WHO announces the development of guidelines on multiplex testing
- WHO is convening a Guideline Development Group (GDG) for the development of evidence-based recommendations on multiplex testing which will establish critical principles for integrated testing and address latest evidence specific to HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
- This is the first guideline to incorporate latest evidence and implementation that explicitly addresses multiplex testing.
- While the guideline will focus largely on application to HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs, it will provide critical principles for integration that drive public health impact and chart the course for further multi-disease testing approaches.
- Three in four NHS hospital trusts are failing cancer patients, according to the first league tables of their kind, prompting experts to declare a “national emergency”.
- Labour published the first league tables to rank hospitals in England since the early 2000s this week. The overall rankings score trusts based on a range of measures including finances and patient safety, as well as how they are bringing down waiting times for operations and in A&E, and improving ambulance response times.
- Ninety of the 118 trusts (76%) are missing the first target of ruling cancer in or out within 28 days of urgent referrals in at least 80% of cases.
Just half of urgently referred cancer patients are being diagnosed on time
- In England, people with signs of cancer may receive an “urgent referral” from their GP or from their screening results. That’s the first step on a pathway that should either diagnose or rule out cancer within 28 days. This is known as the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), and the NHS aims to meet it for 75% of people.
- NHS cancer waiting times data shows that the FDS target has been met almost every month since the start of 2024. But it leaves out something important. Until today, we’ve not known how performance against the FDS target differs for those that have cancer ruled out and those that get diagnosed.
- Between April and June 2024, only half (52.3%) of people who went on to be diagnosed with cancer after an urgent referral received their diagnosis in 28 days. That’s compared to 75.1% of people getting the all clear in the same timeframe.
- The King’s Fund examines why local leadership is the key component of the neighbour-based healthcare championed by the government.
Addressing sepsis requires speedy solutions: enter rapid diagnostics
- The PHG Foundation look at the importance of rapid diagnostics in securing a fast diagnosis, and therefore treatment, of sepsis.
