Updated and new items first:
How wonderful it was that the Resident Doctors called off their strike, which had been scheduled to start on 15 June. The Government’s new offer will be voted on by BMA members. The Secretary of State, James Murray, offers a chance to draw a line under the damaging disputes of recent years while the BMA has held its line. NHS England says 95% of operations and appointments were due to go ahead but thousands had been postponed and reinstating them was a very tough task for hospitals. Whilst there is no extra money for this year, the offer is said to propose faster increases in pay scales next year. Additionally, 4,500 extra training places are promised for newly qualified doctors and doctors’ exam fees will be covered. This is good news for this year’s, recent and forthcoming new doctors qualifying at ARU Medical School in Chelmsford, and elsewhere as Essex does its utmost to recruit to fill GP and hospital vacancies where we need more doctors to help get our local NHS back on its feet. We commend both sides for this and beg the BMA members to accept.
The Measles outbreak continues in north London and West Midlands. It has now spread into East of England. Parents should get children vaccinated and check children’s vaccination status. Up to 8 June 2026 736 English measles cases have been confirmed, compared to 959 in the whole of 2025, mostly driven by the North London outbreak. This continues increasing. There have been 2 measles deaths in children in 2026. Essex is next door to North London and in East of England so it could easily spread towards us.
Additional Flu vaccinations will be given to homeless people for the 2026-27 winter. Also community pharmacies will be able to offer flu vaccinations to 2-3 year olds, children in clinical risk groups and for school age children who missed being vaccinated in schools. This is in addition to usual recipients which includes: people over 65; pregnant women; people with long-term health conditions; people with immunosuppression; carers and household contacts of immunosuppressed people.
A&Es experienced their busiest month on record in May, as last month’s heatwave piled pressure on NHS services. New data shows the NHS managed 2,457,398 attendances in A&E during May – up 25,000 on the previous record set in March earlier this year. The NHS has now seen two record-breaking months for A&E demand in 2026. Ambulance services were also under intense pressure, with paramedics experiencing their third busiest month ever – and demand at levels never seen outside of winter – after handling 832,089 incidents in May. Despite the unprecedented demand, 1.86 million attendances were managed within four hours of arrival at hospital – the highest number for any May in a decade – as the NHS continued to cut waits for patients.
Thousands of men with prostate cancer are to be offered high-powered ‘precision’ radiotherapy on the NHS to target the disease more effectively, helping reduce side-effects and spare them 15 courses of treatment. For the first time, eligible men with early prostate cancer will be offered pioneering therapy known as SABR on the NHS, which delivers a higher dose to the tumour with pinpoint accuracy to avoid harming healthy cells. The highly targeted SABR (stereotactic ablative radiotherapy) delivers radiotherapy to the tumour from many different directions to help reduce the risk of cancer spreading or returning, and has been proven to be effective at far fewer doses than conventional radiotherapy. The cutting-edge technique will be made available within days and will significantly reduce the number of hospital visits required for treatment, enabling thousands of men to spend more time at work or at home with their loved ones. SABR is typically delivered in 5 doses within a fortnight, compared to at least 20 doses with standard (external beam) radiotherapy, which can be a major burden for patients and loved ones, due to the substantial treatment and travel time.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to speed up cancer diagnosis. Over 4million patients have received faster lung cancer diagnosis or all-clear thanks to AI tools. £20m is being invested to roll out this proven technology throughout England. An additional £8.1m will pilot 6 cutting-edge (sic) AI and digital technologies across 13 NHS sites, targeting faster care for heart failure, strokes, lung cancer and more.
People with learning disabilities in parts of Essex will benefit from a new programme to improve access to annual health checks and provide more personalised support to stay well. NHS Essex is working in partnership with local charity Hamelin on a year-long trial in areas where uptake of annual health checks for people with a learning disability is lower than expected. The pilot will support GP practices to complete more health checks, work with patients to create personalised health action plans and help people access the right support to achieve their health goals.
Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer could benefit from a new, life-extending drug on the NHS from today – the first new addition to NHS treatment in over 20 years. The new targeted therapy – mirvetuximab soravtansine – will be offered to patients living with ovarian cancer whose disease has stopped responding to standard (platinum-based) chemotherapy, providing new hope of extra time to live. In a major global clinical trial involving eight NHS hospitals. the treatment delayed cancer progression and prolonged survival, with patients living 16.5 months on average compared to 12.8 months with chemotherapy.
