A four-day work week improves productivity and health, new study shows
The research, involving over 100 companies and nearly 2,900 workers across several countries including the UK, revealed high satisfaction for both employers and employees.
Key positive outcomes included improved productivity, revenue growth, better physical and mental health for workers, and reduced stress and burnout.
Companies maintained productivity by cutting low-value activities like excessive meetings, while employees used their extra day off for personal appointments, leading to lower healthcare costs and reduced turnover.
While not suitable for all industries, the study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates that the positive effects of the four-day week persisted six months after the trials concluded.
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North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
NHS on the hunt for ‘precision-matched' blood donors
Scientists have tested tens of thousands of blood donors to see if they have rare blood types in a UK-first. The blood from donors with rare blood types will be collected and frozen so it can be used to help other people with the same type of blood. It will also be available should the donor be in a situation where they themselves need a blood transfusion. The new drive to find precision-matched blood donors comes to help people who are at risk of blood transfusion side effects. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said that blood matching is 'vital' due to the complexity of blood groups – there are 362 known blood types. So far its scientists have DNA-tested the blood types of 77,000 donors as part of a research project. This is the first time that blood types have been DNA tested in the UK at-scale, NHSBT said. Dozens of rare blood donors have been identified during the process and it is hoped the number will rise to hundreds. This means that blood from these donors can be used as 'personalised, precision-matched transfusion' for those in need. This can help avoid severe transfusion reactions – where the body sees the transfused blood as 'foreign' and rejects it. People who are particularly at risk of these reactions are those who regularly receive blood donations including those with sickle cell disorder and thalassaemia. Experts hailed the project as the 'first major step' towards rolling out precision-matched blood more widely. Dr Gail Miflin, chief medical officer at NHSBT, said: 'Taking these 77,000 donors and testing their blood to such a precise level has been an incredible undertaking and will work to significantly change the way we issue blood – especially to those patients at higher risk of transfusion related reactions. 'We will be able to match to an increasing number of blood groups, ensuring that patients have blood that is most similar to their own and reducing the risk of any reactions. It is an example of just how we are driving innovation which can radically improve patient outcomes.' NHSBT's genomics programme director, Kate Downes, added: 'This inventory of blood will enhance our capacity to find units with rare blood groups for difficult to match patients as well as provide better matched units for patients who have an increased risk of transfusion reactions, aiding us in our mission to save and improve even more lives. 'This genotyping is a first major step towards rolling out precision matched blood more widely, which would be a landmark change in how blood is matched.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
NHS on the hunt for ‘precision-matched' blood donors
The NHS is searching for blood donors with rare blood types so it can ensure patients in need can receive 'precision-matched' blood. Scientists have tested tens of thousands of blood donors to see if they have rare blood types in a UK-first. The blood from donors with rare blood types will be collected and frozen so it can be used to help other people with the same type of blood. It will also be available should the donor be in a situation where they themselves need a blood transfusion. The new drive to find precision-matched blood donors comes to help people who are at risk of blood transfusion side effects. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said that blood matching is 'vital' due to the complexity of blood groups – there are 362 known blood types. So far its scientists have DNA-tested the blood types of 77,000 donors as part of a research project. This is the first time that blood types have been DNA tested in the UK at-scale, NHSBT said. Dozens of rare blood donors have been identified during the process and it is hoped the number will rise to hundreds. This means that blood from these donors can be used as 'personalised, precision-matched transfusion' for those in need. This can help avoid severe transfusion reactions – where the body sees the transfused blood as 'foreign' and rejects it. People who are particularly at risk of these reactions are those who regularly receive blood donations including those with sickle cell disorder and thalassaemia. Experts hailed the project as the 'first major step' towards rolling out precision-matched blood more widely. Dr Gail Miflin, chief medical officer at NHSBT, said: 'Taking these 77,000 donors and testing their blood to such a precise level has been an incredible undertaking and will work to significantly change the way we issue blood – especially to those patients at higher risk of transfusion related reactions. 'We will be able to match to an increasing number of blood groups, ensuring that patients have blood that is most similar to their own and reducing the risk of any reactions. It is an example of just how we are driving innovation which can radically improve patient outcomes.' NHSBT's genomics programme director, Kate Downes, added: 'This inventory of blood will enhance our capacity to find units with rare blood groups for difficult to match patients as well as provide better matched units for patients who have an increased risk of transfusion reactions, aiding us in our mission to save and improve even more lives. 'This genotyping is a first major step towards rolling out precision matched blood more widely, which would be a landmark change in how blood is matched.'
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Striking doctors claiming to care about patients? It's a sick joke
The British Medical Association confirmed that a five-day NHS strike would go ahead from Friday VUK VALCIC/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES W hen hospital doctors strike they routinely trot out the claim that they are doing it for the patients. Their desire for generous pay awards (to add to pensions that are the envy of the private sector) is billed as almost incidental to their mission to save the National Health Service. Failure to award them a double-digit pay rise, they explain, will result in catastrophe for the health service. And why? Because, says the British Medical Association, the professional body for doctors turned militant trade union, young medics would be 'forced' to hightail it to sunny Australia to line their pockets. They wouldn't be able to help themselves. The activists in the BMA fomenting a new and scarcely believable round of strikes, beginning on Friday with a five-day stoppage, should stop insulting the public's intelligence with this offensive cant, wipe away their crocodile tears and admit that it's all about the cash. The price: thousands of patients will end up in more pain and for longer, or die earlier, because of their grotesque selfishness. The NHS, which these wreckers always claim to revere, will be plunged into chaos again, just as it is recovering from 44 days of strikes in 2023-24. And what is the BMA's latest pay claim? Resident doctors — hospital doctors who are not consultants, previously known as junior doctors — want 29 per cent. Yes, really. That is on top of a 22 per cent rise last year. After the Labour government's capitulation to the BMA in 2024, it is trying to return to relative normality this year with an above-inflation offer of 5.4 per cent, in line with the pay review body recommendation and the most generous offer in the public sector. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is trying to talk sense into the strike leaders, offering the olive branch of reduced student debt. But having shown weakness once Mr Streeting finds himself in the all-too-predictable position of facing an emboldened opponent confident in its power. The good news is that Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, has refused to play the BMA's game and is insisting that routine operations carry on. Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA council, and Emma Runswick, his deputy, have called for all non-urgent procedures to be cancelled, claiming that doing otherwise would 'put patients at risk'. Their hypocrisy is nauseating: it is the BMA that is placing patients in peril. The BMA's cynicism does not end there. When resident doctors strike it falls to consultants to fill the gaps. These aristocrats of the NHS, enjoying basic salaries up to £140,000, not including private work and overtime, are being advised by the union to charge £313 an hour for strike night cover. This is rampant profiteering. Only 26,800 BMA resident doctors voted to strike out of 53,800. Some 22,000 resident doctors are not in the BMA. So just a third of all resident doctors voted yes to misery. The silent majority should back the NHS. Medical graduates start their professional training on £36,000; by their early thirties they are earning £70,000. From then on it is a staircase to comfort. NHS doctors enjoy a super-perk they prefer not to highlight: generous, index-linked defined benefit pensions resulting in retirement incomes greater than most salaries. The public needs to understand how much it is paying for the retirements of these arrogant, entitled, callous strikers. The BMA is now in danger of overreaching itself, of forfeiting public respect. A 29 per cent pay claim, following a 22 per cent one, is a sick joke.
