Former health secretary Matt Hancock has denied claims the government’s attempt to throw a protective ring around care homes in 2020, early in the Covid pandemic, was empty rhetoric. In an irritable exchange he urged the Covid Inquiry to focus on the substance of what the government was doing at the time. Mr Hancock said […]

BBC There’s a saying that Robert F Kennedy Jr is very fond of. He used it on the day he was confirmed as US health secretary. “A healthy person has a thousand dreams, a sick person only has one,” he said as he stood in the Oval Office. “60% of our population has only one

James Melley Social Affairs Producer Getty Images Nicky Hastie, holding an image of her mother, attended the inquiry in person on Monday A civil servant’s assertion that there was a “generational slaughter within care homes” in the early days of the pandemic is a phrase that “chimes with the experience of thousands of our families”,

Jan, from Kent, was one of the first people in the world to take part in the trials of semaglutide. It is sold as Wegovy for weight-loss and as Ozempic for diabetes, although some people have been buying this version to lose weight. We all know somebody like Jan, who has tried every diet, and

Philippa Roxby Health reporter BBC They are the bête noire of many nutritionists – mass-produced yet moreish foods like chicken nuggets, packaged snacks, fizzy drinks, ice cream or even sliced brown bread. So-called ultra-processed foods (UPF) account for 56% of calories consumed across the UK, and that figure is higher for children and people who

BBC It had been the NHS’s longest-running and bitterest pay dispute – responsible for hundreds of thousands of cancelled operations and appointments. And then, suddenly, word came on Monday that the British Medical Association was recommending that its 50,000 junior doctor members accept a fresh offer from the new government. It sounded almost too good

Catherine Burns Health Correspondent BBC The number of people taking ADHD medication is at a record high – and the NHS is feeling the strain as it tries to diagnose and treat the condition. Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research suggests that

Getty Images The provision of PPE for healthcare workers is being explored in this part of the Covid inquiry (stock image) The chair of the Covid inquiry has refused an application from the UK Health Security Agency to keep the identities of two junior clinicians secret. Lawyers for UKHSA applied for an order preventing publication

Jim Reed Health reporter, BBC News Prof Kevin Fong said he undertook an informal visit to one of the “hardest hit” intensive care units in the country Treating patients during the pandemic was like responding to a daily terror attack, the Covid inquiry has heard. Giving testimony, Professor Kevin Fong, spoke of staff he met

Jim Reed Reporting fromCovid inquiry Mark Tilley Mark Tilley worked as an ambulance technician in south-east England through the first two waves of the pandemic Ambulance crews faced crucial delays trying to save dying patients in the pandemic because of the time it took to put on protective equipment, the Covid inquiry has been told.