What the papers say – weekly digest (27/10/23)

Your weekly digest of the top healthcare stories, covering news published from 23/10/2023 – 27/10/2023.

Daily Express

More than half England’s authorities are failing to meet national dementia diagnosis targets. A postcode lottery means hundreds of thousands do not have the confirmation they need to obtain new treatments, Parliament’s all-party group on dementia said. Its report said a diagnosis rate of just 49.7% made Swindon, Wilts, one of the lowest-performing areas, with 766 people missing out. Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, had the highest rate, 89.9%. Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer, yet it is reckoned as many as 258,489 in England are living without it being diagnosed. The report, which includes findings from a survey of more than 2,100 people affected by dementia, suggests transport is a major barrier. To combat this, MPs want every Integrated Care System to ensure people can get a diagnosis closer to home.

Women should take iron supplements with a glass of orange juice each morning to ensure their bodies fully absorb the mineral, research has shown. While the vitamin C in fruit juice significantly boosts the benefits of iron tablets, coffee or tea was found to prevent the mineral being absorbed. One in ten women has iron-deficiency anaemia and it is often caused by blood loss or pregnancy, affecting one in five women of child-bearing age. It can cause tiredness, shortness of breath and heart palpitations, and the main treatment is iron tablets, usually taken for six months. The study, published in the American Journal of Hematology, looked at how different drinks can affect the absorption of 100mg iron supplements in 34 iron-deficient women.

Rugby players’ risk of the degenerative brain condition CTE rises by 14% for every year of their career, a study claims. The disease, which leads to dementia, has been linked to repeated head injuries in contact sport. University of Glasgow researchers performed post-mortem examinations on the brains of  31 former amateur and elite rugby union players in the UK, US and Australia.  Evidence of CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy – was found in 68%. Study lead Professor Willie Stewart said: ‘’Our data show risk is linked to length of rugby career, with every extra year of play increasing risk. It’s imperative sport regulators reduce exposure to repeated head impacts in match play and in training to reduce risk of  this otherwise preventable disease.’’ Those who  donated their brains for the research had an average career length of 18 years. The findings are in the journal Acta  Neuropathologica.

Checking diabetics’ eyes every two years instead of annually increases the risk of blindness, a study says.  The new NHS policy for those with no eye issues linked to the disease would have delayed diagnosis by 12 months in 56.5% of sight-threatening cases. Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, tracked the health of 82,728 diabetics.

Young people leaving the care system suffer stigma and discrimination from employers and other workers, says a survey. More than a quarter (27%) believe care leavers are more likely to have mental health issues and 38% think they need a lot more support in a job. And of 1,000 quizzed, 25% said they saw care leavers as unreliable while 16% expected a poor work ethic. Now the Local Government Association is calling on councils and small businesses to sign up to the Care Leavers Covenant.

Unpaid carers are £2,294 out of pocket each year in one city – even with Carers Allowance. Portsmouth is one of the worst-hit areas, with numbers expected to grow by up to three times over the next decade. That is according to research for Portsdown View Care Home and later living marketplace Lottie.  Sarah Peace, manager of the care home, said: ‘’People are living longer and requiring more support, whether that’s for a few hours each week, or more permanent, round-the-clock care.’’ Will Donnelly, co-founder of Lottie, said: ‘’Unpaid carers are at a much higher risk of burnout, isolation, and mental health concerns, due to the lack of financial and emotional support.’’ The Express has told how family members spend over 40 hours a week caring for disabled relatives.

Bunzl’s third-quarter revenues fell 8.8% due to the weakness of the pound, shrinking inflation and less need for Covid-related goods. The distribution and outsourcing firm, which supplies hygiene products and other items to clients, said its full-year sales are likely to fall short too, as buying trends have normalised since the pandemic ended. The sale of its UK healthcare  business will also hurt 2023’s revenues. But CEO Frank van Zanten noted Bunzi’s profit margins are still ‘’substantially higher than compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019’’.

The Daily Telegraph

Thousands of men in England and Northern Ireland are missing out on a life-extending prostate cancer drug available in Scotland and Wales, experts have warned. Prostate Cancer UK said it was ‘’unacceptable’’ that men in the two areas were unable to receive abiraterone which can halve the risk of death or disease spreading, on the NHS. The drug is only approved for men there with very advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Last year, a trial found it could benefit a larger group of men with earlier-stage tumours that had not yet started to spread. The drug also went off patent last year, making it generic. But while the NHS in Scotland and Wales have systems to ensure such drugs are quickly adopted, the system in England has failed to review its use, saying it will do so next year. Prostate Cancer UK believes at least 5,000 out of 52,000 newly diagnosed patients in England each year could benefit from the therapy. A Department Of Health and Social Care spokesman told the BBC that they understood ‘’the frustration of some patients’’ who cannot access the medicine.

