Charter to tackle sexual harassment across NHS in England has failed, say unions

A flagship strategy to tackle sexual harassment across the NHS in England has failed to improve the safety of female staff, according to legal experts and healthcare unions.The NHS sexual safety charter, launched in September 2023, was supposed to improve how hospitals, GP surgeries and other organisations address sexual harassment. But the UK-based charity Rights of Women said calls from NHS staff to its sexual harassment at work advice line had increased significantly since the charter was rolled out.Laura Bolam, the employment law officer at the charity – which provides free legal advice to 3,000 working women each year across England and Wales – said the proportion of its callers who were women in the NHS had doubled recently.“In 2023, around 11% of our calls came from women working in the NHS; this rose to 19% in 2024 and increased again to 22% in 2025

Sleep, stress and sunshine: endocrinologists on 11 ways to look after your metabolism

Hormones impact almost all of our bodily functions, from skin, to the gut, to our moods. Here, experts on hormonal and metabolic health explain how to stay well“Most people would like to have more energy and be leaner,” says Prof David Ray, an endocrinologist at the University of Oxford who also provides NHS services. “There is a connection between how we choose to live, what our bodies look and feel like, and the hormones that are going around the body. What endocrinologists deal with is disorders of either a lack of hormones, or too much of a hormone.”Hormones impact almost all bodily functions, from skin, to the gut, to our moods

Betfair urged to hand tens of thousands to victim of gambling fraudster

Betfair is under pressure to hand tens of thousands of pounds to the victim of a fraudster and gambling addict, after appearing to miss multiple opportunities to stop the “VIP” customer betting with stolen money.Andrew Morford, a former finance manager, was given a two-year suspended sentence on Wednesday, after admitting a £340,000 fraud against his former employer, carried out between May 2019 and February 2024.In sentencing remarks, Judge Silas Reid described Morford’s gambling addiction, which led to him losing more than £1m on Betfair’s platform, as a “very significant mitigation factor”.The betting exchange, part of the £28bn global gambling corporation Flutter Entertainment, appears to have overlooked signs of Morford’s downward spiral, according to documents seen by the Guardian, failing to act even after a staff member raised concerns internally.Now, Morford’s former employer and a campaign group that works with gambling addicts who commit crimes are calling on Betfair to hand over the money it made from him

Study debunks Trump claim that paracetamol causes autism

Taking paracetamol in pregnancy does not increase the chance that the child will be autistic, or have ADHD or an intellectual disability, a “gold standard” review of the evidence has found.The findings debunk Donald Trump’s claims last September that the painkiller causes autism, which were condemned by medical, women’s health and scientific organisations around the world.The US president’s remarks triggered anxiety among pregnant women because paracetamol is the drug that health authorities worldwide recommend they use to treat pain, such as headaches, and fevers.“This systematic review and meta-analysis found no evidence that maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder, ADHD or intellectual disability among children”, says the study, which is published in the Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health.It has been undertaken by a team of seven researchers from across Europe, led by Asma Khalil, a professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at City St George’s, University of London, who is also a consultant obstetrician at St George’s hospital in London

NHS expands access to prostate cancer drug in England to save thousands of lives

The NHS has expanded access to a prostate cancer drug across England in a move expected to save thousands of lives.Abiraterone, which starves cancer cells of the hormones they need to grow, will be offered to men who are newly diagnosed and whose disease has not spread beyond the prostate.Previously, the drug was available only to patients with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of the body. It is already prescribed more widely in Scotland and Wales, a disparity charities said had created a postcode lottery.The NHS said the rollout in England had been secured with the support of campaigners including Prostate Cancer UK

Dr Aggrey Burke obituary

In 1986 the psychiatrist Dr Aggrey Burke, along with his colleague Joe Collier, had gathered evidence that their employer, St George’s hospital, and other London medical schools, were discriminating against women and people with “foreign sounding names” in their admission processes. Burke and Collier, both then senior lecturers at St George’s, decided to blow the whistle. They published a paper that led to a Commission for Racial Equality inquiry, and wholesale changes to the admission policies at medical schools across the capital. Burke knew the risk the pair were taking, saying it was “as though one had offended against the whole system; we were blamed, unfairly treated and made to feel that we were outcasts”.As the first Black consultant psychiatrist in the UK, Burke, who has died aged 82 of prostate cancer, was at the forefront of challenging mental health systems to treat Black people with fairness, and of supporting those caught up in the criminal justice system