In Northern France seaside towns are trying hard to rebrand themselves and shake off their gritty image, shaped by a history of coal mining – and the more recent migrant crisis. Sally Howard went to find out more about the towns' aspirations to build

In 2024 the Taliban banned women from training as doctors or any other kind of healthcare worker. But an underground network of trainers is keeping hopes alive for Afghanistan’s aspiring female medics In the aftermath of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake

The environment usually takes a backseat in times of conflict. But in Ukraine a rewilding project is sowing seeds for a greener, more peaceful future

Palestinian children are being “deliberately targeted and killed” by Israeli security forces in the war in Gaza, a UN inquiry has warned. In a 23 June report1 an independent UN inquiry said that Israel had killed 20 000 Palestinian children and injured 44 000 since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023. The report found “widespread devastation” of the healthcare infrastructure that serves children, including “direct targeting” of neonatal and maternity care centres in Gaza by Israeli for

A record surge of severely malnourished patients is overwhelming a Somali hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières, the charity has warned, while aid organisations call for an “urgent and rapid scale-up” of aid in the drought afflicted country. MSF reports that between March and May 2026 1400 severely malnourished patients were admitted to its inpatient therapeutic feeding centre at Bay Regional Hospital in Baidoa, southwestern Somalia. This is three times the number of admitted in 2025 and the

UK residents are living longer but with fewer years in good health, data show. But how reliable are these numbers, and what action is needed? Sally Howard reports Healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth is a key measure of a population's health. While life expectancy tells us how long someone is expected to live, HLE measures the average years we can expect someone to live in good health, free from significant disability or chronic illness.1 The UK made significant gains on this measure from 1

A documentary detailing Israeli military attacks on hospitals and ambulances in Gaza and the deaths and injuries of Palestinian healthcare workers has won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for current affairs. The gong came despite the film’s initial commissioners, the BBC, controversially dropping it before it could be broadcast. Channel 4 eventually picked up the documentary and broadcast it on 2 July 2025. In his acceptance speech, Ben De Pear, executive producer of Gaza:

The centre right Tisza Party has swept to victory in Budapest, in an electoral landslide in which reform of Hungary’s public healthcare system was a cornerstone campaign pledge. In its manifesto1 the party promised to restore “human dignity” to a healthcare system plagued by problems around resources, access, and poor outcomes, some of which have been blamed on cronyism. The Tisza Party leader and now prime minister elect, Péter Magyar, visited hospitals to deliver donations of toilet paper and

Patients are “generally positive” about the care pathways formerly known as virtual wards but say there are issues of accountability gaps, a digital divide, and cliff edges around discharge back to primary care When Helen Phipps was offered Hospital at Home (H{at}H, box 1) services for her husband Ian Watson in 2024, she and Ian felt relieved. Ian was at the end of life, with vascular dementia and heart failure, and the virtual hospital care was a means of treating his aspiration pneumonia with

Caring for more people at home is a key priority for the UK government, but with many homes damp, cold, and lacking accessibility, is it achievable? Sally Howard reports “Care should happen as locally as it can: digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible.” This was the ambition laid out by health secretary Wes Streeting last July when launching the government’s 10 year plan.12 In a debate at the recent Nuffield Trust health policy summit, however, occupational therapist Lauren Walke

In 2021, aged 99, Howard Tucker sneaked out of the home he shared with his psychiatrist wife Sara to assist with the medical response to the covid pandemic at St Vincent Charity Medical Center, the Ohio hospital where he worked as a staff neurologist until his centenary year. It was behaviour in keeping with a doctor whose mantra, as he told his 26 million followers on the social media platform TikTok in 2025, was that while “some people enjoy golf and some people enjoy chess,” he simply “enjoy

Rates of abortion in England and Wales are at their highest since the procedure was legalised in 1967. Sally Howard explores what could be behind the trend Figures released in January show that the number of abortion procedures carried out in England and Wales has reached a record high.1 Some 277 970 abortions were carried out in 2023 (the most recent year for which figures are available), an 11% increase from 251 377 in 2022. Controlling for population growth, this represents an abortion rate

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US tech giant Epic’s hospital records portal has been rolled out by NHS trusts in England. But amid poor integration with the NHS App and low user literacy, users say it causes as many problems as it solves. Sally Howard reports In September 2025 a patient sent a digital inquiry to the GP Rachel James’s surgery in south London. The patient had presented at an emergency department the night before, had been discharged, and was asking for an urgent referral to a specialist. James was able to acce

Issue hampers effort to exploit mRNA technology’s promise in tackling deadly viral outbreaks

Raw milk, which is not heat-treated, can carry bugs including salmonella, E. coli , tuberculosis and listeria. Listeria kills 30 percent of babies who...

As England’s housing crisis deepens, local authorities are relocating homeless families out of area, affecting their mental health, continuity of care, medication access, and safeguarding—and leaving GPs to pick up the pieces Paediatrician Laura Neilson was working a shift at North Manchester General Hospital when a family of seven arrived in the emergency department carrying bags. Several of the family members presented with a rash that turned out to be scabies. The family were from London an

At least 10 doctors and five other healthcare workers have been arrested and detained in Iran, with one facing a potential death sentence, human rights groups and doctor organisations warn. It comes as the nation continues to be rocked by

The government has announced plans to tackle regional inequalities in cancer outcomes by training more specialist doctors to work in coastal and rural areas.1 New measures, to be set out in the national cancer plan published next week, will fund specialist training places in NHS trusts with the biggest workforce gaps, and work with UK medical colleges to encourage more doctors to specialise in clinical and medical oncology, ministers said. The plans, welcomed by cancer charities and GPs, will