Latest news with #NHS-commissioned
Hindustan Times
25-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Why are British doctors so radical?
PICTURE THE British Medical Association (BMA), the main doctors' union, and you may imagine a professional body of tweed-wearers. It is more like a giant version of Extinction Rebellion, albeit ready to block health care, not roads. Its latest strike, a five-day walkout by resident (formerly known as junior) doctors, is to start on July 25th. How did they get so radical? The union has long been a nuisance for governments. Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the National Health Service (NHS), called it a 'small body of politically poisoned people'. Yet strikes by doctors were rare. Until 2023 there had been only three national ones in the NHS's 75-year history. But from 2023 to 2024, that number shot up. A wave of doctors' strikes in England led to the rescheduling of half a million operations and appointments. The strikes were paused only when the government offered a 22% pay rise over two years. Now, the BMA's central demand is to restore doctors' real-terms pay to 2008 levels. By its own preferred measure, retail-price inflation, salaries are down by 21% even after last year's bump. Student debt is another grievance. But advocates insist it's not just about money. Dr Julia Patterson, who leads EveryDoctor, a campaign group, says conditions in the NHS are so grim that 'you wonder why anybody would cling on.' One of those who has, Dr Lois Nunn, describes the toll of long hours and a five-hour round-trip commute between her hospital and young family. With a shortage of specialty training posts, placements are highly competitive. Many of her doctor friends have moved to Australia; those who remain, she says, are 'quite miserable'. The malaise is not uniquely British. In Germany health workers recently went on strike over pay. Fearing increased competition, last year thousands of South Korean doctors downed stethoscopes over the government's push to recruit more medical students. Even in America, doctors are starting to unionise. 'We've lost our voice within the system,' says Dr Matt Hoffman, a doctor organising in Minnesota. Yet only in England has this frustration hardened into radicalism. In recent years self-styled 'unashamed socialists' took over most of the main committees. The logo of Broad Left, a key faction, is a stethoscope shaped like a hammer and sickle. The BMA has become a platform for activists' causes. At its recent annual conference it passed several motions on the war in Gaza, including one to suspend ties with the Israeli Medical Association. The BMA softened its critical stance on the Cass Review, an NHS-commissioned report that questioned the evidence base for youth-gender services, only after more than 1,000 members signed a letter in protest. Not all doctors support the BMA. It's a 'deeply dysfunctional mess', says one who left. Public support has fallen: 34% of Brits support strikes compared with 52% last year. If strikes go ahead, Labour's pledge to cut waiting lists will almost certainly be broken. Coroners have linked previous strikes to at least five patient deaths. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has called the strike action 'completely unjustified'. Yet even before now, the BMA's transformation has already been profound. It is no longer simply a doctors' guild, but a political force. For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in Britain, sign up to Blighty, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.
The Independent
28-02-2025
- Health
- The Independent
£10m funding for children's gender research including NHS puberty blocker trial
More than £10 million in NHS funding will be spent on new research into children's gender care including the use of puberty blockers. Plans for a trial were announced last year following the publication of the Cass Review which concluded the quality of studies claiming to show beneficial effects of such medication for children and young people with gender dysphoria was 'poor'. An NHS-commissioned study, to last until 2031, has now been confirmed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), to be carried out by a team of researchers led by King's College London on a contract worth £10,694,902.24. Baroness Hilary Cass, who authored the 2024 report in her name, said the research aims to 'fill some of the gaps in our knowledge about the outcomes of different interventions and address some of the uncertainty about the impacts and efficacy of puberty suppressing hormones'. The puberty blocker trial will form part of the four-part wider Pathways study. It will see young people, who have the agreement of their parents and NHS gender services, given puberty suppressing hormones (gonadotropin releasing hormone analogues or GnRHa) while having their physical, social and emotional well-being monitored across two years. Other parts of the overall study will involve tracking the well-being of children, including those not on the puberty blocker trial, attending NHS gender clinics. The research will also monitor whether puberty blockers affect young people's thinking and brain development, using various activities and brain scans. Researchers will speak to young people about their experiences of living with gender incongruence and of the care they get, as well as obtaining the views of parents and staff. The first patients had been expected to be recruited to the puberty blocker trial this spring but the NHS has noted this will be subject to strict ethical and regulatory approval. Professor James Palmer, who is the NHS national medical director for specialised services, said: 'This suite of research will examine the evidence for a range of clinical care, including the use of puberty suppressing hormones, following advice from the Cass Review. 'Independent researchers led by King's College London will now progress this joint NHS and NIHR project, which will be subject to strict ethical and regulatory approval and follow stringent safeguards in scientific research. 'In the meantime, the NHS continues to expand and improve services for children and young people with gender dysphoria and incongruence, in line with recommendations from the Cass Review.' Baroness Cass added: 'Access to the study will be through the new NHS children and young people's gender services where a multi-disciplinary team approach will be taken to identify those children who, with the consent of their parents, may be deemed clinically suitable for consideration of puberty suppressing hormones through the study. 'The children participating in the study will also continue to receive comprehensive psychosocial support.' Puberty blockers are not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria, with a ban last year being made permanent in December with the agreement of devolved governments across the UK. The ban sought to close a loophole on the sale and supply of puberty blockers through private prescriptions for under-18s after the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) published independent expert advice that there is 'currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children'.
