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      in UK Politics

      Wes Streeting blasts doctors’ strike as ‘slap in the face’ for NHS

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      Wes Streeting has hit out at the doctors’ union after it announced a fresh round of strikes, warning it is a “slap in the face” for NHS staff and will play directly into the hands of Nigel Farage.The health secretary accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of trying to “wreck” the NHS recovery with a “rush to industrial action” after it announced resident doctors in England would strike on five consecutive days next month in an ongoing row over jobs and pay.The association claims doctors are left unemployed and struggling to find jobs, while shifts in But Mr Streeting, writing exclusively in The Independent, said the strike “flies in the face of the wishes of their patients who have consistently opposed these disruptive walkouts”. Resident doctors have been in a pay dispute since March 2023, and next month’s industrial action will be the 13th strike since it began. They were awarded a 28.9 per cent pay rise over the last three years, but the BMA says wages are still around 20 per cent lower in real terms than in 2008.Junior doctors protested outside Downing Street over the summer in their ongoing dispute over pay More

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      in UK Politics

      Doctors in England to strike for five days in November over pay and jobs row

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      Doctors are set to go on strike for five days in row over jobs and pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.Resident doctors in England will strike on five consecutive days from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19.The BMA claims doctors are going unemployed and “struggling to find jobs” – while “shifts in hospitals go unfilled” and patients stay on waiting lists. Resident doctors, previously named junior doctors, make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and the BMA is arguing better pay will stop them leaving.”This is not where we wanted to be,” Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC), said announcing the strikes.Junior doctors protested outside Downing Street over the summer in their ongoing dispute over pay (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

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      in US Politics

      US anti-vax stance to blame for continent-wide surge in measles, say experts

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      Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.“The US’s political position in relation to health and vaccination is an outrage,” said Rosana Richtmann, an infectious disease doctor and coordinator of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Disease’s immunisation committee. “It’s a problem for us.”View image in fullscreenMeasles was successfully eliminated from the Americas in 2016, and then again in 2024, but the continent is now at risk of losing its measles-free status. There have been 11,668 cases reported across 10 countries in North and Latin America, according to the latest data from the Pan-American Health Organization (Paho).More than half of these cases are in the US and Canada, with three deaths in the US and two in Canada so far.Mexico is the hardest-hit country in Latin America, with more than 4,800 cases and 22 deaths, followed by Bolivia with 354 cases. Other countries, including Brazil, Belize and Paraguay, are dealing with a few dozen infections linked to imported cases.Concern over high numbers of cases in North America has led the Brazilian health ministry to focus more on the highly contagious disease with a nationwide vaccination campaign launched for children and teenagers in October. Adults who did not have the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as children are also being offered the jab.View image in fullscreenBrazil also has protocols in place to respond swiftly to individual cases. When a nine-year-old tested positive for measles on 7 October in Várzea Grande, health authorities were swift to act. Nurses kitted out in protective gear visited the child’s school and worked quickly to implement “ring vaccination”, inoculating everyone who had been in contact with her.The city’s health teams have also been going from door to door to identify unvaccinated people and holding vaccination drives in a shopping centre and the international airport.Richtmann said the biggest fear was imported cases. “We are much more worried about Brazilians travelling to Europe, to the US or Canada [catching measles and bringing it back], than about those who live here,” she said.Amira Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at Virginia’s George Mason University, agreed that the outbreaks in the US posed a threat to neighbouring countries.“Now suddenly, you’re more likely to run into someone who has some kind of infectious disease [in the US]. You visit the US, you go home with souvenirs – and you might also go home with measles,” she said.Mexico’s first measles case in February was imported from Texas by an unvaccinated Mennonite boy. Bolivia’s first cases also spread through pockets of unvaccinated people living in Mennonite settlements.Mennonites are Anabaptist Christian communities of European descent who reject many aspects of modern life, including vaccines.Daniel Salas, executive manager of Paho’s special programme for comprehensive immunisation, said: “Having close-knit communities that are often reluctant to receive vaccinations and having large flows [of people] from country to country through the region are aggravating factors.”View image in fullscreenHealth authorities should identify communities resistant to vaccination and target their efforts there, Salas said.There is no cure for measles, which can lead to serious complications and even death, but it is easily preventable with two doses of the MMR vaccine, which provides 97% protection.MMR vaccination rates in Latin America fell during the Covid pandemic and the years leading up to it but have recovered since 2022, reaching 86% last year, according to the World Bank. However, this remains below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity, with a lag in uptake of second doses and significant disparities between countries and within them.View image in fullscreenLack of information and access to heathcare has contributed to lower vaccination rates, but doctors also blame the influence of the growing anti-vaxxer movement in the US.“A lot of South American countries look to the US,” said Carlos Paz, head of infectious diseases at the Mario Ortiz Suárez paediatric hospital in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where 80% of the country’s cases have been reported.“The population sees what a US minister says about vaccines, and some people start to say, ‘well, we shouldn’t get vaccinated here either’,” he said.While the US health secretary did endorse the MMR vaccine after an outbreak in Texas in April, Kennedy has also spread misleading information about it and misinformation about measles treatment.This month the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, now led by a biotech investor, suggested the MMR vaccine should be given as three separate jabs, even though the safety and efficacy of combined shots have been demonstrated by decades of research and going against the CDC’s own longstanding advice.Bolivia declared a national health emergency in June, extended school holidays to avoid contact between children, and launched a widespread vaccination drive, relying partly on donations from Brazil, India and Chile. But coverage in October had still only reached 45%, while the government still has 1.6m doses available.“We’ve been campaigning to increase the vaccination rate. Each doctor, each paediatrician, is a soldier advocating for vaccination,” said Paz. More

