Media Monitoring: 11 – 17 November

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting NHS league tables will be introduced under Labour to help improve productivity.
Mr Streeting has promised that this will also lead to more transparency in the health service, giving patients an idea of which providers are performing well or poorly.
If organisations are underperforming, Labour would send in turnaround teams, while providers who offer the best services will be granted greater freedoms.

The Type 1 Diabetes Risk in Adults (T1DRA) study is recruiting 20,000 adults, aged between 18 and 70, to find those who are likely to develop type 1 diabetes in the future. It’s led by Professor Kathleen Gillespie at the University of Bristol.
This means the UK is now the first country in the world to offer type 1 diabetes screening for both children and adults in the general population, in a research setting.
T1DRA will answer important questions about how type 1 diabetes develops in adults and will give us the first ever picture of how many adults in the UK are at increased risk of developing the condition.

Leading cancer experts have warned that ministers’ decision to axe a dedicated plan to tackle the disease will lead to a crisis in cancer care.
In a report published on Wednesday in the Lancet Oncology, 12 cancer experts said the decision could cause more people to die.
In January, the government scrapped its longstanding cancer plan and instead merged it into a wider “major conditions strategy” that also covers a range of other major diseases.

AMR is getting worse as a result of leftover antibiotics being given to friends or family, with the problem more likely to affect people of Asian heritage being at greater risk that white people.
While severe antibiotic-resistant infections – such as bloodstream infections, UTIs, surgical site infections and respiratory infections – remained below 2018 levels last year, the latest estimates suggest there was a 4% rise between 2021 and 2022, from 55,792 to 58,224.
There was also a rise in the number of deaths attributed to severe antibiotic-resistant infections, from 2,110 in 2021 to 2,202 in 2022.

The Council today gave its green light to UK participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes, approving the agreement in principle reached between the Commission and the UK government on 7 September 2023.
According to the agreement in principle, as of 1 January 2024, researchers and organisations in the UK will be able to participate in the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe on equal terms with their counterparts in the EU member states.
The UK will also participate in the EU’s earth observation programme Copernicus and have access to the EU’s space surveillance and tracking services. The UK’s participation will be subject to all the safeguards of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, including the payment of a participation fee into the EU budget.

More than nine in 10 trust leaders (95%) said they were extremely or moderately concerned about the impact of seasonal pressures over winter on their trust and local area. The most common reason for concerns related to industrial action.
Over three quarters of trust leaders (76%) said it was very unlikely or unlikely that their trust will end 2023/24 in a better financial position than it ended 22/23. Respondents who said that it is unlikely that their trust will end 23/24 in a better financial position than in 2022/23 were most concerned about pressures on NHS finance including loss of funding, and industrial action.
Eight in 10 trust leaders (80%) strongly agreed or agreed that winter 23/24 will be tougher than 22/23.

Research by BT exposes growing sense of urgency amongst NHS staff about the pace of digital innovation in the healthcare service.
Most now believe investment in tech like digital records, remote diagnosis and care, as well as digital skills training would cut wait lists, cut costs, and improve patient outcomes.
Four in five are calling for urgent collaboration between public and private sectors to deliver on promise of the NHS’s Digital Transformation Strategy and Long Term Plan.