Exclusive: Royal College of GPs chair says surgeries desperate to hire more doctors but lack funding to do so GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients because of a dangerous shortage of medics, Britain’s top family doctor has said. Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said surgeries were desperate to hire more doctors to meet soaring demand for care but could not afford to do so because of a lack of core funding. Continue reading...

A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room. Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...

National Trust begins planting the 49 ‘trees of hope’ so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive way Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism. The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way. Continue reading...

Leading past donors including France, Japan and European Commission fail to contribute at pledging summit Control of the deadly infectious diseases HIV, tuberculosis and malaria “hangs in the balance” after a shortfall in donations to a leading global health fund, advocates have warned. Only $11.3bn of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria’s $18bn (£14bn) targeted budget for 2026 to 2028 has been confirmed so far. Continue reading...

Classification plan will create basis for ‘significantly stricter’ prosecutions, says interior minister Germany plans to treat the use of date rape drugs like the use of weapons in prosecutions as part of measures to ensure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. “We classify date rape drugs, which are increasingly used as a widespread tool in crimes, as weapons. This creates the basis for significantly stricter prosecutions,” Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said on Friday. “We are committed to clear consequences and consistent enforcement. Women should feel safe and be able to move freely everywhere.” Continue reading...

Test your knowledge in eight questions to prove you know your onions from your emulsifiers

Just one in 13 early career GPs work full-time, NHS figures show, with job stress and childcare significant factors Much of the health secretary’s plans to reinvent the NHS hinge on moving services from bed-blocked, overstretched hospitals to “neighbourhood health centres” where possible, and to general practice. However, while Wes Streeting hopes to make it easier for patients to see their doctor, thousands of GPs have been dramatically cutting back their surgery hours in recent years. Continue reading...

Campaign group says it will pursue all legal means to ensure personal accountability for ‘grave betrayal’ Covid-bereaved families have called for Boris Johnson to lose access to public funds and said they will pursue all legal options for personal accountability after a damning report into his handling of the pandemic. The families said they want all privileges Johnson receives as a former prime minister, including his ministerial pension, his place on the privy council and access to the public duty costs allowance, to be withdrawn. Continue reading...

Chancellor told PFI-style schemes familiar from New Labour era are ‘fiscal illusion’ offering no value for money Rachel Reeves has been urged by 40 Labour MPs to drop plans to fund NHS buildings with private finance initiatives (PFI) that would saddle the health service with debt. The Labour MPs, including Cat Eccles, Clive Lewis and Rebecca Long-Bailey, pressed the chancellor to commit to investment in the NHS without the use of private capital and warned that a return to the New Labour era of private funding for public projects would be damaging for trust in the government. Continue reading...

The tale of Prof Sarah Blagden’s attempt to find a treatment that stops the disease is the rarest of things – TV that makes you dare to hope

Exclusive: Clinical guidelines should change to avoid exposing young people to potentially harmful side-effects, researchers say Clinical guidelines should no longer recommend Prozac for children, according to experts, after research showed it had no clinical benefit for treating depression in children and adolescents. Globally one in seven 10-19 year olds have a mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. In the UK, about a quarter of older teenagers and up to a fifth of younger children have anxiety, depression or other mental health problems. Continue reading...

Second pandemic report focuses on decision-making, organisation and messaging by senior politicians including Boris Johnson

Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10 * UK politics live –latest updates The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives. The document also has stinging criticism of a “toxic and chaotic” culture inside Boris Johnson’s Downing Street – which it said the then prime minister actively embraced – in which the loudest voices held sway and women were sidelined. Continue reading...

Exclusive: union leaders say proposed changes are immoral and could threaten patient safety if there is staff exodus Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests. Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years. Continue reading...

World’s largest scientific review warns consumption of UPFs poses seismic threat to global health and wellbeing Ultra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health, according to the world’s largest review. UPF is also rapidly displacing fresh food in the diets of children and adults on every continent, and is associated with an increased risk of a dozen health conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and depression. Continue reading...