NEWS Broken / fixed?
So, farewell then Wes Streeting. The Secretary of State for Health whose first move was the bold declaration that the NHS was ‘broken’, has now left office just under two years later. Opinions expressed publicly about his overall effect on the NHS could be charitably described as ‘divided’; but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks he’s actually fixed it. Certainly much has changed. A certain
irony was that the Health Bill – which among other things moves to formally abolish NHS England, moving its functions to the Department of Health and Social Care – was put before Parliament on the same day that Streeting published his resignation leter. While the former waits for his next move, James Murray is the new head of the department, moving behind a desk with an overflowing in tray. Widely seen as a Starmer loyalist, Murray is not expected to rock the boat and many hope that this means the changes already put in place will come to fruition. Much has been put in place already, grouping trusts together and making moves for local areas
The Health Bill was
put before Parliament on the same day that
Streeting published his resignation letter
to have more influence over healthcare spending in their area. With ‘only’ three years until the next
election, progress in the health service is key to this government’s hopes of geting a second term; and the Ten-Year Plan will be needing to show some tangible progress to the electorate to help deliver that. Whether Sir Keir Starmer remains prime minister is a further question; although as I write, two weeks on from Streeting’s resignation, the situation seems a litle calmer for the time being.
Partnership for NHS blood- based cancer testing
Precision medicine firm SOPHiA GENETICS has announced a partnership with Synnovis, one of England’s leading pathology providers, to bring liquid biopsy testing to lung and breast cancer patients across the UK as part of NHS England’s revolutionary ‘blood test-first’ programme. Synnovis, a major provider for England’s
South East Genomic Medicine Service, worked with SOPHiA GENETICS to launch the liquid biopsy test MSK-ACCESS powered with SOPHiA DDM. This innovative test, originally developed by Memorial Sloan Ketering Cancer Center in New York, detects actionable genomic alterations from a single blood draw and leverages state-of-the-art Ai to analyse circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in a minimally invasive manner. The new blood-based test offered by
Synnovis can help fast-track cancer patients to receive targeted therapy up to two weeks earlier, while helping some avoid further tests and invasive treatments such as chemotherapy. Following the successful pilot
programme, Synnovis is already supporting approximately 400 patients per month with ctDNA liquid biopsy testing and is
demonstrating the real-world impact of this advanced care. In one case, a patient with suspected advanced lung cancer was able to receive a ctDNA-informed personalised treatment plan within just two weeks. In another case, providers used SOPHiA DDM to identify new genetic variants for a patient who had been living with breast cancer for more than 15 years, unlocking additional treatment options and potential eligibility for clinical trials. Synnovis and SOPHiA GENETICS
anticipate that the application will be used to test approximately 7,000 breast and lung cancer patients annually, or roughly one third of all ctDNA tests in England, as the demand for liquid biopsy testing increases.
From the Editor Spring is a busy time for events and I’ve
been out and about over recent weeks. You can read a report from the latest POCT Innovators event later in this issue; a very interesting day with a broad range of informative content that regular atendees of these events have come to expect. My thanks to Tony Cambridge for continuing to host Pathology in Practice. Another close partner of PiP for even longer is the British Society for Microbial Technology; with May seeing the Society’s Annual Microbiology Conference take place. A report to come in a future issue of another valuable and informative event. Lots to keep readers busy over the pages of this issue, from statistical guidance for hypothesis testing from Dr Stephen MacDonald, Professor Mike Wren on changing global disease paterns and the challenge for microbiologists, through to how the evolution of genomic sequencing technologies aligns with new medical device regulation.
Andy Myall
andymyall@pathologyinpractice.com
Report shows progress on HIV
A new report published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that the trend in HIV diagnoses in England have continued to fall, with England meeting the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets again. These are 95% of people living with
HIV having been diagnosed, 95% of those diagnosed receiving treatment, and 98% of people on treatment having suppressed viral loads, meaning the virus is undetectable in their blood. The data is published as part of
the HIV Action Plan monitoring and evaluation framework 2026 report, which uses 2024 data to set out where England stands on HIV prevention treatment and care to monitor progress towards the ambitions of the HIV Action Plan for England 2025 to 2030. England’s ambitions are to reduce new diagnoses to just 532 by 2030, a 90% reduction from 2010, and to reduce the number of AIDS-related mortality to 27, also an 80% reduction from 2010. While these ambitions look achievable for some groups, it is much less likely to be reached for Black African communities and ethnic minority gay and bisexual men without urgent and targeted action.
June 2026
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
