
GSK says EU heath regulator reviewing expansion of RSV vaccine
June 13 (Reuters) - GSK (GSK.L), opens new tab said on Friday the European Medicines Agency had accepted the drugmaker's application to expand the use of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, Arexvy, to include adults from 18 years of age.
A decision by the European Union's health regulator on the vaccine, already approved for certain age groups, is expected in the first half of 2026, GSK said.

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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Millions of patients to be treated by GPs instead of hospitals under radical reforms to cut NHS waiting list
Patients will be treated by GPs rather than getting specialist care in hospitals under radical reforms as Keir Starmer battles to tackle the NHS crisis. Routine appointments will be dealt with in community services close to patients' homes in a move they believe could 'fix the waiting list'. The health service will also ramp-up technology meaning patients will have less in-person appointments - instead using like the NHS app and wearable devices to monitor patients remotely. NHS bosses claim half of the 135 million hospital outpatient appointments every year are 'pointless' and follow-ups and consultations could instead be done in high-street surgeries. It comes as the government is set to launch a ten-year plan to create a 'neighbourhood health service', The Times reports. 'As we deliver the transformational shifts in our 10 Year Plan, from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention, it will have radical implications for services,' Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester. 'Much of what's done in a hospital today, will be done on the high street, over the phone, or through the app in a decade's time.' The plans are set to link family doctors, nurses, social care services and volunteers with money being paid to NHS regions based on how effective their care is rather than how busy the hospitals are. Streeting added: 'We will use financial incentives to invest more in public health outcomes, not just in more activity that reacts to sickness.' Earlier this week, figures revealed that the number of patients waiting has fallen to its lowest point in two years - but the number of patients waiting for more than a year for hospital treatment has increased. The news comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the NHS a cash injection worth an extra £29 billion per year. Speaking to the Commons, the Chancellor said she is making a 'record cash investment' in the NHS, worth an extra 3 per cent a year in real terms. The Chancellor insisted this would lead to 'more appointments, more doctors and more scanners' as Labour seeks to deliver on its manifesto promise to get the NHS 'back on its feet'. But the settlement received a lukewarm response from NHS bosses, who said they would need even more money if the Government is to achieve its aim of treating 92 per cent of patients within 18 weeks of a GP referral by the end of this Parliament. Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health organisations, said: 'Difficult decisions will still need to be made as this additional £29billion won't be enough to cover increasing costs of new treatments, with staff pay likely to account for a large proportion of it. 'On its own, this won't guarantee that waiting time targets are met.' Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, told the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester that the health service has done 'really well relative to other parts of the public service'. But he added: 'We all know it's never enough because of the scale of advancement, all the ambition, the day-to-day cost pressures... but I think everyone's starting to accept and understand we've got what the country can afford to give us. 'We really need to get better value for that money – it is broadly the equivalent of the GDP of Portugal, so it's a huge amount.' Government documents accompanying the Spending Review show that, on average, from 2023/24 to 2028/29, the NHS in England will receive 3 per cent real-terms growth in day-to-day spending, equivalent to a £29billion increase in annual budgets The Government said it will also invest up to £10 billion in NHS technology and digital transformation by 2028/29, plus £6 billion to speed up tests and treatments. Scanners, ambulances and urgent treatment centres are among things the additional cash – part of the overall £29 billion – will pay for, with the aim of providing up to 4 million more tests and procedures in the next five years. NHS England figures show 7.42 million treatments were waiting to be done at the end of March, relating to 6.25 million patients – up from 7.4 million and 6.24 million respectively at the end of February.


