BBC/Brijesh PatelA man whose wife died after a drain was mistakenly left in her abdomen for 21 hours has condemned the increased use of physician associates (PAs) within the National Health Service.

PAFailing hospitals will be revealed in league tables and NHS managers sacked if they do not turn things around, the health secretary will tell health leaders at a conference in Liverpool.

The Justice Department and four Democratic state attorneys general argued that United’s takeover would limit competition and harm consumers needing home or hospice care.The Justice Department and four Democratic state attorneys general on Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against the giant UnitedHealth Group in an attempt to block its $3.3 billion deal to take over Amedisys, a large home health company.“Unless this $3.3 billion transaction is stopped, UnitedHealth Group will further extend its grip to home health and hospice care, threatening seniors, their families and nurses,” Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general who heads the department’s antitrust division, said in a statement on Tuesday.Antitrust regulators have been reviewing the proposed acquisition amid a federal inquiry into UnitedHealth’s sprawling dominance across nearly every segment of health care. As one of the biggest U.S. companies overall, with $372 billion in revenue in 2023, UnitedHealth’s operations include the nation’s largest health insurer and its Optum subsidiary, which oversees some 90,000 physicians, clinics and is a large pharmacy benefit manager. Last year, United bought one of the nation’s largest home health outfits, LHC Group.The company had come under broader scrutiny this year when the Justice Department began an antitrust investigation as part of the Biden administration’s crackdown on what it considered to be anti-competitive behavior among corporate behemoths like Apple and Google.Filed in federal court in Maryland just one week after the presidential election, the lawsuit was joined by the Democratic attorneys general from Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.UnitedHealth Group argued that its merger would give consumers more choices. “The Amedisys combination with Optum would be pro-competitive and further innovation, leading to improved patient outcomes and greater access to quality care,” Optum said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend against the D.O.J.’s overreaching interpretation of the antitrust laws.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

BBCThe question of whether terminally-ill people should have the right to end their lives is dividing MPs as they consider a proposed law to legalise assisted dying.

Rates of gonorrhea declined in 2023, while diagnoses of syphilis and chlamydia held roughly steady, according to new C.D.C. data.After decades of unrelenting increases, rates of sexually transmitted infections in the United States are showing hints of a downturn.Diagnoses of gonorrhea dipped in nearly all age groups last year, compared with 2022, and new cases of syphilis and chlamydia remained about the same, according to data released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The results are not yet cause for celebration.Overall, more than 2.4 million new S.T.I.s were diagnosed last year, about a million more than the figure 20 years ago. Nearly 4,000 babies were diagnosed with congenital syphilis last year, and 279 of them were stillborn or died soon after.Still, experts said they were cautiously optimistic that a resurgent tide of infections was beginning to turn.“It’s been a long time since I have felt that way about the S.T.I. epidemic,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for H.I.V., Viral Hepatitis, S.T.D. and TB Prevention at the C.D.C.The drop in cases may be the result of a variety of factors: an infusion of funds into health departments during the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in sexual behavior among gay and bisexual men because of the mpox outbreak in 2022 and the recent availability of the antibiotic doxycycline to forestall S.T.I.s after unprotected sexual encounters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s advisers on health, is taking aim at the agency’s oversight on many fronts.Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been unflinching in his attacks on the Food and Drug Administration in recent weeks, saying he wants to fire agency experts who have taken action against treatments that have sometimes harmed people or that teeter on the fringe of accepted health care practice.How much influence Mr. Kennedy will have in President-elect Donald J. Trump’s next administration remains unclear, with some suggesting that he could act as a White House czar for policy over several federal health agencies. Mr. Trump has voiced support for Mr. Kennedy in recent weeks, saying he will let him “go wild on health.” In his acceptance speech, Mr. Trump reiterated his support for Mr. Kennedy’s involvement on health matters.Some of Mr. Kennedy’s priorities are relatively standard, such as focusing on the health effects associated with ultraprocessed foods. Yet others threaten to undermine F.D.A. authority to rein in inappropriate medical treatments or to warn about products that can damage the public health.A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to interview requests.Days before the election, in a post on X that has received 6.4 million views, Mr. Kennedy threatened to fire F.D.A. employees who have waged a “war on public health.” He listed some of the products that he claimed the F.D.A. had subjected to “aggressive suppression,” including ivermectin, raw milk, vitamins as well as therapies involving stem cells, and hyperbaric oxygen.Some items that he singled out had become flash points for conservative voters during the coronavirus pandemic, including ivermectin, which was found to be an ineffective treatment against Covid.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

ReutersThe MP behind a bid to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales has argued it would help stop people experiencing “very harrowing” deaths, as she unveiled details of her proposals.

Getty ImagesA

PA MediaThe former chief medical officer for England said she had experienced nightmares about someone picking up discarded nerve agent after the poisoning of a former spy.

The NHS will start offering an “improved” stop smoking pill to tens of thousands of people in England who want to quit cigarettes.