Media Monitoring: 5th March – 18th March

Scientists have made a “significant step” towards creating a blood test that detects brain tumours and monitors them in real time.
The new test is more than 90% accurate and could be used by GPs to pick up deadly glioblastomas. It is also being expanded to include other types of brain tumour.
The study, led by scientists at the University of Manchester and involving teams in Denmark, has pinpointed a pair of proteins in the blood help identify tumours.

Confidential health data has been exposed online on dozens of occasions, a Guardian investigation can reveal, raising questions about the safeguarding of patient records by one of the UK’s flagship medical research projects.
UK Biobank, which holds the medical records of 500,000 British volunteers, is one of the world’s most comprehensive stores of health information and is credited with driving breakthroughs in cancer, dementia and diabetes research.
But scientists approved to access Biobank’s sensitive data appear to have sometimes been cavalier about its security.

A two-tier health system is emerging with people increasingly paying for tests and treatments on the private sector to beat NHS waits, a patient watchdog is warning.
Healthwatch England said feedback from patients combined with polling suggested use of the private sector is on the rise, with long NHS waits said to be a key factor.
Private sector providers said alongside rises in people paying for treatment, some were also using the private sector to get scans and tests done before returning to the NHS, with their results, in a bid to get seen more quickly.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is issuing, for the first time, recommendations on new near-point-of-care (NPOC) molecular tests for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB); easy-to-collect tongue swab samples to simplify and expand access to testing; and a cost-saving sputum pooling strategy to increase testing efficiency for TB and rifampicin-resistant TB.

A coronavirus testing laboratory which produced a “suspiciously low” number of positive results was operating in an “unprecedented” landscape, a court has been told.
Five people, including former justice minister Shahid Malik, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of fraudulent trading and causing a public nuisance over their role in RT Diagnostics.
The firm was set up in 2021 but, within weeks of trading, allegations emerged that untested samples were being “dumped”, with customers sent fake negative results for the deadly virus.

Government plans for NHS reform depend on greater use of technology and AI. Understanding public and staff perspectives will be critical for making change happen. In August and September 2025, we surveyed 8,000 members of the UK public and 2,000 NHS staff to explore attitudes to technology and AI in health care.
Sentiment towards technology in health care remains broadly positive, despite a small increase in negative views over the past year. 55% of the public says technology improves care quality; just 13% say it makes quality worse (up from 8% in 2024).
Support for AI in health care has seen a small increase, with the balance of sentiment remaining broadly positive. 38% of the public says AI will improve care quality, up from 33% in 2024; 19% say it will make quality worse. However, despite this increase, support for AI in health care remains lower than for technology overall, indicating a more cautious stance.