Nearly 3,000 patients a day had to be cared for in hospital corridors or make-shift treatment areas in England last month. This is the first time data on so-called corridor care has been published and reveals the scale of the challenge facing the NHS in tackling what ministers say is “unsafe” and “unacceptable”. Corridor care is defined as when patients spend more than 45 minutes being treated in inappropriate settings either in A&E or on wards. Alongside corridors, there have been reports of patients being treated in side-rooms and even car parks. The daily number represents 3-4% of patients coming into hospital via A&E every day.
The figures show during May there were 2,241 patients a day, on average, who experience corridor care while in A&E, with another 669 experiencing it on or near to wards inside hospitals. NHS analysis found that 20 trusts accounted for more than half of the cases of corridor care in A&E, while 20 trusts also accounted for more than two thirds elsewhere in hospitals. Mid Essex NHS Foundation Trust is NOT amongst those 20 trusts.
The Government has announced funding to improve prostate cancer research and treatment, including:
- More Black men to be invited to join major prostate trial to help find best screening strategy for cancer and tackle inequalities
- Over £20 million to improve prostate cancer research and treatment, including improving access to TRANSFORM trial for Black men
- Broadening access to less invasive treatments for prostate cancer, to support expansion of the TRANSFORM trial.
A landmark prostate cancer screening trial will be expanded so that for the first time, all eligible Black men will be invited to take part. The TRANSFORM study – jointly funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) – is testing the best ways to detect prostate cancer earlier and save more lives, while avoiding unnecessary treatment and the associated harms. The move recognises that Black men face a higher risk of prostate cancer and aims to build the evidence needed to find the best screening strategy and tackle long-standing inequalities. To ensure the expansion reaches Black men from all communities, supported by the funding from NIHR, the TRANSFORM investigators are working with Prostate Cancer UK to boost community engagement around the country and encourage Black men to take part in the trial.
NHS England has announced that it is significantly accelerating AI adoption across healthcare services by providing 505,000 clinicians and support staff with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot. The AI personal assistant helps clinicians to draft documents and analyse data more efficiently to focus more time on patient care. The agreement follows the largest AI trial of its kind globally in healthcare, which provided more than 30,000 NHS workers across 90 NHS organisations with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot. It found that AI-powered administrative support could save an average of 43 minutes per staff member per day or more, which equates to 5 weeks of time per person annually. Results from the trial showed that a full rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot could save millions of hours of staff time per month.
Salmonella cases in England are at a decade high, increasing from 10,389 in 2024 to 10,406 in 2025. Campylobacter cases in 2025 remained high and comparable to 2024, although they fell slightly from 70,392 in 2024 to 69,394 in 2025. These infections spread in many ways – through contaminated food or water, contact with an infected person, or contact with infected animals or their environment. The public are reminded to take precautions against these bacteria, which are among the most common causes of food poisoning. Young children, older adults, and those with weakened immune systems should take extra care, as they are at higher risk of developing serious illness.
727 people in East of England have had an earlier diagnosis of lung cancer thanks to the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme. Around 400 were identified through screening in Essex.
Ofsted and CQC inspected Essex SEND services. The outcome states that ‘arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and the local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements’.
In April our hospitals at Broomfield, Basildon & Southend:
- Saw 74.4% of patients within 4 hours in A&Es. That’s 6.3% up on March. The national standard is 78%; Basildon was 77.4%, Southend 72.1% and Broomfield 73.4%. Further ways to improve the flow of patients through our hospitals are being investigated.
- 31 minutes (38 in March) was the average time for ambulances to handover patients. Nationally it was 34mins; regionally 30mins.
- 62.7% (63%) of patients received cancer diagnosis results within 2 days, against the 80% standard. 54.2% received their diagnosis and started treatment within 62 days. The Trust is England’s 3rd most improved. In February 2025 it was 35% and in February 2026 53.5%. Further improvements are being made, including speeding up test results.
A key target in the 10-Year Plan has been delivered with 8,500 extra mental health workers now in the NHS. Our weekly newsletter includes everything we’ve published in the previous 7-days. Libraries provide online services and help with internet access. For welfare information and subscription to our newsletter, email swfhealthsocial@outlook.com or leave a voicemail on 01245 322079.
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