Decision by Royal College of Pharmacy to end sponsorship comes after concerns over Teva Pharmaceuticals’ ‘activities’

A second major UK health body has cut ties with an Israeli drug firm after coming under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners.

The Royal College of Pharmacy has dropped Teva UK, the British arm of the global medicines producer Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a sponsor of and exhibitor at its annual conference next month.

When my loved ones are on the move, I can’t rest until I know they’ve got from A to B safely. How I long for the ignorance of the olden days

I’ll call it compassionate surveillance. It’s what I do when I’m worried about a loved one who is on the move. I’m not sure it’s a good thing. Be they travelling by plane, train or automobile, I will keep tabs on them. I can’t help myself. If my daughters – who are highly competent grownups – make a long car journey, by means of some smartphone hocus-pocus I’ll know where they are. I should point out that this is done with consent: they know that I know where they are. In my mum’s case, this is less true, if only because she has long given up trying to make head or tail of location sharing and other such sorcery.

I cross my heart and hope to die when I swear to you that I only do this when they are in transit. Honestly, I never look up where they are on a night out or whatever. That would be weird – or weirder, anyway. But when they get in a car, I get the fear. The catastrophising begins. It’s a big world and their car is small. A million other cars, buses and lorries share the roads on which they are motoring. In this, as in all things, overthinking is calamitous. The more you think about what could go wrong, the more your imagination obliges with a steady stream of ghastly possibilities.

In den kommenden Jahren könnte beim Anpassen der Weltzeit an die Erdrotation erstmals eine Sekunde übersprungen werden müssen. Techkonzerne warnen vor den Folgen – doch es gäbe eine einfache Lösung.

‘Emma’ the Rotherham chatbot has 17 languages says AI firm – but health watchdog says system struggling with local ‘twangs’

Patients in a South Yorkshire town are frustrated by an AI GP receptionist not understanding their “broad accents”, a health watchdog has said.

Healthwatch Rotherham, a local health and social care watchdog, said a number of practices in the area had introduced a new AI receptionist called Emma.

Exclusive: Darren Rosheski won NHS payout over partner Helen Dutton’s death from rectal cancer after GP misjudged her symptoms

“I remember the doctor, after he’d examined Helen and found a large lump in her colon, saying: ‘It’s very sinister – we need to bring you in to be investigated.’”

Darren Rosheski is recalling the moment a consultant doctor at Tameside hospital broke the news to his partner, Helen Dutton, that her symptoms – which also included back pain, passing blood and altered bowel habits – were so worrying that they needed further tests.

Update in England expected to reach about 200,000 patients over the next year as part of £10bn package to overhaul NHS systems

The NHS will begin using AI on its app to direct patients to the appropriate services, it has been announced.

The tool will be used to triage patients and to ascertain if they should be allocated a GP appointment. Some may be advised to attend a pharmacy or their local A&E department instead, depending on the severity of their condition.

Supply problems pose risk to health, with common painkillers, epilepsy medication and HRT affected

Britons are facing some of the “most severe” shortages of NHS medicines on record including common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and HRT, health leaders have warned, even forcing some patients with impaired digestive systems to skip meals.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that medicine shortages pose a “serious risk to patient safety”.

Exclusive: Cancer charity says dispelling falsehoods gleaned from social media is now routine task for clinicians

Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John’s wort and magnesium is now so common that dispelling online claims has become a routine part of NHS clinicians work.

Two out of five frontline health workers say they encounter patients who raise inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.

Mother, who thought daughter was being examined by GP, says girl began to bleed and scream in pain after device was inserted

A five-year-old was left traumatised, bleeding and in severe pain after a physician associate wrongly prescribed her a vaginal pessary, according to a damning report by the health ombudsman.

The parliamentary and health service ombudsman said there were “multiple failures” in the care of the girl, who saw a physician associate (PA) at a GP practice in the East Midlands after complaining of itching and vaginal discharge.

Cancer Research UK figures show number diagnosed with most serious form of skin cancer has risen above 20,000 for first time

The number of cases from the most serious form of skin cancer have reached a record high across the UK, according to analysis by a leading cancer charity.

Melanoma cases in the UK have risen above 20,000 for the first time ever, with 20,980 people being diagnosed with the form of cancer in 2022, according to analysis of the latest figures by Cancer Research UK.

Research shows sick leave among patients prescribed GLP-1 injections over nine-month period reduced by 50%

Weight-loss drugs could halve sickness absence and significantly reduce the strain on the NHS, research suggests.

A UK study of patients who received GLP-1 jabs for nine months found sickness days fell by nearly half and sickness absence lasting five days or more fell by more than 50%. Analysis of the findings suggests expanding access could cut A&E attendance by obese patients by a quarter and free up nearly 10m GP appointments.

Labour has focused its efforts at voters who may be tempted to back the Reform candidate in the by-election

The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels has fallen to the lowest level for 18 months, Home Office figures show. Rajeev Syal has the story.

