Digital inclusion standard; Addressing health inequalities; Warning to GPs over AI tools
New minimum standard for digital inclusion
The Good Things Foundation has published a briefing paper outlining the 2025 Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) – a benchmark for what households need to feel digitally included. The MDLS is developed through a series of discussion groups with working-age and pension-age households in urban and rural areas. A minimum digital living standard includes having accessible internet, adequate equipment, and the relevant skills. It is about being able to communicate, connect and engage with opportunities safely and having the functional knowledge and skills to undertake tasks such as booking a medical appointment. People also need the skills to assess information quality and credibility. As well as outlining what is in the MDLS, the briefing details how the standard can be used to tackle poverty, reduce health inequalities and reform services.
Read the briefing on the Good Things Foundation website here.
New projects to address health inequalities
Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) has announced 31 new projects to address health inequalities and facilitate self management for people on NHS waiting lists. The new projects will run for one to three years, and aim to support people at an early stage of their journey with a long-term condition, disability or unpaid caring responsibility. Projects range from a self-management tool for deafblind people to the co-production of a programme empowering people from ethnic minority communities to better understand dementia and their rights.
Find out about the projects on the ALLIANCE website here.
GPs warned over use of AI scribing tools
GPs have been advised to pause the use of AI scribing tools and carry out a series of checks. The British Medical Association (BMA) issued a statement and said an urgent meeting was being sought to discuss how practices can be supported going forward. Government guidance issued in April encouraged NHS clinicians to use speech technologies and generative AI to transcribe patient consultations and turn them into structured medical notes and letters. The BMA statement said, while these tools hold enormous potential, they also hold a substantial risk – both in terms of information governance and patient safety. It advises GPs to consider whether a clinical safety assessment and data protection impact assessment has been carried out, whether the product been registered with MHRA as a class one medical device and to check if the product advertises that it is compliant with NHS standards.
Read the BMA statement in full here.
Campaign urges everyone to take part in research
A nationwide campaign is underway to urge everyone in the country to sign up to take part in health and care research. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) launched Be Part of Research to encourage public participation in research. An advertising campaign on radio, web, national and trade press to encourage sign-ups started on 13 June and will run until 18 July. A series of mini-campaigns targeting smaller audiences and encouraging greater participation from underrepresented communities will be launched in August. Be Part of Research aims to make it easier than ever to find and take part in health and care research.
Read more about the campaign and how to sign up on the NIHR website here.
NHS waiting list falls
The NHS waiting list has fallen to its lowest level in two years, data has revealed. The list fell to 7.39 million, down from 7.42 million – the first time the waiting list has seen a reduction in April in 17 years, excluding the first year of the pandemic. It was the busiest April ever for the number of tests and checks carried out for patients. Community diagnostic hubs helped services to deliver 2.4 million checks – almost half a million more diagnostic tests compared to the same month in 2019.
Read more about the new data on the NHS England website here.
Blog: Personal and professional worlds collide
In this blog for The King's Fund, Julia Cream reflects on how caring for her mother has helped inform her professional work. Julia is a senior associate at The King's Fund and previously managed the communications and public affairs for a number of health charities and third sector organisations. In the blog, Julia explains how her caring role has allowed her to challenge policy colleagues as to how much care really costs. Her first-hand experience of the burden admin can create for patients often sits well alongside her research. Caring also reminds Julia how important the voluntary and community sector is.
Read the blog in full on The King's Fund website here.
MS research must include ethnicity data
In this article from the newsletter From The Eyes Of A Black Woman, health inequalities advocate Natalie Diana Busari calls for every organisation involved in MS research to "be inclusive, be diverse, and mean it". Natalie, who is the founder of the not-for-profit patient organisation The Nerve Of My Multiple Sclerosis, highlights how ethnicity data is often ignored or omitted in modern MS research. Natalie says, without adequate representation, we lack critical knowledge about how MS affects Black patients differently – from disease onset to response to therapies. This perpetuates health inequities and stalls progress toward prevention strategies that work for everyone.
Read the full article via LinkedIn here.
Webinar: Exploring the findings of a new dementia report
A free webinar is being held to launch a new report which offers a "hopeful vision" for people living with dementia. Hosted by Think Local Act Personal, the webinar will discuss the key findings of the report, I just want to be able to dance, with its authors Neil Crowther and Liz Leach Murphy. The report calls for a fresh focus on supporting people living with dementia through connection, community, and personalised care. The one-hour webinar, in partnership with Dementia Change Action Network, will also include experiences of people living with dementia and examples of care and support that help people to live well with dementia.