Health and care sector latest developments

More new health ministers appointed

Alison McGovern and James Frith have been appointed as health ministers, it has been confirmed.

Prior to joining the Department, Ms McGovern served as Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Mr Frith joins the department following a brief spell as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office.

Ministerial portfolios are yet to be formally confirmed.

It was also announced that Baroness Merron will remain in her position, while Sharon Hodgson and Preet Kaur Gill have left their respective ministerial roles.

Thousands with MS to get 'life-changing' drug on NHS

Thousands of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to be offered a new therapy on the NHS from today, NHS England has announced.

Fampridine will help people with MS walk more easily and live more independently. Taken as a pill twice a day, it acts like a ‘signal booster’ for nerves damaged by MS, helping electrical messages travel more effectively to the muscles.

MS is a lifelong neurological condition caused by damage to nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms vary but can include weakness, fatigue, loss of sensation, problems with balance and coordination, and difficulty walking.

For some patients, an improvement in walking could make everyday tasks easier, from moving around the house and getting out independently to spending more time with family and friends, NHS England said.

£4.5 million boost for Berkshire maternity services

The government has announced a £4.5 million boost to improve maternity and neonatal services across Berkshire.

The funding is part of the wider national investment and follows recommendations from the Amos Review.

The new health secretary, Yvette Cooper, said, “every woman having a baby in the NHS should feel safe and looked after”, and that while “a lot of good work has been done…there is so much more to do”.

Higher hospital lung admissions for children in England’s poorest postcodes

Analysis by the charity Impact on Urban Health has revealed that children living in the poorest areas across England are 40 per cent more likely to be admitted to hospital for respiratory infections, causing experts to raise the alarm over the impact of air pollution on young people’s health.

The research showed that 1,941 out of every 100,000 children living in the most deprived fifth of England were admitted to hospital for respiratory illnesses in 2024/25.

In England’s least deprived area, however, 1,380 out of every 100,000 children were admitted to hospital for respiratory illnesses in the same year.

Although the data did not provide an exact cause for these hospital admissions, air pollution was identified as a significant risk factor.

Trust "too gentle" with those who abuse staff, says police

Thames Valley Police (TVP) has told Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust (RBFT) that NHS staff “tolerate too much” abuse and trusts are “too gentle” with perpetrators.

The comments came after trust’s chief executive, James Blythe, joined a recent webinar with the police force.

RBFT had already teamed up with TVP as part of the force’s Operation Cavell. This sees every incident of assault against staff reviewed by dedicated investigators with an understanding of healthcare environments.

The trust has reported ten cases of abuse to police this year. Three people have been charged, one case is with the Crown Prosecution Service, one resulted in an out-of-court settlement, and the rest are being “looked at”.

ADHD medication use continues to climb

ADHD medication prescribing increased by 25 per cent in 2025/26, with 4.2 million prescriptions issued.

Adult patients saw the largest growth, with the number receiving ADHD medication increasing by 40 per cent, while prescriptions for children also rose by 17 per cent.

Demand for ADHD services continues to grow, with hundreds of thousands awaiting assessment as the Government reviews whether increasing diagnosis reflects greater need.

Welsh NHS Confederation responds to latest NHS activity and performance stats

Nesta Lloyd-Jones, assistant director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, has responded to statistics that show performance in some areas of scheduled and unscheduled care in the health service in Wales deteriorated in May and June.

The Welsh government confirmed that performance against the four-hour target was the lowest on record and performance against the 12-hour target also worsened compared with the previous month. Figures also showed it was the busiest June on record for emergency department attendances in Wales.

Despite this, Ms Lloyd-Jones said that “it’s important not to lose sight of the longer-term progress made. Overall, referral-to-treatment pathways remain more than 100,000 lower than they were at the same point last year, and response times for the most serious life-threatening ambulance (purple) calls have met targets consistently for the past 12 months”.