People having IVF should get time off work for appointments, say UK campaigners

People undergoing fertility treatment should have the legal right to take time off for their appointments, according to research that finds over a third have considered leaving their job due to the physical and emotional strain.The campaign group Fertility Matters At Work is calling for IVF to be recategorised as a medical procedure, rather than an elective treatment equivalent to cosmetic surgery, in guidance for employers under the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) code of practice.This would mean employers are no longer able to refuse time off for appointments, and would help tackle the stigma and lack of support that exists in many workplaces, the group says.Fertility Matters at Work has published a report based on a survey of more than 1,000 UK-based employees who have undergone fertility treatment. It found that nearly all (99%) had experienced it as a major life event that affected their mental wellbeing, while 87% reported anxiety or depression directly related to it, and 38% had left or considered leaving their job

NHS will use AI in warning system to catch potential safety scandals early

The NHS is to become the first health system in the world to use AI to analyse hospital databases and catch potential safety scandals early, the government has said.The Department of Health and Social Care said the technology will provide an early warning system which could detect patterns or trends and trigger urgent inspections. The scheme is part of the 10-year plan for the NHS that is due to be published by Wes Streeting this week.The government acknowledged the concern surrounding standards of patient care after “a spate of scandals including in mental health and maternity services”.Last week a national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services was announced by Streeting

Britain in 2025: sick man of Europe battling untreated illness crisis

The same 11 young women turn up around the clock at the emergency ward of Furness general hospital in Cumbria. The group are well known to staff, other services – and each other. Aged between 19 and 35, they have all led troubled lives. Some grew up in care, most need mental health support. All have fallen through society’s cracks and now gamble with their lives for a safe place to sleep

Britain’s ‘medieval’ health inequality is devastating NHS, experts say

Britain’s “medieval” levels of health inequality are having a “devastating” effect on the NHS, experts have warned, with the health service estimated to be spending as much as £50bn a year on the effects of deprivation.Rising rates of child poverty have led to a growing burden on hospitals, with the knock-on cost to the NHS comparable to the annual defence budget.One senior NHS figure said they were seeing “medieval” levels of untreated illness in some of Britain’s poorest communities, including people attending A&E “with cancerous lumps bursting through their skin”.Another said hospitals were witnessing a “chilling” trend of vulnerable people, young and old, deliberately self-harming to secure an overnight stay. Concern has also been raised about rising rates of “Dickensian” illnesses, including scabies, rickets and scarlet fever

Downing Street’s radical plan for the NHS: shifting it from treatment to prevention

In Lancaster the community nurse Lizzie Holmes knocks on doors to talk to people who are unwell but reluctant to accept NHS help. In Blackpool, “community connectors” help low-income families get their children into healthy habits early in life. Both do necessary, vital, proactive work known as health prevention – stopping illness occurring in the first place and spotting it early when it does. The idea is that this will create a virtuous circle of a healthier population and thus less need for NHS care.But while the initiatives described in a Guardian investigation are imaginative and effective, they are also atypical of the way the NHS works

Cutting personal independent payments: potentially devastating or justified? | Letters

As predicted (Starmer offers ‘massive concessions’ on welfare bill to Labour rebels, 26 June), an attempt has been made to salvage the welfare bill. Discontented MPs and disabled people alike will welcome the assurance that people currently receiving personal independence payments (Pip) or the health element of universal credit will be protected from changes. But the episode is damaging, has caused thousands of disabled people needless worry, and may come to be seen as pivotal in Keir Starmer’s tenure.There is something deeply invidious about having two classes of benefit recipients – the protected current recipients, and those making future claims. At the same time, it is clear that the benefits system does need reform and, in particular, needs to support people into work rather than taking a punitive and brutal approach to cost saving