The true size of NHS waiting lists stands at almost 20 million, thanks to a ‘’hidden waitlist’’ which means they far exceed official figures, Freedom of Information disclosures suggest. Official data shows waiting lists have reached a high of 7.75 million in England. But that figure only records  cases waiting for their first treatment following a referral to a specialist. A new investigation reveals the list for those in need of  onward care  is far greater – an estimated 11.3 million – and is up 50 per cent since the pandemic. It means that in total there are 18.85 million waits in England. The findings by the Reform think tank come from a Freedom of Information disclosure of all 119 acute trusts. Just over half provided data, which was extrapolated to provide estimates for England. The numbers include patients who are on  more than one  waiting list, or waiting for more than one type of follow-up appointment, so they do not equate to a total number of patients. The think tank said it was ‘’shocking’’ that almost half of trusts did not provide follow-up data, with one in three claiming they do not even record it.

Face masks have returned to some hospitals and GP surgeries after a surge in Covid cases and related deaths. Bosses at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust are among those to have reinstated mask-wearing policies and other ‘’precautionary measures’’. A spokesman for the trust said Covid cases had ‘’risen significantly’’. It has also asked staff, patients and visitors to sanitise their hands, keep distance from others where possible and avoid visiting if they have viral symptoms. The reintroduction of the rules apply across the trust’s services, including the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, the Northern General Hospital and the Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital. GP surgeries are also reportedly asking patients to routinely wear masks again while visiting. UK Health Security Agency figures show 12,123 new cases of the disease were recorded in England in the week up to Oct 14.

Patients in rural areas are dying while waiting for an ambulance because of a postcode lottery, a report said. MPs on the public accounts committee found that ‘’how quickly an ambulance arrives depends too much on where a patient lives’’, with huge variation between cities and the countryside. Average response times for the most serious, life-threatening incidents such as cardiac arrests were six minutes 51 seconds for the London ambulance service in 2021-222, the fastest in England. But patients in the southwest have to wait more than three minutes longer on average. The reports said the delays were being driven by a record rate of delayed discharges of elderly patients who need social care. Coroners have said ambulance delays have contributed to three deaths in Cornwall in recent years. The committee said that waiting times had been ‘’deteriorating for many years’’, despite the NHS having ‘’more money and staff than ever before’’.

More than a million children are now living in poverty, a report has revealed. Almost four million people, including more than a million children, experienced the most extreme form of poverty last year in the UK, according to social change organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). It said the figure for children has almost trebled since 2017 and topped one million for the first time since it began its research in 2015. About 3.8 million people experienced destitution in 2022, the charity said, including 1.04 million children. The report put the rise down to a combination of low incomes, rising cost of living and high levels of debt. It said the  data ‘’reflect a social security system now so full of holes that it falls to charities’’ to try to prevent destitution. Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner for England, warned there must be an ‘’urgent laser-like focus from within government to tackle child poverty’’. A government spokesman said: ‘’Our number-one priority is driving down inflation because that will help everyone’s money go further.’’

The long-standing chief executive of AstraZeneca has dismissed reports of his planned departure as ‘’fake news’’. Pascal Soriot rejected claims that the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group is searching for his replacement and said he will not be retiring any time soon. Speaking at the European Society for Medical Oncology on Monday, Mr Soriot said ‘’Why would I want to retire at a time so much is happening in the world of cancer and beyond?’’ The Cambridge-based company’s cancer drugs helped increase pre-tax profits more than fivefold to $4.4bn ($3.6bn) during the first half of 2023.

Drug maker Indivior has paid $385m (£314.2m) to settle a legal battle over its opioid addiction treatment. The FTSE 250 company faced allegations from drug wholesalers that it illegally reduced competition for its medication Suboxone. The announcement comes after Indivior, the pharmaceuticals business spun out of consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser, reached settlement deals with two other groups of claimants.

Shareholders in Abcam have been advised to vote in favour of a $5.7 billion bid by an American conglomerate. Last year Abcam, a supplier to the pharmaceuticals industry, moved to the Nasdaq stock exchange from Aim. Now Danaher has approached the Cambridge-based biotechnology group with a $24-a-share offer. Glass Lewis, the advisory group, said Abcam stock had been ‘’consistently moderately below’’ the price and the deal should be supported unless a better offer emerged. Shares in Abcam rose 29 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $22.92.

