Lesley Munro

Trisha Goddard’s appearance on Celebrity Big Brother is fighting the stigma of palliative care - LBC

'I could live 30 years - but plan to die': Has assisted dying in Canada gone too far? - BBC News

NHS England chair: ‘Something’s gone wrong when pay imbalances are so severe’ - The Times and The Sunday Times

PM faces calls to exempt hospices from tax rises - BBC News

Sarah Woolnough, CEO of The King’s Fund, with a quote about NHS services improvements on a purple and gray background. The text reads: ‘Today’s announcement lands on the same day that NHS stats show people continue to wait days in A&E and many patients remain stuck in hospital beds despite being well enough to leave. The most important question is how will the abolition of NHS England make it easier for people to get a GP appointment, shorten waits for planned care and improve people’s health? That hasn’t yet been set out – ministers will need to explain how the prize will be worth the price.

‘Having now made the decision to abolish NHS England, & while we still wait for the publication of the NHS 10 year plan, the government must be clear why this significant structural change at this time is necessary, & how it fits into their wider plans.' Read the full press release. buff.ly/mhsS47Y

Delighted to have attended the Surrey Downs awards last night. 2 awards for Princess Alice - impact in communities - individual ward ( bereavement ) and team award for compassionate neighbours. Great to see hospices recognised within the Place system. @hospiceuk.bsky.social

Yesterday Princess Alice Hospice welcomed Richard Meddings, Chair of NHSEngland, Duncan Burton our trustee and Chief Nursing Officer, England, and Toby Porter CEO of Hospice UK. A fantastic opportunity to showcase our work
@tobyhporter.bsky.social @hospiceuk.bsky.social
@nhsenglandldn.bsky.social

Bereaved families urge MPs to ‘remember’ them on assisted dying Bill - The Independent

Wrestling with the ethics of assisted dying in Room 10 - The Times and The Sunday Times

End-of-life care demand challenging for paramedics - BBC News

MP to present new bill on protecting nurse title New legislation to protect the title of 'nurse' will be put before parliament next week. Br...

www.nursingtimes.net/professional...

NHS approves ‘game-changing’ therapy for sickle cell disease

Thousands of patients with sickle cell disease could now benefit from a “ground-breaking” gene-editing therapy on the NHS, thought to be a “functional cure” for the disease ⬇️

Payouts for victims of UK infected blood scandal to be extended to families Parents, children and siblings will be able to claim under new laws to be passed by March

Excellent news, in what was one of the worst NHS and state cover-ups we’ve ever seen. About time. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘Absolutely devastated’: Inside Durham hospice battling £1.3m black hole Across the UK, hospices are struggling, with many forced to cut staff and services as the sector faces the most challenging time in its history.

‘Absolutely devastated’: Inside Durham hospice battling £1.3m black hole
www.channel4.com/news/absolut...

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This afternoon committee is hearing from palliative care specialists - a sector which has voiced some of the loudest concerns about assisted dying.

Concerns that there is no genuine choice, due to lack of hospice care. And debate over whether that'll improve or not if AD passes.

Both Chris Whitty and Chief Nursing Officer Duncan Burton says NHS staff are already trained to spot coercion/capacity in healthcare. But Burton does make clear that further training would be required if assisted dying was legalised and time would be needed to roll training out.

How to make remote consultations safer Payne R, Clarke A, Swann N, et al. Patient safety in remote primary care encounters: multimethod qualitative study combining Safety I and Safety II analysis. BMJ Quality and Safety 2023;0:1–14. To re...

The BMJ desk-rejected our paper on safety in remote consultations. It later won Research Paper of the Year Award. Now BMJ is publishing a ‘hot pick’ summary of our findings written by someone else. Ah well, so long as the word gets out I guess! @bmj.com

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Martyn Drake: New strategies for financial sustainability Trying to squeeze out yet more costs is a road so well-travelled there’s barely any tarmac left

"We’ve little alternative but to think seriously about how civil society organisations can not just survive but do yet more with even less" - @martyndrake.bsky.social

📣📣📣 We are looking for health and care professionals with experience caring for adults with advanced illness, and working with ethnically diverse populations, to join an expert consultation.

Please contact us if you are interested 🙏

See flyer 👇

A few important nots:
- hospice is not a place
- palliative care is not hospice
- talking about death does not make people give up or die
- at the end of life food does not make you stronger
- taking morphine for advanced cancer pain does not mean you’re dying/an addict/giving up
#palliativecare

Absolutely shocking that someone has got be to work and been stabbed. Thoughts with the nurse, their colleagues and of course their family and friends

Lovely evening at Guildford Illuminate last night #friends #guildfordcastle #lights

Bedside scene and article on dying. Excerpt here: While the medicalisation of dying has alleviated physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering and sometimes has extended lives, something meaningful has been lost along the way. We have increasingly become detached from the social and spiritual importance of death and reluctant to accept it as a natural part of life. Despite the strides made by hospice and palliative care in demedicalising death, overtreatment of dying people in the US and Europe is widespread. Medicine should adopt a more compassionate approach that rehumanises dying, rather than focusing on extending life at all costs.

Another interesting @bmj.com piece for us all this morning.

Anita Hannig on the medicalisation of dying and how we would do well to reclaim it as a human event rather than a clinical one.

Link:
www.bmj.com/content/387/...

Gustav Adolf Clemens, Christmas Eve at the hospital, c. 1912.

Gratitude and thanks to all of the nurses, midwives and nursing associates who won’t be with their loved ones this Christmas because they’ll be caring for us.

That somebody could have been me, along with some others 🎶🎶🎶🎶

Fantastic concert last night by Gospel Collective Farnham. Somebody even sang a solo 🎶 #gospelchoir #gospelmusic

National Insurance hike ‘threatens the very sustainability’ of Northern Ireland’s voluntary sector The increase could cause widespread service reductions and job losses, the chief executive of Nicva says

The planned rise in employer National Insurance contributions “threatens the very sustainability of Northern Ireland’s voluntary sector”, the chief executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action has said

Heart attack patients advised to get themselves to A&E With six of England’s ten ambulance trusts at risk of service failure, another winter of scandal and tragedy is upon us

People having a heart attack or a stroke are being asked to get themselves to hospital after dialling 999, as surging sickness levels plunge the NHS into another winter crisis www.thetimes.com/article/b9d2...