NEWS
Spring budget offers NHS funding boost
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget has given the NHS a funding boost as part of an investment package for better public services, labelled a ‘Budget for Long Term Growth’ by the Treasury. The NHS in England will receive a £2.5 billion day-to-day funding boost for 2024/25 and £3.4 billion in capital investment over the forecast period to help unlock £35 billion in productivity savings over the next Parliament by harnessing new technology like AI and cutting admin workloads - part of landmark Public Sector Productivity Plan to deliver better public services.
The
Chancellor’s landmark Public Sector Productivity Plan marks the first step towards returning public sector productivity back to pre- pandemic levels and will ensure taxpayers’
money is spent
as efficiently as possible. OBR analysis suggests that raising public sector productivity by just 5% would deliver up to £20 billion of benefits a year. The NHS will receive £3.4 billion as part of this over the forecast period - doubling investment in digital transformation, significantly reducing the 13 million hours lost by doctors every year because of old IT and delivering test results faster for 130,000 patients a year thanks to AI-fitted MRI scanners that help doctors read results more quickly and accurately. Further changes will include making the NHS app a single front door for patients and rolling out universal electronic patient records.
This investment, which comes alongside an extra £2.5 billion cash injection for 2024/25 to support the NHS improve performance and reduce waiting times, means the NHS can commit to delivering £35 billion in productivity savings over the next Parliament, while the £800 million to boost productivity across other public services will deliver an extra £1.8 billion in productivity benefits by 2029.
8
New research to develop Henipavirus vaccines
A new collaboration between the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and The Pirbright Institute has been launched to support the development of vaccines against Henipavirus – a genus of viruses including Nipah virus. The research has been funded by the Medical Research Council.
The aim is to develop a vaccine that provides cross-protection against the whole genus, addressing outbreaks, and enhancing epidemic preparedness. Nipah virus can be transmitted to
humans from animals and can cause a range of symptoms including severe respiratory illness and encephalitis. The virus poses a current and future threat to global health because the infection has a high fatality rate and there are no licensed vaccines or treatments at present. Nipah virus is also on the World Health Organization’s priority pathogen list – a group of pathogens causing infectious diseases that have pandemic potential. Recent cases and outbreaks have predominantly been detected in Bangladesh and India. There have been no cases in the UK to date, but effective vaccines against this virus would provide protection to people in countries
where the virus is endemic and potentially protect against imported cases.
Nipah virus belongs to a genus of viruses
(Henipavirus), and it is possible that a novel virus in this group could emerge, with potential to cause an outbreak. Therefore, rather than focusing on one specific virus as the target for vaccination, the aim is to develop a vaccine that provides cross protection against the whole genus (pan-Henipavirus vaccine) addressing the threat of outbreaks from new or emerging henipaviruses and strengthening epidemic preparedness.
Scientists at UKHSA will use a model of Nipah virus disease, which mimics the infection in humans, to evaluate vaccines developed by The Pirbright Institute to determine their protective effects.
US concern on FDA regulating LDTs
A recent survey shows concern from US laboratories about patient access to laboratory developed tests (LDTs) if the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) goes ahead with its proposal to regulate such tests. Many have said they would have to react to new regulation by withdrawing tests from the marketplace. Nearly 85% of respondents to an ARUP Laboratories survey on the impact of the FDA’s proposed rule were either ‘extremely concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ about the impact of the proposed rule on patient access to essential testing and innovation, the financial and personnel resources required to comply, and the FDA’s ability to implement the proposed rule.
The survey is the largest exploration of the impact of the proposed rule on clinical laboratories to date. Of 503 respondents,
only 41 (8.2%) support the FDA’s proposed rule. A total of 83.9% of respondents believe the proposed rule will negatively impact their laboratories, whereas only 3% believe they have the financial resources to pay FDA user fees, which can be as high as $483,000 for ‘high-risk’ premarket authorisation submissions. Additionally, nearly 61% of participants said they would likely remove tests from their laboratory menus if the proposed rule were enacted. “This survey shows there is profound
concern within the clinical laboratory community about the proposed rule and its negative impact on patient care,” said Jonathan Genzen MD PhD, ARUP’s Chief Medical Officer and Senior Director Of Governmental Affairs. “If laboratories cannot afford to comply with the proposed regulations, they will have to discontinue essential tests, and that harms patients.”
APRIL 2024
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