The Guardian

Sepsis is still killing too many patients due to the same hospital failings from a decade ago, a damning report by the NHS ombudsman has warned. Avoidable mistakes include delays in spotting and treating the condition, poor communication between health staff, sub-standard record keeping and missed opportunities for follow-up care, according to Rob Behrens, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman. According to the UK Sepsis Trust, about 48,000 deaths are attributed to sepsis in the UK each year. The new report laid out a number of recommendations and also called for NHS organisations to ‘’embed learning cultures that are transparent about mistakes and take accountability for learning from them’’. NHS England said it was working to improve the identification and management of sepsis, and supporting staff to recognise and treat it as quickly as possible.

Covid-19 symptoms persist for a year after infection for one in 20 people, according to the largest UK study into the ‘’lasting impacts’’ of the virus. The analysis by Imperial College London involved 276,000 members of the public who were regularly tested for Covid during the pandemic as part of the React surveillance study. In total, 59 per cent tested positive for the virus between 2020 and last year, and were asked to report their symptoms and any long-term effects. While most people recovered from Covid-19 within two weeks, one in 13 reported symptoms three months later, meeting the threshold for ‘’long Covid’’. One in 20 patients had symptoms a year after infection, with mild fatigue, difficulty concentrating and joint pain the most common. Other persistent symptoms included loss or change of sense of smell or taste, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, chest tightness or pain and poor memory.

Several NHS hospitals have been accused of exploiting foreign doctors as ‘’cheap labour’’, after it emerged they can be paid less than UK staff. The British Medical  Journal investigated the treatment of doctors taking part in a fellowship scheme that allows them to work at English hospital trusts for two years to gain experience, before returning to practise in their home countries. This revealed that foreign trainees can be paid several thousand pounds less than UK-trained junior doctors employed by the NHS, and they miss out on overtime pay. The Medical Training Initiative scheme is run by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Since it began in 2009 there have been almost 7,000 trainees from countries such as Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. In some NHS trusts the foreign doctors receive the same pay and benefits as trust-employed doctors of the same level, but in others they are not paid equally.

Domestic abusers may get survivors medical records through the NHS app, women’s groups and the British Medical Association have warned before the device is expanded next week. The open letter, signed by Refuge, Women’s Aid and other groups that campaign to protect women and girls, advises those it has helped to consider deleting the NHS app until better safeguarding is in place. It urges survivors to contact their GP and request that access to their information be removed. GP practices across England have been instructed to grant access to patients’  medical records through the NHS app and other online portals since April. By next Tuesday all  GPs in England will be obliged to do so. The letter says making medical records easy to access will put survivors at ‘’greater risk’’. The signatories fear culprits may be able to gain access to records, increasing abuse and preventing the target from seeking support. Anyone experiencing tech-facilitated abuse is encouraged to contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline that Refuge runs at 0808 2000 247.

Just 22 minutes per day of brisk walking, housework or jogging can offset the negative health effects of spending most of your day sitting down, according to research. People who spend at least 12 hours a  day sitting down, in an office job or watching TV are more likely to die earlier but experts found this extra risk can be eliminated through exercise. The study backs up NHS recommendations that people aim for 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week. The study, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, examined data from activity trackers for 11,989 people aged over 50, half of whom were women, from Norway, Sweden and the US.

The NHS has launched an investigation after it sent ‘’priority’’ letters to people who died years ago urging them to book flu and Covid-19 jabs to reduce their risk of serious illness. The health service is asking eligible patients to arrange appointments for both vaccines to avoid a potential ‘’twindemic’’ of flu and coronavirus this winter, which would pile further pressure on hospitals and GPs. Some of the letters, which contain personal information such as NHS numbers, have been sent to people who died years ago. Others have been sent to people who are not eligible for the vaccines, with no connection to the addressee. NHS England told the Guardian it was investigating. It declined to answer questions about when the error was first discovered, what had caused it and how many people had been affected.

A simple finger-prick test could help to diagnose bipolar disorder, a condition that causes debilitating mood  swings, a study from the University of Cambridge suggests. It is believed to affect about one per cent of the population but it is estimated that nearly 40 per cent of cases are misdiagnosed as severe depression which needs different treatment. At present, a bipolar diagnosis usually requires psychiatric assessment and takes an average of seven years. The blood test, coupled with an hour-long mental health assessment, was found to be 90 per cent accurate in identifying the condition. The findings were published in the journal Jama Psychiatry.

