30 per cent of people living in the most deprived areas have turned to 999, 111, A&E or a walk-in centre because they could not access a GP appointment. In 2016, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) estimated the cost of poverty on health care at £29 billion (£34 billion in current prices). As the proportion of people living in deep poverty has risen, the situation has worsened. In 2021/22, six million people were living in very deep poverty, up from 4.5 million two decades ago. Currently, more than one in five people in the UK are estimated to be living in poverty, the report noted. Deprivation is linked to a range of diet-related health problems, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as mental illness. According to the report, the depression rate is two times higher among people living in the most deprived areas, compared to the least deprived areas.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has welcomed the Chancellor's commitment to increase the NHS budget, hoping that 'community pharmacies benefit from this investment'. The association is urging the government to address years of underfunding so that community pharmacies can avoid staff lay-offs to cover the increasing costs of the national living wage. The government's uplift of the National Living Wage was confirmed in its latest budget announcement to tackle the cost of living crisis. The NHS budget will also be increased in each of the next two years by £3.3bn. A recent NPA commissioned report by Professor David Taylor from University College London predicted that wage inflation and other cost pressures could combine with funding cuts to lead to cut-backs and pharmacy closures.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has raised its concerns over rising cost of rent for its members. The association highlighted that pharmacy spending is shrinking, and therefore, the NHS Property Services must ensure viability of health centre pharmacies. In May, the NPA wrote to NHS Property Services to voice its concerns over the rising cost of rent after some of its members reported demands for a three-fold increase in rent. Many pharmacies operate in premises of which NHS Property Services is the landlord. In a letter last month to chief executive Martin Steele, NPA said: "The past years have seen far fewer patients in health centres and therefore using the on-site pharmacy - whilst the situation will change somewhat as we move out of the pandemic we expect a permanent impact on workload as practices handle more of their interactions virtually. "The NPA encourages NHS Property Services to review lease agreements involving community pharmacies and consider favourable changes to terms that are in line with current financial realities affecting the sector. This could avoid the loss of a pharmacy service to communities and the resulting loss of rental income to NHS Property Services."

In a bid to address the ongoing deficit in staff in the UK's healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS) has entered into a new workforce agreement with India. According to media reports, the healthcare service plans to hire 2,000 doctors from India on a fast-track basis to alleviate this pressing issue. It is learned that the NHS has set up training centres across many Indian cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Delhi, Gurugram, Indore, Mysore, Chennai, and Calicut to provide postgraduate training for the first batch of doctors. Post their training period (which ranges from six to 12 months), these doctors will be deployed at hospitals across Britain. They will also be exempted from the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) examination that is otherwise mandatory for practising in the country.

A Labour Party analysis of NHS trust figures has revealed that around 148,000 people died last year while waiting for treatment in England. This is more than double the figure recorded in 2017/18, which stood at around 60,000 deaths. It even surpasses the mortality rate observed in 2021, during the peak of the Covid pandemic. The Labour Party obtained the data through a freedom of information request sent to every NHS trust in England. Out of the 169 acute and community trusts contacted, 80 responded. The total number of deaths reported by the respondents was 61,396. Extrapolating this figure to all trusts would suggest a total of 148,227 deaths.

In a groundbreaking move towards modernising healthcare, England's National Health Service (NHS) has successfully implemented digital prescriptions, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its latest regional digital health report. Since January 2024, patients across England have had access to their prescription information through the NHS App, marking a significant leap in healthcare accessibility and efficiency. With over 33 million registered users, representing 75 per cent of the adult population, the NHS App has become a vital tool in managing healthcare online. The introduction of digital prescriptions allows users to order repeat prescriptions online without the need for a GP visit. This innovation has witnessed a surge in digital requests, with over 3.1 million repeat prescriptions processed monthly.

Insect bites and stings typically increase in the summer in England. This year, however, there's been an earlier-than-usual spike in the number of people seeking NHS advice on the condition. According to the NHS England, visits to its insect bites and stings web page have nearly tripled in the last three weeks compared to the same period last year, peaking at an average of one visit every 22 seconds in the past week. Over the span of 21 days, a total of 68,986 visited the page, marking a significant 162 per cent increase compared to the 26,368 visits recorded in the first three weeks of May 2023. Although insect bites or stings are usually not serious and people tend to get better after a few days, the health service has cautioned that they can lead to infection or severe allergic reactions. People are encouraged to refer to the NHS website for advice or visit their local pharmacy to get advice and treatment for common health conditions, including infected insect bites.

To lead the way in modernizing the UK's healthcare, the National Health Service (NHS) digitized the prescriptions. WHO mentioned this in their current digital regional report. Since January 2024, the NHS App in England has offered patients the opportunity to see statistics about their prescriptions. This represents a gigantic step in the area of healthcare which can be categorized as another stage in healthcare accessibility and efficiency. Over 33 million residents have taken the NHS app enabling the users to be 75% of the adult population. The app helps in online management of their health. The use of digital prescriptions enables patients to order repeated prescriptions online, in which they would past getting an appointment a GP.

In a recent report released by the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), data from the NHS Pharmacy First service indicates a substantial uptake and positive impact on patient care just two months after its launch. The CCA's findings shed light on the service's efficacy in meeting patient needs and its potential to alleviate pressure on General Practices (GPs) within the NHS. According to the report, over 90,000 Pharmacy First consultations were conducted solely by CCA members within the initial two-month period. Impressively, 88 per cent of these consultations, totaling 81,627, were deemed eligible for NHS-funded care indicating a significant demand for the service among patients. In the first month, the data revealed that more than 90 per cent of eligible patients received necessary care directly through Pharmacy First, bypassing the need for further referral.

The consequences of NHS workforce crisis is not limited to general practice, community pharmacies are also suffering, commented Community Pharmacy England after the General Medical Council (GMC) published a report on Friday (23 June) which warned of the burnout in the workforce. The report calls for urgent actions to break a 'vicious cycle' of unmanageable workloads, dissatisfaction and burnout that is causing UK doctors to take steps to quit. Chief Executive Janet Morrison, said: "The GMC's report is yet another clear signal of the scale of the mounting the NHS workforce crisis, and this is not limited to general practice: community pharmacies are also suffering the consequences of it." "Pharmacy teams are overstretched, feeling immense pressures, and dealing with significantly increased workloads. Pharmacy owners are also finding it impossible to make ends meet, not least given the rising staffing costs which are being driven up by workforce issues. Findings show the number of doctors who reported working beyond their rostered hours on a weekly basis rose from 59% in 2021 to 70% in 2022, and 42% said they felt unable to cope with their workload each week (up from 30% in 2021). Just half said they were satisfied in their work, down from 70% in 2021.

The NHS is on track to miss out on savings of over a billion pounds as patents for a new lineup of 85 biologics are set to expire within the next five years, the British Generic Manufacturers Association has revealed in its new study. The government's Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access is expected to lead to a cost of more than £1 billion for the NHS in the coming years. The BGMA research found that more than 85 biological medicines will experience loss of exclusivity during the upcoming VPAS Scheme period from 2024 to 2028. "This includes blockbuster products like the cancer medicine Keytruda and wet macular product Eylea, which together generate approximately $25 billion in global sales," BGMA said. "The molecules coming off-patent also cover other disease areas including oncology, diabetes, arthritis, and asthma." While biological medicines dominate the medicines budget, constituting the largest cost and cost growth sectors, NHS England aims to expedite biosimilar availability, yielding substantial savings and expanding patient access to vital treatments. Yet, the report found that "this is jeopardised by the influence of the VPAS Scheme".