GPs in Hampshire have raised concerns about hospital specialists downgrading their cancer referrals, a measure which has caused ‘considerable alarm’ due to the risk of missed diagnoses.

Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) ICB has warned it may lose £4.2m this year due to GP collective action. BOB ICB said that collective action by GPs in its area represents a ‘high-risk factor’ as it could ‘significantly increase’ GP prescribing costs. And a Berks, Bucks & Oxon LMCs survey of practices in the area, seen by Pulse, showed that 94.1% of respondent practices in BOB are ‘engaging in some form of collective action’.

In the past year, Pulse has reported on several very similar incidents in which hospital trusts failed to deliver patient documents to GPs, creating huge backlogs and potential risks to patient safety. Anna Colivicchi investigates the full scale of the problem

The Government’s initial offer for this year’s GP contract includes a 1.9% uplift to GMS baseline funding, Pulse can reveal. Pulse understands that GPC England chair Katie Bramall-Stainer has written to primary care minister Andrea Leadsom to ask her to intervene in the negotiation. This comes as other parts of the health service have received funding uplifts of 6% to cover inflationary costs.

GPs have ‘no appetite currently’ for industrial action, and there is ‘zero chance’ of 2023/24 contract negotiations being reopened, BMA GP Committee negotiators have told GP WhatsApp groups in messages obtained by Pulse.

NHS England is ‘not in a position’ to negotiate to a new five-year GP contract due to a lack of a funding commitment, with the 2024/25 contract set to be a ‘stepping stone’, Pulse can reveal. In an exclusive interview with Pulse, national director of primary and community care services Dr Amanda Doyle said ‘it is almost certain’ that they will not be negotiating a new five-year contract starting next year.

A major Essex hospital trust failed to send more than 50,000 patient letters to GPs due to an IT fault, Pulse can reveal. ‘Over the last few years’, 53,000 letters from Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust were never delivered to GPs in the area, with local GPs telling Pulse clinical information was not passed and acted on as a result. One GP told Pulse that the information ‘seemed to have disappeared into a computer glitch black hole’.

In a major Pulse analysis, Anna Colivicchi asks whether the Government’s long-term workforce plan for GPs will solve any of the longstanding problems.

An MPTS tribunal has taken into account stress and workload as mitigating factors in the decision to suspend a GP who consumed alcohol at work. Dr Catherine Aspinall consumed alcohol in February last year while she was working as a GP at Westway Medical Centre, near Liverpool, and treated ‘one or more patients’ while under the influence of alcohol, the tribunal heard. She was suspended for three months as the tribunal noted that at the time of the incident she was stressed and working long hou

GP locums have been asked to consider reductions in their expected hourly rate amid a reduction in available roles, in part due to the increase in ARRS staff. One agency said that requests for GP locums within primary care settings ‘have reduced since the summer’ with ‘various new ARRS roles coming to the forefront at surgeries’, and asked GPs to consider reducing their rates to secure work. In an email exchange posted on X, locums were reassured the request was no reflection on performance.

GPs in some parts of Scotland have been asked to only see urgent and emergency patients to help ease ‘unprecedented levels’ of pressure on the NHS. On Tuesday (10 January) health secretary Humza Yousaf said that ‘this is the single most challenging winter that the NHS in Scotland has ever faced’, and announced that guidance had been issued to all health boards, outlining that they can take necessary steps to protect their patients, staff and services.

Book sales continued to rise last year despite the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, according to sellers in Henley. More than 212 million print books were sold nationwide, which was the highest figure in a decade and worth £1.82 billion. Sales were driven by booming demand for crime novels, sci-fi, fantasy, romance and personal development titles. Hilary Redhead, manager of the Bell Bookshop in Bell Street, Henley, said the shop’s sales reflected the trend.

PEOPLE living in Oxfordshire could face a significant rise in council tax, as the county council is making plans to fill a £44 million funding shortfall. Last month Oxfordshire County Council, which is run by a Lib-Dem, Green and Labour alliance, warned this winter will bring ‘major pressures’, particularly on social care. The council said that all local authorities faced ‘significant increases in inflation’ that are driving up costs and price increases in energy, fuel and materials.

ON one of the most historic days we will ever see, I joined the crowd at Buckingham Palace, where thousands of people waited in silence to catch a glimpse of the Queen’s coffin on its last journey. The procession was expected to start at 12:15pm, but when I got to Green Park at around 7am, hundreds of people were already making their way towards the Royal residence – some of them had been waiting by the sides of The Mall for hours and even camped there overnight.

DAMNING new data has revealed that people in Oxfordshire are waiting too long for an ambulance. South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which covers Oxfordshire as well as most of the south region, dealt with 3,501 ‘life-threatening’ incidents in May this year. ‘Life-threatening’ is the most serious condition that a patient could be in, and the status is determined by the 999-call handler.

A couple who had a stillborn baby girl are fundraising for a “cuddle cot” to help families enduring the same experience. Jordan and Hannah Greenwood, from Henley, say that having one when they lost their daughter Isabella allowed them to spend precious time with her before she was buried. Now they are raising money so that the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where Mrs Greenwood gave birth to Isabella, and other hospitals in the area can have more cots for families requiring them. A “cuddle cot” is a machine that helps keep the baby at a cooler temperature for a number of days so that their features don’t change. It can be connected to a bed, cot or Moses basket and enables grieving families to spend more time with their baby before the funeral.

The family of a man who died in an accident swam 84 miles for charity in his memory. Brad Visser, 38, suffered a severe brain injury when he fell off his electric skateboard near the family’s home in Main Street, Stoke Row, on July 17 2019. He died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford 10 days later. To mark the second anniversary of his death, his widow Annie and their children Ozzie, 10, and Chloe, nine, are raising money for Headway, a brain injury charity that would have helped Brad had he survived. Mrs Visser said that while they were paying tribute to her husband, their effort was also about the resilience of the children, who had shown how far they would go to help others.

A man from Watlington has spent a month in war-torn Ukraine helping people on the front line. Tom Robinson, 36, works for Heks, a Swiss organisation providing humanitarian assistance around the world for victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters. He has worked in war zones such as Iraq and in 2019 spent six months in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. When Russia invaded on February 24, Mr Robinson spoke to friends and colleagues in the country and decided to go back to help.

A NEW clinical trial at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford could change the way young people suffering from diabetes are treated and improve their quality of life. In most people with Type 1 diabetes (T1D), the pancreas loses its ability to produce insulin because the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys the cells producing the hormone.

John Howell has refused to comment on the initial findings of an investigation into illegal parties at 10 Downing Street. The Henley MP said it was too early to comment due to the ongoing Met Police investigation into the parties held during the pandemic, which follows call for his predecessor Boris Johnson to resign as Prime Minister. Mr Howell said: “The process is a very long one and I am not going to comment on it as it goes along.” Last month, he told the Henley Standard that he was grateful for the honest comments by constituents on what was a difficult issue and reiterated that he didn’t vote for Mr Johnson to be prime minister at the Tory leadership vote in 2019.