Profits in the third quarter at Philips have proved markedly stronger than expected and have prompted the Dutch medical devices manufacturer to lift its full-year forecast. Philips reported income from operations of €224 million in the three months to the end of September, rebounding from a loss of more than €1.5 billion a year earlier. The performance was driven by an 11 per cent increase in sales to €4.5 billion thanks to strengthening  global demand for its medical scanners, patient monitoring equipment and personal health devices.

The Times

The Christie Hospital in Manchester is pioneering a specialist cancer service for elderly patients under plans to tackle a ‘’silver tsunami’’ of cases. More than 200 patients have been treated by the new team, which was set up to meet the more complex care needs of an ageing population. The service has nearly halved the number of unplanned hospital admissions among older cancer patients, improving survival and quality of life. Half of all cancer cases in the UK are in people over the age of 70. Sufferers often have many other health conditions and may not be offered or complete courses of radiotherapy or chemotherapy, because of concerns they cannot tolerate it. Cancer Research UK estimates that 60 per cent of patients will be over 70 by 2040. In June, experts at a cancer conference in Chicago urged governments to urgently adapt services to prepare for a ‘’global oncologic tsunami’’ of millions more older patients.

Having therapy for mental health problems also keeps you in better shape physically and cuts the risk of being admitted to hospital, research suggests. Data from 630,000 adults shows those who receive talking therapy for anxiety or depression are 20 per cent less likely to need hospital treatment for a physical illness or disease in the long term. Help including sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was found to have a similar benefit to exercising twice a week in cutting the risk of severe physical illnesses. The report by the health insurance firm Vitality found therapy also reduced the likelihood of being hospitalised for mental health problems by 21 per cent. Doctors said the findings showed that greater access to therapy – a relatively cheap therapy – could save the NHS huge amounts by reducing hospital costs and stopping mental health conditions worsening.

Hot yoga can significantly reduce symptoms of severe depression, a clinical trial has found. Scientists said that regular Bikram yoga classes, in which poses are practised in humid rooms heated to 40C, are an effective treatment option that can put depressed patients into remission. The trial, led by Massachusetts General Hospital, recruited 80 adults with moderate to severe depression who were randomly divided into two groups. Half went to a 90-minute hot yoga session twice a week. The others were told that they were on a waiting list and did not receive any treatment. After eight weeks, 44 per cent of those who did the yoga classes had seen such a big improvement in symptoms that they were no longer classed as depressed, compared with only 6 per cent of the control group.

An online suicide forum has been linked to at least 50 deaths in the UK, including people who bought a poison from a chef exposed by The Times. Six coroners have given warnings  to the government about the website – which the paper is not naming – but it is still accessible in Britain. The Times has discovered that several of the 88 people in the UK who died after taking a poison sent by the Canadian chef Kenneth Law were directed to him by the forum. They include a British woman aged 20 who was sent a private message with a link to Law’s poison website by a mysterious forum member who repeatedly pushed vulnerable people towards Law. Law, 58, is facing 14 charges of aiding suicide in Canada and is subject to an investigation in Britain by the National Crime Agency.

Dozens of US states are suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging that it has fuelled a mental health crisis among young people. The legal claims, filed in federal and state courts by both Republican and Democratic attorney-generals, accuse Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant of having intentionally built addictive features into its platforms. Meta targeted young people, it is alleged, by the design of its algorithms, alerts and notification systems. Features such as ‘’likes’’ and photo filters are said to promote body dysmorphia among teenagers, especially girls. One internal study reported that 13.5 per cent of teenage girl said Instagram made thoughts of suicide worse, and 17 per cent said it made eating disorders worse.

Neglecting female health at work costs the economy £20.2 billion a year, it has been claimed. The Centre for Economics and Business Research came up with the figure after calculating the cost of sickness absence, which averaged 6.1 days for women in 2022 and 5.2 days for men. More than a third of those polled felt their employers were not supportive when it comes to women-specific health matters such as menopause and periods.

A Republican hopeful in America’s presidential race is  in line for a financial windfall after the company he founded agreed a deal to sell an experimental bowel disease treatment for more than $7 billion. Roivant Sciences, which Vivek Ramaswamy launched in 2014, has agreed to sell its 75 per cent stake in Telavant Holdings, to Roche, the Swiss drugs group, in a deal worth $7.1 billion upfront, plus a near-term milestone payment of $150 million. Telavant holds the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise RVT-3101 in the  US and Japan. The antibody treatment offers a potential therapy for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, which affect almost eight million people worldwide. Pfizer holds the remaining stake in Telavant and has retained rights to market the drug outside America and Japan.