A minister has confirmed that the government is pressing ahead with the deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Yes. My colleague the foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has been talking to Marco Rubio, her opposite number in the US, about it. Foreign policy is never easy. We will make progress on the Chagos deal.

Most believe they will struggle to get an appointment, with over a quarter choosing to manage ailment themselves

Almost half the public delay or avoid contacting their GP surgery when they are ill, mainly because they think they will struggle to get an appointment.

Overall 48% of people across the UK did not bother to ask their family doctor for help – either initially or at all – when they got sick over the past year, a survey found.

Faster access to GPs and A&E are the public’s top priorities for the NHS.

Only 32% believe the NHS provides a good service nationally.

42% think the standard of NHS care has worsened over the past year and only 12% think that it has improved.

47% fear NHS care will decline further over the next year and just 15% expect it to get better

Driver reportedly checked with base and was told to continue when GPS directed van on to Essex mudflats

People thought they were looking at an AI image: an Amazon delivery van half-submerged at the mouth of the Thames estuary where it meets the North Sea. “I thought someone had just knocked up a photograph,” says local guide Kevin Brown about first seeing it online.

It turned out the image was genuine, and it proliferated. There was something delightfully primordial about it – such a dominant sight of modern street life, just out there on the mud, vulnerable and surrounded by nothingness. Banter followed, images of an Amazon package floating in sea water: Amazon has made your delivery.

The hit podcaster, author and former GP says a failure to regulate big tech is ‘failing a generation of children’. He explains why he quit the NHS and why he wants a ban on screen-based homework

A 16-year-old boy and his mum went to see their GP, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, on a busy Monday afternoon. That weekend, the boy had been at A&E after an attempt at self-harm, and in his notes the hospital doctor had recommended the teenager be prescribed antidepressants. “I thought: ‘Wait a minute, I can’t just start a 16-year-old on antidepressants,’” says Chatterjee. He wanted to understand what was going on in the boy’s life.

They talked for a while, and Chatterjee asked him about his screen use, which turned out to be high. “I said: ‘I think your screen use, particularly in the evenings, might be impacting your mental wellbeing.’” Chatterjee helped the boy and his mother set up a routine where digital devices and social media went off an hour before bed, gradually extending the screen-free period over six weeks. After two months, he says the boy stopped needing to see him. A few months after that, his mother wrote Chatterjee a note to say her son had been transformed – he was engaging with his friends and trying new activities. He was, she said, like a different boy from the one who had ended up in hospital.

Mathematician whose work at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory was pivotal to the development of GPS

It was only late in life that the mathematician Gladys West, who has died aged 95, was recognised for her role in the development of today’s global positioning system, or GPS. She came to be thought of as another “hidden figure” – a reference to the 2016 book and subsequent film about three black women who worked at Nasa during the space race.

While West’s story may have been less dramatic – it took decades of painstaking work at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory for her to come up with the geodesic systems that would allow the precise measurements and mapping needed for the technology – her work nevertheless transformed modern life.

Experts call for tighter regulation as GPS tracking reveals how people’s behaviour affects the lives of some of the world’s largest birds

Many people look up to admire the silhouette of raptors, some of the planet’s largest birds, soaring through seemingly empty skies. But increasingly, research shows us that this fascination runs both ways. From high above, these birds are watching us too.

Thanks to the development of tiny GPS tracking devices attached to their bodies, researchers are getting millions of data points on the day-to-day lives of these apex predators of the skies, giving us greater insight into where they hunt and rest, and how they die.

Lack of prompt access to primary care blamed for rise in hospital cases of minor ailments including blocked noses

Millions of people are turning to A&E departments in England for minor ailments including coughs, blocked noses and hiccups, according to data that health leaders say lays bare a failure to give patients prompt access to primary care.

Emergency wards are designed for serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies only. But many are becoming swamped with patients whose health concerns should be dealt with elsewhere, including a near tenfold increase in people seeking help for a cough.

Exclusive: Watchdog finds 14% of cases not put on hospital waiting lists, with many reporting worsening health and rising anxiety

One in seven people in England who need hospital care are not receiving it because their GP referral is lost, rejected or delayed, the NHS’s patient watchdog has found.

Three-quarters (75%) of those trapped in this “referrals black hole” suffer harm to their physical or mental health as a result of not being added to the waiting list for tests or treatment.

The specific health issues faced by boys and men deserve attention. But waiting lists stand in the way of improvement

Men, on average, have lower life expectancy than women – by around four years in the UK. They account for three-quarters of all deaths by suicide and are more likely to smoke and be overweight. Young men are more likely than young women to die as a result of accidents, violence or overdoses. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with around 12,000 deaths every year. A public consultation on whether to introduce screening for the disease opened last week, after an expert committee advised against it.

So the men’s health strategy for England launched recently by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, should be welcomed on principle. Just as a women’s health lens helps policymakers to focus on female reproductive health and risks, a men’s health lens should enable specific problems to be targeted more effectively.

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