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      in US Politics

      Proposed UK cuts to global aid fund could lead to 300,000 preventable deaths, say charities

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      The UK is expected to slash its contribution to a leading aid fund combating preventable diseases, with charities warning this could lead to more than 300,000 otherwise preventable deaths.If confirmed, the anticipated 20% cut in the UK contribution to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, would be announced on the sidelines of next month’s G20 summit in South Africa, which Keir Starmer is due to attend.Aid groups said such a reduction, on top of a 30% cut to the UK contribution at the previous funding round for the group three years ago, would further risk years of progress in combating the disease after Donald Trump slashed US aid.No decision has been publicly announced before the Global Fund’s “replenishment” summit, covering 2027-29, and one government official said this did not recognise the extent of the cut predicted.However, aid groups say a proposed reduction in UK funding from £1bn to £800m is being widely discussed by senior government officials.If confirmed, it would follow a 25% reduction in UK money towards another aid organisation seen as being highly efficient in saving lives, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). The eventual £1.25bn commitment over five years to Gavi was nonetheless higher than many aid agencies had feared.The Switzerland-based Global Fund is credited with helping to save tens of million of lives in combating the three diseases. One aid agency estimated a £200m cut could lead to up to 340,000 avoidable deaths and nearly 5.9 million avoidable infections over the three-year funding period.Gareth Jenkins, an executive director at Malaria No More UK, said: “The world stands on the brink of a malaria resurgence, which will be so much more likely triggered if the UK makes a cut to its contribution to the Global Fund.“In this scenario many more children will lose their lives, health systems will be overwhelmed and economies dragged down – with huge knock-on effects for UK trade and health security.”Mike Podmore, the chief executive of StopAids, said the cut “would send a terrible message”, particularly as the UK is officially co-hosting next month’s funding event.Podmore said: “Not only did the UK already make a 30% cut three years ago, but to date no host has ever reduced their commitment from their previous pledge. This would represent a serious lack of leadership and undermine the UK’s reputation and soft power.”Adrian Lovett, the UK head of the development campaign One, said the cut would “put at risk decades of progress in the fight against Aids, TB and malaria – and as diseases do not stop at borders, it would jeopardise our own health security here at home too”.Monica Harding, the Liberal Democrats’ international development spokesperson, said cutting funding as co-host would be “an indictment of our global leadership in diplomacy and development”.She said: “Stepping back now and reducing our contribution to the fund at a time when the United States is abandoning vaccination programmes wholesale would be devastating to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. It would risk undoing much of the progress we have made in the global fight against disease.”A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The UK has not yet decided what its pledge to the Global Fund will be. We will announce this in due course.” More

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      in UK Politics

      Voices: ‘Such a shock’: Readers reveal what it’s like to learn a life-changing diagnosis by text