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
'Disgusting' loos see pupils trying to skip school - as horrified children say they feel 'like they were stepping into a horror movie'
More than one in ten parents said their children have asked to miss school because the toilets are so disgusting, a survey has suggested. A poll, of 2,000 parents of school-aged children in the UK suggests around one in six (17 per cent) parents rated the toilets at their child's school as unclean. Nearly a third (31 per cent) of families said they have raised concerns about the toilets with school staff, according to a survey for charity Parentkind. One parent told the charity that the toilets were so dirty that their children 'felt like they were stepping into a horror movie', while another parent said their child had seen cockroaches in the school toilets. The Censuswide poll suggests that 11 per cent of parents said their child had missed school, or asked to stay at home, because of worries about the toilets at school. The charity is calling on the Government to prioritise funds to improve 'disgusting' school toilets as part of plans to improve the school estate. It comes after the Chancellor announced around £2.3 billion per year for fixing 'crumbling classrooms' and £2.4 billion per year to rebuild 500 schools. Some surveyed parents suggested their children had wet themselves at school, or suffered constipation, because of avoiding the toilets at their school. Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, called for government funds set out in the spending review to be used to make school toilets 'fit for use'. He said: 'With a million children facing humiliation because of the disgusting state of school toilets, we need to shine a light on the health and well-being of our children who are refusing to drink during the day to avoid going to the toilet and the millions of children suffering constipation because their school toilets are so dirty. 'Parents tell us that we need to set aside the cash to clean and upgrade school loos. 'Parents tell us their children have seen 'cockroaches coming out of the floors' and toilets 'covered in poo and urine'.' Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'Schools understand the vital importance of toilets being clean and in good order, work hard to ensure this is the case, and will be dismayed at the findings of this research. 'Many schools are struggling with old and outdated buildings which require a great deal of maintenance because of years of government underfunding, and this may play a role in the perceptions reflected by respondents. 'We urgently need improved investment in upgrading and modernising school buildings.'


BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
I'm an NHS leader - but my mum still suffered at hands of the health service
A senior NHS leader has criticised the health service, saying his mother received a "black service, not an NHS service" as she Victor Adebowale, chair of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, described his mother Grace's death as "undignified".The 92-year-old died in January of suspected lung cancer, although it was not detected until after her Adebowale said his mother's missed diagnosis, combined with the sub-standard care she received when admitted to hospital for the final time, had left his family upset and searching for peer, who was also on the board of NHS England for six years, believes his mother's experience illustrates wider problems. "My mum would have wanted me to tell her story because she is not the only one who will have faced these problems."Lord Adebowale said he would not call the NHS racist, but instead believed it was riven with inequalities, particularly racial inequalities."It's the inverse care law. The people most in need of health and care are the least likely to get it - if you are black, if you are poor, if you are elderly and poor, there are inequalities in the system and people like my mum suffer."The intervention by such a figure is significant. Lord Adebowale has held senior health roles for more than two decades and also helped establish the NHS Race and Health Observatory in 2021 to try to tackle inequalities experienced by black and minority ethnic patients in England said it was working to improve access to services and tackle inequalities, which would form an "important part" of the 10-year health plan, expected to be published next month.A spokesperson added: "Everyone - no matter their background - should receive the best NHS care possible. But we know there is much more to do."A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care echoed those comments, adding: "Our deepest sympathies are with Lord Adebowale for the loss of his mother." A committed, caring nurse Lord Adebowale's mother, who had three other children, emigrated to the UK in the 1950s from Nigeria and went on to work as a nurse in hospitals, the community and mental health describes her as a caring, compassionate and intensely committed nurse. "She believed in the health service. It's people like her who help build the NHS, but, when she needed it, it wasn't there as it should have been."She had dementia and in the final five or six years was in regular contact with the health service. We cannot understand why she did not get a [cancer] diagnosis. She was in discomfort and pain – and had been for some time. "She never got any treatment for cancer – it was only after she died we learnt she had lung cancer."That was found during a post-mortem and subsequent tests have suggested that was the likely cause of her death, he Adebowale added that when his mother was taken to hospital the final time it was not easy to find her a bed. "The hospital was under intense pressure. She did not want to die in hospital in that sort of situation." Symbolic of wider problem Lord Adebowale is not naming the NHS service involved in her care, saying he does not want to apportion individual blame, as his mother's experience was symbolic of a wider problem."I just think there are too many situations where people that look like me and shades of me don't get the service they deserve. It was not the dignified death that we would have wanted for her. It wasn't the death she deserved."I think she got a black service, not an NHS service."Lord Adebowale, who for nearly 20 years was chief executive of Turning Point, a care organisation that supports people with substance misuse and mental health problems alongside those with learning disabilities, before becoming chair of the NHS Confederation in 2019, said there were multiple examples of inequalities in the health highlighted research showing younger black people waited 20 minutes longer on average in A&E than white also showed people from the poorest backgrounds were more likely to face year-long waits for routine studies have suggested people from deprived communities are 50% more likely to have cancer diagnosed after a visit to A&E – such diagnoses are more likely to be at a later stage when chances of survival are said while the promise of extra money for the health service made in this week's spending review was welcome, that alone would not tackle the inequalities."It a systematic problem – I don't want to blame any particular individual or my mum's local NHS. "What happened to her could happen anywhere. We need to address inequalities in the health service and that requires leadership – not just money."