Health and care sector latest developments

Thousands of NHS dentists near retirement amid growing access concerns, Lib Dem data finds  

NHS dentistry is facing mounting pressure as new figures commissioned by the Liberal Democrats reveal that over 4,000 dentists in England are aged 55 or over - prompting concerns about a future workforce shortfall. 
  
The analysis, using House of Commons Library data, shows that in some areas, nearly a third of NHS dentists are approaching retirement age. Meanwhile, over 8,500 dentists are reported to have left the NHS in the past four years. 
  
A separate parliamentary question also found that 329 NHS dental contracts have been handed back during that period, which some suggest is contributing to reduced access to care in certain regions. 
  
In response, the Liberal Democrats have proposed a £750 million rescue package aimed at tackling regional disparities and encouraging dentists to return to NHS work. Ministers are being urged to consider reforms to ensure long-term access to dental services.  

NHS may offer private rooms for transgender patients, says health secretary  

The Standard has reported that transgender people could be treated in private rooms in the NHS, the health secretary has said, as he admitted wishing he had listened earlier to the debate around single-sex spaces. 

 Wes Streeting told LBC radio the NHS is still updating its guidance after the Supreme Court ruled the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act ‘refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.  

This means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if ‘proportionate’.  

Supported housing in crisis, groups tell Starmer 

 BBC News Online has reported that supported housing, which helps vulnerable or disabled people live independently, is in crisis, an open letter signed by more than 170 organisations in the sector claims.  

Services at one-in-three providers in England had to shut last year, adding to a total shortfall of about 325,000 places, says the letter, which will be delivered to Prime Minister Keir Starmer today. Signatories to it include Refuge, Age UK and the National Housing Federation (NHF).  

Blaming cuts to council funding and rising costs, the NHF says a further one-in-three providers fear they may close unless the government pledges more money.  

The government says supported housing is vital and it is focused on building more homes.  

NHS in England failing to record ethnicity of those who sue over maternity care  

The NHS is facing criticism for not recording the ethnicity of people who sue it over poor maternity care, despite black, Asian and minority ethnic women experiencing much greater harm during childbirth.  

Health experts, patient safety campaigners and lawyers claim racial disparities in maternity care are so stark that NHS bodies in England must start collating details of people who take legal action to help ensure services improve.  

The gap in NHS data emerged when Lime Solicitors, a London-based law firm, submitted freedom of information requests to NHS England, individual health trusts and NHS Resolution, the body that handles medical negligence claims against hospitals. 

 Children wait years for mental health care  

According to the Times, more than 150,000 children have been waiting at least two years to get mental health treatment on the NHS, figures reveal.  

Experts warned long waits are keeping young people off school and stopping them entering the workforce. Some are being sectioned in ‘traumatic’ hospitals as their conditions deteriorate while they struggle to get care.  

Analysis of NHS data by the charity Mind shows that 609,000 people under 18 are on mental health waiting lists with conditions such as eating disorders, anxiety and self-harm. One in four of these have been waiting more than two years for ‘meaningful’ care such as a treatment plan, therapy sessions or an appointment with a psychiatrist. The government has acknowledged that long waits have been ‘normalised’.  

Hospital sends GPs 15,000 letters in a single day 

A ‘technical failure’ caused University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) Trust to send 15-20,000 discharge letters, some of which dated back four months, to local GP practices on the day before the Easter bank holiday weekend without warning. 

The trust has also received complaints from GPs about repeated disruption to discharge letters, linked to its move to a new electronic patient record system. The doctors labelled the disruption a ‘patient safety risk’.  

UHCW launched its EPR, supplied by US firm Oracle Cerner, in June 2024. 

Pharmacists ‘fundamental’ to future ICBs 

Medicines management teams should not be targeted by imminent cost cuts and must remain a ‘fundamental component’ of the new model for ICBs, pharmacists have argued. 

An open letter sent on behalf of ICB chief pharmacists to the new NHS England leadership last week stressed the need to keep tight control of the service’s £20bn medicines spend.  

ICBs have been told that they must cut their running costs in half by October, and there is considerable debate at local and national level over where cuts should be made.  

The letter said: ‘Prescribing is one of the most volatile expenditures in the NHS, and we are collectively keen to work with you to maintain grip on the management of this precious resource.’ 

Trusts cut use of private ambulances 

East of England Ambulance Service Trust and South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust are reducing the use of private ambulance firms despite having some of the worst performance on a key response time target. 

Both are currently missing the 30-minute government target for responding to category two calls, which include suspected heart attacks and strokes. 

East of England managed 42:49 (minutes and seconds) in 2024-25 and South Western was at 45:25. Nationally, trusts averaged 35:22 – slightly better than in 2023-24 but still well short of the 30-minute target, let alone the statutory target of 18 minutes, which has not been hit since the pandemic.  

‘Unaffordable’ care spending driven by rush to clear hospital beds 

The rush from acute hospitals to ‘free up beds’ is probably behind an ‘unaffordable’ rise in South Yorkshire ICB’s social care spending, it has been told. 

A report from consultants Deloitte, obtained by the Health Service Journal, says hospitals in South Yorkshire appear to be overusing a ‘fast track’ continuing healthcare pathway in order to speed up discharges. 

Deloitte identified a ‘high spend on fast track fully funded CHC’ in the system, with the CHC spend growing 10 per cent faster than the regional average since 2019-20. 

The fast-track pathway is meant to be used when a patient has urgent and, usually, short-term needs, such as in the case of late diagnosed terminal illness, bit it has been said that the route could now be being used to facilitate speedy hospital discharge. 

CEO to leave ‘recovery support’ trust after eight years 

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust, which is in NHS England’s ‘recovery support’ regime, is leaving to ‘spend more time with her family’ and ‘embrace new challenges’, the trust has said. 

Ms Whitfield, who has led HHFT since 2017, will remain in post for six months while the trust seeks a new substantive chief executive.