Resident doctors in England to begin six-day strike after rejecting offer in pay dispute

Resident doctors in England will strike for six days after Easter after rejecting what they said was the final offer by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to end the long-running pay and jobs dispute.The British Medical Association blamed the government for its decision to undertake its longest stoppage so far, from 7am on Tuesday 7 April to 6.59 on Monday 13 April.This will be the 15th industrial action that resident doctors have staged in their campaign for “full pay restoration” and means they will strike for the fourth year running.NHS leaders warned the strike would cost the health service an estimated £300m, lead to appointments being cancelled, and force patients to wait longer for tests, treatment and surgery

Fifteen new councils to be created in south and east of England

Fifteen new councils will be created in the south and east of England under the latest round of a major local government overhaul, aimed at boosting economic growth and accelerating mass housebuilding plans.The new unitary councils will replace 43 counties and districts across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Hampshire, with hundreds of councillors’ roles axed. A decision on future arrangements for East Sussex and West Sussex has been delayed.Ministers said the new councils, which will come on stream in 2028, will sweep away outdated administrative structures and enable local authorities to focus on government priorities such as building 1.5m new homes by 2029

Kent meningitis outbreak prompts rush for routine vaccinations in England

School immunisation services and pharmacies are reporting surging demand for routine vaccinations after the Kent meningitis outbreak in which two teenagers died.Thousands of teenagers across England have booked or received jabs in the past fortnight against the A, C, W and Y strains of meningitis (MenACWY), and diphtheria, polio and tetanus (Td/IPV).Experts said the increase in immunisation was a small silver lining to the meningitis B outbreak, which has also left 18 people in hospital. Latest figures show that only 72% of year 9 pupils received the MenACWY or booster Td/IPV inoculations in the 2024-25 academic year, well below the recommended 95%.The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have reported burgeoning demand for routine year 9 inoculations across England

More frequent ejaculations may boost men’s fertility, research suggests

Encouraging men to have more frequent ejaculations may boost their fertility, according to researchers who found that sperm deteriorates over time as it remains in the body.The longer men went without sex, the more their sperm showed signs of DNA damage and oxidative stress, and the more tests rated the sperm as less viable and poorer swimmers.The work has implications for fertility clinics and suggests that if doctors want to collect the best quality sperm, men should probably not abstain from ejaculating for several days as guidelines suggest.“In men, the negative effects we found on sperm DNA damage and oxidative damage were large-ish, so we are confident that this is a biologically meaningful and important effect,” said Dr Krish Sanghvi, a biologist at the University of Oxford and lead author on the study.The findings emerged from a meta-analysis that combined 115 human studies involving nearly 55,000 men, and 56 studies that looked at the impact of sperm storage in 30 non-human species

Public satisfaction with the NHS rises for first time since 2019

Public satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since 2019, but people remain deeply frustrated with stubbornly long waits to receive GP, A&E or hospital care.The proportion of voters in Great Britain satisfied with the way the NHS runs has increased from the record low of 21% seen last year to 26%. At the same time dissatisfaction with the health service fell 8% – the biggest drop since 1998 – although it remains high at 51%.Wes Streeting hailed the findings as proof that the NHS, which he said was “broken” when Labour won power in July 2024, was now “on the road to recovery”.The health secretary will cite them as evidence of progress in a speech on Wednesday in which he will set out plans to improve care at five badly performing health trusts

Polyurethane coating reduces implant complications after mastectomy, cancer study finds

Women with breast cancer who have reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy are much less likely to have complications if they have a polyurethane-coated implant, according to research.About 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, of whom about 30% have a mastectomy. Many of these will subsequently have radiotherapy.Many women opt to have reconstructive surgery. But hard, painful scar tissue can form around the implant, especially if they have had radiotherapy