The Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has called for a ‘rescue plan’ to alleviate pressures on GPs and the services they provide to the public. Martin Marshall has described the GP sector in the UK as ‘crisis-torn’, in need of an emergency-style rescue plan. RCGP has written to Health Secretary Sajid Javid and new NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard for them to implement a five-point action plan to tackle these challenges. Mental health s...

Amanda Pritchard has been selected as the new Chief Executive of NHS England (NHSE). Ms Pritchard is to take over from the previous NHSE CEO Lord Simon Stevens, who steps down from his role after seven years in the position. Lord Stevens is to officially leave his role at the end of this week, making way for the first female Chief Executive of the NHS since its creation in 1948. Ms Pritchard has worked as the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer for the last two years, and is the former ...

A new £53 million fund has been announced by the Government for UK manufacturing to boost their competitiveness by using digital technology. Projects to improve supply chains and new research centres are among the recipients of the investment and support. Investment Minister Lord Grimstone announced the new drive, which is to be awarded through the Made Smarter programme. Made Smarter is a collaboration between the Government and industry to “support the development and increase use ...

Workers in critical sectors are to be offered daily contact testing services, in order to lessen the potential impact of disruption to employee work. Police officers, emergency services staff and transport workers are among those who will be able to undergo testing. This means they will be able to continue to deploy essential services to the UK without the need to enter into a period of self-isolation. Clinical trial results have prompted the move to expand the contact testing service to these g...

Please see the below quote from BIVDA regarding exemptions for key workers regarding COVID-19 app alerts:  "BIVDA welcomes flexibility for essential workers in exceptional circumstances and is looking forward to receiving further guidance from the Government on the process involved. Fast, decisive action is key in circumstances such as this and we support the action taken to prevent further issues. We know this may not have gone as far as many of our member companies would wi...

BIVDA Comments on new Innovation Strategy BIVDA Chief Executive Doris-Ann Williams has commented on the Government’s new Innovation Strategy, which aims to put Britain at the front of the global race to attract world-leading science expertise, highly skilled jobs and new products.According to the Government, the UK is committed to increasing annual public investment on R&D to £22 billion. The private sector also plays a key role in boosting spending on R&D, which is an e...

BIVDA's External Affairs team has composed a policy briefing document on the newly released Innovation Strategy, which was presented today by the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.Please find the BIVDA briefing attached below for members to access.

A call for evidence has been launched by the Health and Care Select Committee regarding a planned inquiry into how the backlog of healthcare triggered by the pandemic can be cleared. The Committee will be investigating how to quantify the level of pent-up demand for key healthcare services; and to consider whether “fundamental changes to the organisation and delivery of NHS services will be required to manage the backlog of cases caused by the pandemic”. Levels of funding, capacity, ...

The Government has announced the opening of the ‘Future Fund: Breakthrough’ funding programme, designed to boost the UK’s post-pandemic economy. The funding will be provided to the country’s most high growth, innovative and R&D-intensive companies. These firms are essential to propelling the UK’s economy forward, and it is estimated that 1% growth in these firms could grow the UK economy by £38 billion. The funding push was announced at Budget 2021, and wi...

A Government response has been provided by the Department for Health and Social Care to the consultation regarding private COVID-19 testing validation. The public consultation opened from 8th April 2021 and closed on 5th May 2021. It proposed a requirement that all COVID-19 tests place don the UK market undergo a mandatory validation process to assess their performance, above and beyond CE marking. Please see the below points from the Response document: ‘Broad support’ was received b...