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      Our health correspondent’s account of receiving an endometriosis diagnosis via text message struck a deep chord with Independent readers.Following Rebecca Thomas’ account, our community has been sharing their own experiences of an NHS that feels increasingly impersonal and overstretched.Several readers echoed her shock and distress at learning serious medical news through a message on their phone, describing similar moments of confusion and fear on reading diagnoses with no explanation or follow-up. One woman said she discovered she had stage 3 kidney disease via her NHS app, while another was told of a terminal illness through a two-line letter. Others reflected on how the human element of healthcare has eroded, with one reader lamenting that after 60 years of NHS care, they no longer even know their consultant’s name.Several readers also expressed sympathy for doctors and nurses working under huge pressure, warning that exhaustion, underfunding and low morale inevitably lead to rushed and impersonal care. Yet there was also recognition that digitisation can help, with some arguing that SMS or app updates are preferable to long waits for appointments.Amid the debate, readers broadly agreed that compassion and communication must remain at the heart of healthcare, no matter how efficient the technology becomes.Here’s what you had to say:I found this out on my medical appIn August 2025, I was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease. I found this out on my medical app in the summary section – that was such a shock – and the month before I had a POCS stroke. Nothing else was added, no follow-up blood test, just left with that diagnosis. I now have a follow-up blood test because I talked to a GP about just being left with the worrying two lines on the app. He said he has no control over what others write.PebblesA two-line letterFirstly, I have the Wales NHS app. It doesn’t work. NHS helpdesk says, “see GP’s reception”. They say, “contact NHS”. I have given up.Secondly, my GP gave me my diagnosis of a terminal illness with a two-line letter from the radiologist. Querying this got the explanation that no-one here knows much about this! Went private for an explanation and a referral to a specialist team. I have changed my GP.TwlldupobsaisA scary business having health problems these daysI was born in the 60s with a life-long condition that affects my health, so I have had experience of the NHS for 60 years. I could name all the consultants that I have been under up to the past decade, when the service became far less personal. Since Covid, I don’t even know my current consultant’s name and am not sure who to contact if I have difficulties. It has taken me four years to get my GP to take a deterioration in my mobility seriously, and another year before my referral to a specialist resulted in a first consultation. I am still waiting to find out if there is any treatment available, having now been passed between different consultants. In the meantime, my health has deteriorated quite substantially.It’s quite a scary business having health problems these days. One is faced with a nameless, shapeless organisation that seems so stretched that it can no longer treat its patients as individuals.SlampsA text would have been kinderYears ago, my mother got her diagnosis of terminal kidney cancer that had metastasised to the bones from a doctor in person. The doctor had zero empathy, was constantly looking at her watch and actually lied to her when she told her that she would pass on peacefully in six months. She died in agony three years later as the cancer was busy breaking her bones open from the inside. A text would have been kinder.Pomerol95Automated emailsWe receive automated emails telling us our NHS file has been updated, and we can then log in to read any updates or information.I don’t imagine that’s any more time-consuming than a text, but it’s certainly more confidential.NobodylistensFrance’s digital appointment systemHere in France, after any test, scan or X-ray, I receive the results personally with short notes giving the technician’s summary. I then make an appointment with my GP (never more than 48 hours away) to discuss results and recommended treatment. France has a digital appointment system and is highly computerised, with a site listing my total healthcare costs, etc. I don’t understand why the UK doesn’t implement this. It saves so much time – and probably money.SRKfanPressure and workloadI can’t comment on this case, but what the critics should bear in mind is the pressure some clinical staff are under. I have a son who is a consultant psychiatrist and regularly works a 50–60 hour week. He uses the app on his phone to record case notes as he drives between one case and another, which I think is unwise but is his decision (hence possible typos?). No one should have a workload like that, because it means the service given to patients is inevitably sub-standard – but mental health needs much more resources.Barry HughesPaying to see a doctorI had to pay to see a doctor after my local surgery told me there was no chance of seeing a GP. At least I was diagnosed within minutes and treatment planned within my time frame – but at a huge cost.EnglishCastleDamned if they do and damned if they don’tDoctors are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.It may not be ideal but, personally, I’d sooner find out now by text than, say, wait a week for a face-to-face.HoleyMoleyThis is terrible. Any diagnosis that is terminal should be given by an empathetic doctor. This doctor was obviously in the wrong job. The NHS is going to get worse. I hear stories all the time and I’m going through a health crisis right now where nobody can give me a diagnosis for the last seven months. Truly scary.SkylazarYou cannot have it both waysYou can either get your non-cancer results by text and get referred straight away, or wait 4–6 weeks for an appointment to be told what’s in the text and to be referred on – delaying your referral and telling you what the signposted information is, which you can read yourself. You cannot have it both ways.NashNot acceptableIt is not acceptable, and never has been, to be informed of an important diagnosis in any way other than face to face. Anything other is a serious slippage of standards and the doctor doing so should be ashamed. Care extends well beyond the physical and, when done well, is an art.The hospital referral could have been made with no delay.TinworthWhat’s wrong with a text?What’s wrong with a text? I prefer that to arranging an appointment, making my way to the surgery, and then hanging around for half an hour or more to be told exactly the same thing.YystrcklSome of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.Want to share your views? Simply register your details below. Once registered, you can comment on the day’s top stories for a chance to be featured. Alternatively, click ‘log in’ or ‘register’ in the top right corner to sign in or sign up.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here. More

