Media Monitoring: 15 – 21 July

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch formally signed the treaty confirming the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – the Indo-Pacific trade bloc now worth £12 trillion in GDP – in New Zealand last week
To celebrate this huge moment, the Government released new figures showing CPTPP-owned businesses employed one in 100 UK workers, with membership expected to turbocharge investment in the UK even further
British whisky and cars amongst 99% of current UK goods exports to CPTPP set to be eligible for zero tariffs as UK businesses given unparalleled access to market of over 500 million people

The NHS Monthly Diagnostics data for May 2023 can be found here.

The total number of patients waiting six weeks or more from referral for one of the 15 key diagnostic tests at the end of May 2023 was 409,700. This was 25.9% of the total number of patients waiting at the end of the month.
Nationally, the operational standard of less than 1% of patients waiting six weeks or more was not met this month.
Compared with May 2022 the total number of patients waiting six weeks or more increased by 2,300 while the proportion of patients waiting six weeks or more decreased by 0.1 percentage points.
In the last 12 months, the proportion of patients waiting six weeks or more at the end of a month has varied between 25.0% (March 2023) and 31.3% (December 2022).
The estimated average time that a patient had been waiting for a diagnostic test was 3.0 weeks at the end of May 2023.
There were 1,583,500 patients waiting for a key diagnostic test at the end of May 2023. This is an increase of 16,400 from May 2022.
A total of 2,187,900 diagnostic tests were undertaken in May 2023. This is an increase of 122,100 from May 2022.

It’s been 10 years since the 100,000 Genomes Project was announced and Genomics England was formally set up to deliver this landmark project in partnership with the NHS.
Through the 100,000 Genomes Project, we provided diagnoses to thousands of participants with rare conditions and helped personalise care for many patients with cancer. You can read first-hand accounts from participants of the impact genomic medicine has had on their lives.
The project also paved the way for the establishment of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, the first national health care system to offer whole genome sequencing as part of routine care for patients with rare conditions and certain types of cancer.

Summit focused on digital innovation and technology to help deliver better care for patients and boost work to cut waiting lists – one of the Government’s top 5 priorities
Ministers to host roundtable sessions across elective, urgent and emergency, primary and adult social care
Demonstrations throughout the day showcased how technology in the NHS is transforming care for patients and consider how to go further and faster in embracing new technology to improve access to services

A new, visionary Corporate Plan, setting out how the MHRA plans to keep patients safe by enabling access to innovative, safe and effective medical products over the coming three years was published recently
The priorities in the Corporate Plan are to:

Maintain public trust through transparency and proactive communication.
Enable healthcare access to safe and effective medical products.
Deliver scientific and regulatory excellence through strategic partnerships.
Become an agency where people flourish alongside a responsive customer service culture.

The plan sets out the key actions the agency will take to deliver on these priorities, that will transform medical product regulation in the UK. These range from a revised innovation pathway to reduce the time from discovery or development to deployment, to developing and launching a new knowledge hub that will act as a responsive, customer-focused single point of contact for the Agency.

In episode 34 of the National Health Executive podcast, NHS England’s national clinical director for infection, antimicrobial resistance and deterioration, Dr Matt Inada-Kim discusses whether the pandemic is really over, how the NHS has learnt from Covid-19 and what the NHS needs to do to prepare for the next global health incident.

The plan proposes a huge expansion of the city, including turning it into Europe’s leading home for innovative tech companies