Medical Centre

As an educator and researcher, I am sometimes asked by parents and teachers: Do universities offer support for school-age children or are they only focused on their own undergraduate and postgraduate students?” The answer is yes, universities do offer this support. Universities across the UK are deeply committed to their local communities and the wider public. They run excellent outreach initiatives designed to spark curiosity, support educators, and break down barriers to higher education. At my own institution, Imperial College London , we place a massive emphasis on this. Through our dedicated schools outreach programmes, we work to inspire young people in STEM —Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine, and Mathematics—showing them that these fields aren’t just textbook subjects, but pathways to understanding and changing the world. Whether you are a parent trying to nurture a child’s curiosity, or a teacher looking to enrich your classroom, here is a look at the kind of suppo...

The Government has announced it will create over 100 new community mental health centres across England, which will work alongside GPs and other NHS organisations/ The centres will offer offer walk-in support as well as seeing patients referred from elsewhere in the NHS. GPs have long called for faster access to specialist mental health support for patients, so the expansion of community mental health services is a welcome development. If these new centres improve access to multidisciplinary teams, reduce waiting times and provide more integrated care, they can improve patient outcomes while reducing pressure on both general practice and specialist mental health services. Close collaboration between GPs, mental health professionals, social care and the voluntary sector will be essential because many people with mental health problems also have wider social and physical health needs. The success of these centres will depend on how they are implemented. They need to be adequately staffe...

There is an important distinction between a treatment being cost-effective and it being affordable for the NHS as illustrated by the example of tirzepatide. NICE has concluded that tirzepatide is cost-effective in appropriately selected patients because of the health gains it delivers through reductions in obesity-related disease and its complications. However, the overall budget impact is a separate question. When millions of people could potentially be eligible for treatment, even a cost-effective intervention can create major financial pressures for the NHS. We are still at a relatively early stage of implementation, yet tirzepatide has already become one of the NHS's highest-cost medicines. If access expands in line with NICE guidance over the coming years, expenditure will increase substantially unless drug prices fall significantly, prescribing criteria change or treatment strategies evolve. Another important issue is that we still have key unanswered questions about long-ter...

Meningococcal group B (MenB) infections are rare but can have devastating consequences. The decision to offer a targeted two-dose vaccination programme to Year 13 students and young people entering university or residential further education reflects concerns about recent outbreaks of meningococcal disease and the higher risk of transmission when large numbers of young adults mix closely for the first time in shared accommodation. The MenB vaccine has a well-established safety record, and evidence from the UK infant immunisation programme has shown substantial reductions in disease among vaccinated children. A targeted programme for those entering higher-risk settings is therefore a reasonable precautionary measure while further evidence is gathered on whether the recent increase in clusters represents a temporary fluctuation in disease patterns or a more sustained change in the epidemiology of MenB infection. The success of the programme will depend on achieving high uptake and ensuri...

It was a great pleasure to welcome GPs from across the UK to Imperial College’s Annual GP Teachers Conference today. General practice has a key  role in the medical curriculum. It is where students see patients as individuals living with health conditions.  Primary care provides opportunities to learn about areas such as prevention and health promotion, the early diagnosis of illness, continuity of care, and the management of frailty and multimorbidity. These are increasingly important aspects of healthcare as populations globally age and the burden of long-term conditions increases. Students also gain insight into the wider determinants of health and the importance of working with patients, families and multidisciplinary teams to deliver person-centred care. These experiences are essential in preparing future doctors for the realities of modern clinical practice, whatever specialty they ultimately choose. This teaching takes place against the backdrop of a very challenging en...

Primary care access is often judged by appointment supply, waiting times, and utilisation, yet patients experience access as a series of small obstacles that accumulate into delay, drop-off, and avoidable deterioration. Building on existing literature on administrative burden, treatment burden, digital exclusion, and telemedicine inequity, this commentary proposes the Access Friction Index (AFI) as a practical framework for measuring the real-world effort required to convert a health need into timely assessment, follow-up, and treatment. Drawing on recent evidence from the UK, US and other settings, it links access friction to inequities for vulnerable groups, missed screening, medication non-adherence, unplanned return visits, and avoidable hospital use. It also outlines how routine service data and electronic records could be used to identify friction hotspots—including repeated contact, mode switching, handoffs, results handling failures, and delayed pathway closure—and how primary ...