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      in US Politics

      NHS could pay 25% more for medicines under plan to end row with drugmakers and Trump

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      Ministers are preparing to raise the amount the NHS pays pharmaceutical firms for medicines by up to 25% after weeks of intensive talks with the Donald Trump administration and drugmakers.Labour has drawn up fresh proposals to end a standoff with the industry over drug pricing, including changing the cost-effectiveness thresholds under which new medications are assessed for use on the NHS, according to industry sources.The row has been cited as one of the reasons why big companies in the sector, including MSD (known as Merck in the US) and AstraZeneca, have cancelled or paused investments in the UK in recent weeks, while ramping up investments in the US.The Department of Health and Social Care is in a standoff with the Treasury and No 10 on how to fund the deal, with Downing Street resisting pressure to commit new funds for medicines in next month’s budget.The Liberal Democrats immediately criticised the move, first reported by Politico, asking how much it would cost and whether it would lead to cuts elsewhere in the NHS.The science secretary, Patrick Vallance, has publicly acknowledged that the UK’s spending on new medicines needs to rise from 9% of overall NHS spend, which is below drug spending in the US and many other European countries.The main element of the plan is thought to include raising the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) cost-effectiveness threshold by 25%, which has been unchanged since 1999. Under current rules, Nice considers a medicine costing between £20,000 and £30,000 for every extra year of good-quality life it provides a patient to represent good value for money for the NHS.The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry on Tuesday reiterated its call for “urgent action” on drug pricing, saying the Nice threshold should be increased as soon as possible in line with inflation to between £40,000 and £50,000, and index-linked thereafter. Making this change would, over time, lead to a greater share of the NHS budget being allocated to medicines, and additional funding would be needed to support this.In talks over the summer, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, proposed a deal that would save the pharmaceutical industry £1bn over three years, with billions more promised over the coming decade.But the industry argued that it was forecast to make repayments totalling £13.5bn over the same period and has been demanding about £2.5bn a year extra.A government source said ministers were prepared to spend more on medicines as they increasingly became more ​innovative and preventive. They cited the example of weight loss injections – which are forecast to save the NHS billions of pounds in treating obesity and associated health problems – and trials for cancer-preventing vaccines.The patient-led campaign group Just Treatment called it “deeply troubling news for patients and the NHS”, adding: “We are at risk of importing America’s disastrous drug pricing crisis.” It called on the government to “take steps to establish a system for developing and manufacturing medicines that puts patients first”.The NHS spent £20.6bn on medicines and medical devices in 2023-24, up from £19.2bn the year before.Trump has put pressure on pharma companies to lower their drug prices in the US and increase them elsewhere, accusing other countries of “freeloading” on high US prices. Nearly two weeks ago, he threatened to impose 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical imports from 1 October to ramp up the pressure, although these did not materialise.In response to pressure from Trump, Pfizer and several other US and European companies, including the UK’s biggest drugmaker, AstraZeneca, have started to cut their prices in the US and to sell directly to patients to cut out costly middlemen.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn return for reducing its prices by up to 85%, Pfizer won a three-year reprieve from tariffs last week, which was seen as a bellwether for the rest of the sector.Last week, Varun Chandra, Starmer’s main business adviser, flew to Washington DC for talks with senior US officials and drug companies, the latest in a series of visits to try to hammer out a deal on pricing and tariffs.A UK government spokesperson said: “We’ve secured a landmark economic partnership with the US that includes working together on pharmaceutical exports from the UK whilst improving conditions for pharmaceutical companies here.“We’re now in advanced discussions with the US administration to secure the best outcome for the UK, reflecting our strong relationship and the opportunities from close partnership with our pharmaceutical industry.”However, the Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said: “It beggars belief that the government is bending to a bullying US president having told patients for years that life-saving new drugs are unaffordable.“Ministers must come clean about how much this move will cost and whether it will be funded by cuts elsewhere in the NHS. They should also lay their plans before parliament without delay so they can be properly scrutinised. It increasingly feels like this government puts the whims of Trump before everything else – even our precious NHS.”The pharma sector’s negotiations with the UK government over drug pricing under a voluntary scheme broke down without an agreement in late August. Since then, MSD has abandoned plans for a £1bn research centre in London and AstraZeneca and New York-based Eli Lilly have paused projects, taking total pharma investments that are on hold or cancelled to nearly £2bn since the start of this year.One industry source said: “We are relieved to see a recognisable change in sentiment and language from August.” More

