Health and care sector latest developments
Streeting 'doing everything I can' to avoid future strikes, as doctors return to work
Wes Streeting has pledged to do all he can to avoid industrial action in 2026, as doctors in England return to work following a five-day walkout.
The health secretary said the strike, coupled with surging flu cases, constituted ‘the most serious threat to the NHS’ since he began the role a year and a half ago.
He said: "The double whammy of strike action and flu this December posed the most serious threat to the NHS since I became health and social care secretary.
"The health service has only been able to cope because of the extraordinary efforts of the dedicated staff who work in it, and the hardest yards are in the weeks ahead as we get the NHS through the busiest weeks of the year.
"To everyone who played a role in keeping NHS services running through this exceptionally challenging month, thank you for the real difference you have made.
"I do not want to see a single day of industrial action in the NHS in 2026 and will be doing everything I can to make this a reality.
"My door remains open, as it always has done, and I'm determined to resume discussions with the BMA in the new year to put an end to these damaging cycles of disruption."
Change in health SpAds
There has been a change in the Prime Minister's health Special Adviser (SpAd).
As reported by Patrick Maguire, Axel Heitmueller is leaving the role to run the PM's delivery unit.
Isabel Abbs has been promoted to the senior health adviser position.
Chancellor announces date of Spring Forecast
The Chancellor has announced that the Spring Forecast will take place on Tuesday 3 March.
As previously announced in the last Budget, the OBR will not make an assessment of the government’s performance against the fiscal mandate but instead provide an interim update on the economy and public finances.
NHS to trial potentially life-saving treatment for deadly liver disease
The NHS is to trial a potentially life-saving new treatment for a deadly liver disease that causes the body’s vital organs to fail.
Thirteen major hospitals will use a device that cleans patients’ blood that has become corrupted by toxins as a result of them developing acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF).
ACLF is a severe and hard-to-treat form of liver disease linked to obesity, alcohol and hepatitis, in which patients suddenly deteriorate and have to be admitted to intensive care. Three out of four people affected are only diagnosed when it has already become life-threatening.
Seven out of ten people with the disease die within 28 days and only a handful of those affected are eligible for a liver transplant, which is the only existing way to reverse ACLF.
Seventy-two seriously ill patients will take part in the randomised controlled trial of a machine called Dialive, starting early next year. Doctors involved say that it ‘offers new hope’ and could reduce the condition’s high death rate.
Plea to 'use right NHS service' as pressure mounts
People in the west of England are being reminded to avoid unnecessary trips to A&E after figures revealed thousands of people visited emergency departments for everyday ailments last winter.
Research from the NHS shows 42 per cent of the public admit they have gone to A&E for a non-emergency - such as a sore throat - because they thought it would be quicker.
Ade Williams, a community pharmacist, urged people to look in the right place for care because prolonging the process only ‘delays you getting that help’.
The NHS is now launching a ‘winter reset’ campaign to show how services like 111, pharmacies, the NHS App and online GP forms can offer more convenient care.
