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The Week in Practice | 12 October 2026
Every Monday, Pavilion Health Today brings you a quick briefing on the clinical developments that matter to UK doctors in The Week in Practice.
Your Monday briefing for UK doctors. Start your week informed.
💊 Clinical news
The Department of Health and Social Care is entering a three-year partnership with the breast cancer charity Breast Cancer Now to ensure women receive practical information to build confidence in checking their breasts, recognising changes, and seeking advice sooner. This will enable clinicians to reinforce breast awareness and explain which new or unusual changes warrant assessment. A new toolkit and training should help healthcare teams give consistent advice to women adjusting after treatment, including information on recurrence and healthy living.
💡 Practice point
The Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism, chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy, recommends moving towards a needs-led approach that enables patients to access appropriate support before, during and after diagnostic assessment, rather than waiting for a formal diagnosis. It also raises concerns about the quality and consistency of diagnostic assessments, the growing overlap between mental health and neurodevelopmental presentations, and gaps in post-diagnostic support.
🔬 Research in practice
New research involving more than 316,000 adults suggests that both low and high haemoglobin levels may be associated with an increased risk of dementia, raising questions about whether routinely available blood tests could help clinicians better understand long-term brain health. The study, presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Congress in Munich, found that people in the lowest 20% of haemoglobin levels had a 16% higher risk of all-cause dementia than those in the group with the lowest dementia rate, whereas those in the highest 20% had a 7% higher risk.
📌 On the radar
Thousands of doctors are experiencing bullying and discrimination at work, yet many do not believe it is safe or worthwhile to report, according to a General Medical Council (GMC) survey. Almost one in four (23%) locally employed (LE) doctors and nearly one in three (31%) of specialty, associate specialist and specialist (SAS) doctors said they had experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment in their role. Consultants were most often identified as the source of bullying and undermining behaviour.
🗣️ Alerts
NHS England has warned there are ‘ominous’ signs that winter pressures are already building, with more patients, including children, arriving at A&E with flu and other respiratory viruses. Data show that last month was the busiest September on record for A&E attendances (2.44 million) and recorded the highest number of ambulance incidents for September (806,707).
