Exclusive: NHS Alliance’s acute care director says centralisation of services ‘inevitable’ to ensure safe care

• Why are some NHS maternity units facing closure?

Up to 20 maternity units in England will have to shut to ensure mothers and babies receive safe care amid shortages of doctors and rising caesarean section rates, an NHS leader has warned.

Matthew Hopkins, the NHS Alliance’s director for acute care, said centralising childbirth services into fewer hospitals was “inevitable” and the “right thing”, but would lead to a political backlash against unpopular changes.

Exclusive: Four MPs raise conflict of interest concerns over Samantha Jones’s past links to a big provider of ADHD assessments

A senior civil servant should play no part in ministers’ crackdown on private attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism clinics because of her recent ties to the industry, MPs have said.

Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs are demanding that Samantha Jones, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), steps away from any role in plans to toughen regulation of the booming market in private neurodiversity assessments.

Brain drain of psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses leaves NHS ‘weaker’, driving patients to seek care elsewhere

• Full report | NHS at risk of ‘system failures’ as demand for ADHD and autism care soars, inquiry finds

The NHS is facing an exodus of staff quitting its ADHD and autism services to join private clinics amid huge demand from children and adults to get a diagnosis.

The loss of specialist personnel to the private sector has already forced one NHS trust in England to limit access to its neurodevelopmental service to only the most urgent cases.

Decision by Royal College of Pharmacy to end sponsorship comes after concerns over Teva Pharmaceuticals’ ‘activities’

A second major UK health body has cut ties with an Israeli drug firm after coming under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners.

The Royal College of Pharmacy has dropped Teva UK, the British arm of the global medicines producer Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a sponsor of and exhibitor at its annual conference next month.

England-focused mental health review returns stark warning and calls for shift to ‘needs-led’ system

• Explainer | What has the Fonagy review found and what does it recommend?

• Analysis | No ‘snowflakes’: mental health review says today’s youth have it harder and harms are real

The NHS in England is heading into a “world of system failures” as it struggles to cope with relentlessly rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism care, leaving those affected desperate for support, a government-commissioned inquiry has found.

The stark warning was made in a review led by Prof Peter Fonagy into the sharp rise in demand over recent decades for help with mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Researchers found five events, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious damage to mental wellbeing across UK

Brexit, Liz Truss’s mini-budget and other “shocks” over the last 10 years have led to a serious and lasting deterioration in the UK population’s mental health, research has found.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the first and second Covid lockdowns also triggered big rises in psychological distress, as measured by the number of people with depression and anxiety.