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      in UK Politics

      Resident doctors vote for strike action in row over jobs

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      First-year doctors in England have voted in favour of strike action over job security fears.The British Medical Association (BMA) said the ballot of first-year resident doctors saw 97 per cent (or 3,950) voting for strike action on a turnout of 65 per cent, providing a “mandate for industrial action alongside the linked dispute over eroded pay”.According to the union, 34 per cent of resident doctors surveyed said they had no substantive employment or regular work from August 2025 to more than half (52 per cent) among FY2 (foundation year two) doctors.The BMA said no strikes are currently planned, but current talks with the government on pay “will now have to produce a solution on jobs as well as the 21 per cent pay erosion resident doctors have endured since 2008 to avoid future action”.It comes after resident doctors walked out of English hospitals for five days in July, with the dispute over pay still not resolved.Resident doctors on a picket line during previous strike action More

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      in US Politics

      Anti-abortion groups furious as FDA approves generic abortion pill

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      In a move that has left anti-abortion advocates reeling, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly approved a request to manufacture a new abortion pill earlier this week.Thanks to the approval, a company called Evita Solutions will be able to manufacture its generic version of mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used in most US medication abortions. A generic version of mifepristone, which was first approved as a brand-name drug in 2000, is already available on the market.Yet the approval stunned and infuriated foes of abortion, who have spent the three years since the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade pressuring the federal government to curb access to mifepristone. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, announced last month his department would review the safety of mifepristone.“FDA had promised to do a top-to-bottom safety review of the chemical abortion drug, but instead they’ve just greenlighted new versions of it for distribution,” Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri and fierce abortion opponent, posted on X. “I have lost confidence in the leadership at FDA.”Kristan Hawkins, president of the powerful anti-abortion group Students for Life of America, called the approval “a true failure”.“This is a stain on the Trump presidency,” she added in a statement.To bolster their attack on mifepristone, anti-abortion activists recently seized on an April paper by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a rightwing thinktank, claiming almost 11% of women experience sepsis or other serious complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. In his letter announcing the review of mifepristone, Kennedy cited the center’s paper.But that paper was not peer-reviewed nor published in a medical journal, and experts have uncovered multiple flaws in it. For example, it counts ectopic pregnancies – wherein an embryo implants somewhere outside of the uterine lining – as a serious complication. Mifepristone does not cause or worsen ectopic pregnancies.Meanwhile, more than 100 studies, conducted across more than three decades and dozens of countries, have concluded that mifepristone is a safe and effective tool to end a pregnancy.Abortion rights supporters celebrated the news of the FDA’s approval, proclaiming it a victory for evidence-backed medicine.“By expanding generic options, the agency is reinforcing mifepristone’s impeccable safety record,” Kiki Freedman, co-founder and CEO of the telemedicine abortion provider Hey Jane, said in a statement.“At a time when politically motivated attacks threaten to undermine science and restrict care, it’s critical to underscore that the science couldn’t be clearer.”The health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a spokesperson for the department told the New York Times in a statement that “the FDA has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug”.“By law, the secretary of Health and Human Services must approve an application if it demonstrates that the generic drug is identical to the brand-name drug,” the spokesperson said. More