‘It’s heartbreaking’: resident doctors in England face halt on new training posts

After almost two years on the NHS frontline as a resident doctor, Heather Gunn says she is bracing herself for unemployment. Like many of her colleagues, she was desperate to secure one of the up to 4,500 additional training posts the government agreed to introduce in England over three years to help doctors progress into more specialised fields.The posts were promised in negotiations between the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the government in a long-running dispute over resident doctors’ pay and job security.Last week, with disagreements on pay still unresolved, the first 1,000 of these posts were withdrawn. Talks between the parties had broken down again and the union had refused to call off its 15th strike since 2023, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning and last six days

Key stroke treatment still not available around the clock across England

The NHS has not made a “life-changing” treatment for stroke available around the clock across England despite ministers repeatedly promising that it would.The health service was expected to improve stroke care by making a clot removal technique called mechanical thrombectomy available everywhere in the country 24/7 from 1 April.Doctors describe it as a gamechanging intervention that, if done quickly, can help someone who has had a severe stroke avoid ending up with a serious disability as a result.However, seven of England’s 24 regional stroke centres are still not providing thrombectomy on an all-hours basis, mainly because they do not have enough doctors and other staff to do so.Experts fear the NHS’s failure to deliver universal 24/7 access to the treatment could mean patients who have a stroke overnight, in the evening or at weekends in underserved areas may become avoidably severely disabled, or may even die, because they could not have the procedure

‘Deeply distressing for all of us’: families react to Girlguiding’s trans exclusion

Angela has two daughters, aged 13 and 10, who both attend their local Girlguiding group in the UK. Like many girls their age, they enthusiastically collect their badges, make new friends and attend the organisation’s large summer jamboree every year.But as of September, Angela’s youngest daughter will have to leave Girlguiding because she is transgender.Last week, Girlguiding announced that in the wake of the supreme court ruling, all trans girls, and young trans women who volunteer, will have to have to hand in their membership.“It’s deeply distressing for all of us

People living with incontinence face shortage of sanitary pads as NHS limits supplies

Millions of people across the UK living with incontinence are facing shortages of sanitary products due to supplies being rationed by NHS trusts, according to a coalition of charities.The shortages are leading to a “pad gap” where people are having to pay for incontinence products themselves, according to an open letter from organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, Prostate Cancer UK, and Bowel and Bladder UK.Around 14 million people across the UK experience incontinence. Healthcare workers in the NHS expect to fit up to five pads a day for patients who experience incontinence, according to research, but freedom of information data from 110 NHS trusts show that more than half (53%) have a cap on the availability of products.Of these trusts, 34% have a cap of three products a day, while the remaining 66% have a cap of four products a day, which is lower than the expected need

NHS urges patients not to put off care as doctors in England prepare for strike

The NHS is urging patients not to put off seeking the care they need when resident doctors press ahead with strike action from Tuesday, a stoppage that the health secretary has called “disappointing”.Tens of thousands of resident doctors in England are to stage a six-day strike after the government took a key part of its offer off the table.The Department of Health and Social Care said last week that an offer of 1,000 extra training places would no longer be “financially or operationally” possible.NHS England said hospital teams across the country would be working to minimise disruption for patients during the stoppage, which is “expected to be particularly challenging” because of a shorter notice period.Patients have been advised to attend planned appointments unless they have been contacted to reschedule, and those with life-threatening emergencies should still call 999 or attend A&E

Say it right! The trouble with unfamiliar names | Letters

Priti Ubhayakar’s article resonated with me because of my non-English surname (A moment that changed me: for the first time in my life, a stranger pronounced my name correctly, 1 April). I grew up in the 1950s on a very English council estate. Most other kids were a Brown, Smith, Jones, etc, but I was an Uszkurat. My lineage is complex on my dad’s side, with a Lithuanian grandfather whose original name was changed to Uszkurat by, I think, German authorities. My dad was born in a part of Europe that was German until the Treaty of Versailles made it part of the new Poland