Woman’s fight for sterilisation raises questions over access to procedure

A psychologist who was denied sterilisation on the NHS has successfully challenged the decision after taking her case to the health ombudsman, raising questions over how accessible the procedure should be.Leah Spasova spent years seeking an operation to prevent pregnancy by blocking the fallopian tubes. Many argue that barriers faced by women, from funding refusals to stricter eligibility criteria, amount to unequal treatment compared with men seeking vasectomies, and limit bodily autonomy.However, others say tighter controls reflect legitimate medical concerns, including the procedure’s relative risk, its permanence, and evidence that some patients later regret the decision.In 2024-25, 10,793 female sterilisations were carried out, down 22% on a decade ago, while there were 26,385 vasectomies, up 16% year on year

‘I am invoking Martha’s rule’: how a woman saved her father from near death in hospital

For six awful days last summer, as her father, David, got progressively sicker in the cardiac ward of the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, Karen Osenton would read the poster above his bed telling patients about their right under Martha’s rule to ask for a second opinion.Her father, a retired engineer in his early 70s who was normally extremely fit, was by then thin, jaundiced and could barely lift his head from the pillow. But his bed was right beside the nurses’ station, surely they would notice if he needed more urgent treatment?David had first gone to his GP more than a month earlier complaining of extreme breathlessness, and over the following weeks he had become increasingly thin and weak with suspected heart failure. But it had taken repeated visits to the accident and emergency ward, being sent home each time, before he was finally given a bed in a specialist cardiac unit last July.“Every day we saw him he got worse,” says Karen, a teacher from Aynho, in West Northamptonshire

Martha’s rule may have saved more than 500 lives in England since 2024

More than 500 people have received potentially life-saving care thanks to Martha’s rule, which gives hospital patients the right to seek a second opinion about their health.They were moved to intensive care or a specialist unit after they, a loved one or a member of NHS staff triggered the patient safety mechanism, which the NHS in England began using in 2024.Martha’s rule lets patients, relatives and staff call a helpline run by the hospital if they are worried about the person’s condition or treatment and ask for a “rapid review” of their care.In the 18 months between September 2024 and February 2026, a total of 524 adults and children about whom concerns had been raised were moved to an intensive care or high-dependency unit, a specialist hospital or a specialist ward at the hospital where they were already an inpatient.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the figures proved that Martha’s rule is “already having a life-saving impact”

Solicitors report late flood of no-fault evictions before ban in England

Solicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before they are banned when the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force in England on Friday.The legislation, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies.On the eve of the new rules, solicitors said they were working long hours to keep up with the sudden demand for eviction notices, while Citizens Advice said thousands of people facing a no-fault eviction had approached it for help in the last month.In March, the service helped 2,335 people dealing with a no-fault eviction, up 16% on the same time last year, as well as more than 1,800 people dealing with disrepair such as damp and mould, and more than 1,000 with rent increases.Thackray Williams, a London- and Kent-based law firm, said it had received a wave of last-minute instructions from landlords looking to evict their tenants and sell their properties because of the legislation

Why routine cancer tests have age limits | Brief letters

Jane Ghosh asks why the NHS’s routine screening for bowel and breast cancer has upper age limits (Letters, 28 April). Screening – testing because of risk, not symptoms – stops when the chance of helping you drops below the chance of harming you. Diagnostic testing is done at any age.Dr John Doherty Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire Re Jane Ghosh’s letter about the NHS stopping routine bowel and breast cancer testing after the early 70s, it’s important to know that people over the age thresholds can request a bowel cancer test every two years or breast cancer screening every three years. Remembering to do so is a different story

Raise tax on alcohol and junk food to cut deaths from liver disease, experts say

Governments in Europe should impose much higher taxes on alcohol and unhealthy food to tackle the continent’s 284,000 deaths a year from liver disease, experts say.Taxes on those products should rise sharply enough for the money raised to cover the huge costs they place on health services, the criminal justice system and social services.The call for tough action on common causes of serious liver disease comes from a commission of experts from the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the Lancet medical journal.They are urging governments in Europe to ensure all alcoholic products carry health warnings and stop under-18s being targeted with online advertisements for alcoholic drinks and junk food.Bold steps are needed to combat “an escalating and unsustainable burden of liver disease”, the commission says in a report published on Wednesday in the Lancet