👋 Happy Friday. Back with your weekly dose of medical news. All eyes on the Health Secretary this week 👀 . Here’s what we got:

• ⏳️ Tick Tock, Wes: BMA Re-enters Pay Disputes

• 😴 Health Secretary Wakes Up, and Vows to Fix Speciality Posts Deficit

• 🗣️ A Voice for the Voiceless

• #TheMoreYouKnow: Other Top Stories of The Week

NHS NEWS

Tick Tock, Wes: BMA Re-enters Pay Disputes

In the words of Jeremy Corybn. We’re back and ready for it all over again! BMA re-enters pay disputes with the government

I really love the no nonsense approach from the BMA. I mean look at these stern faces from the article they posted–

I really wouldn’t want to mess with these lot. They look like they mean business. But the government has decided to play with the BMA flame, and it looks like they’ll leave with second degree burns.

The Rundown

So in last year's general election the gov and BMA agreed to a pay-rise of 22.3%. Whilst a step in the right direction, doctors still feel shortchanged. Resident doctor wages are still 20% less than the rate in real terms in 2008. 

So in March 2025, a formal review from the DDRB (Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration) was requested. You would think this would be pretty speedy, considering this is their only job. But no. They’re slow. So slow that after a month of no progress, the BMA formally wrote to Wes Streeting. In short, saying they have 4 days to get their act together, or else…

With no recommendations made, on the 9th April the BMA has told members to get “ballot ready” for strikes as they officially have re-entered pay disputes. 

In the letter to members BMA stated things can still be rectified: 

‘It’s not too late for the Government to avoid escalation by committing to releasing the report as soon as it arrives and to negotiate if the pay recommendation is inadequate.’

But before then it might be high-time to save your amazon boxes for make-shift placards.

Read more here.

NHS NEWS

Health Secretary Wakes Up, and Vows to Fix Speciality Posts Deficit

Although he's been snoozing through the pay dispute, Wes Streeting seems to have finally stirred for something else.

Streeting says he’s looking into the “bizarre” situation where UK medical graduates are having to compete directly with international doctors for NHS jobs. Speaking to GB News, he called it “crazy” that students trained in the UK aren’t being prioritised for the jobs they trained for. oH rEAlLy

The BMA has been telling him for ages. The situation is bleak. Applications to specialty posts shot up, from 23,000 in 2019 to nearly 60,000 in 2024. The number of training posts have been pretty static. 20,000 doctors are set to miss out on speciality training this year. So Mr Streeting, it’s good to have you on board, but let’s match it with some action.

The BMA’s UK Resident Doctors Committee says the system’s overreliance on international recruitment is part of the problem. They’re asking the government to increase the number of posts, prioritise UK grads, and protect international medical graduates already here.

Streeting says he’s “reviewing” things. For now, it’s wait and see. If nothing changes soon, he should expect more doctors that the taxpayer has paid for to explore their options.

Like Australia. Or America. Or Tiktok

RESEARCH UPDATE

A Voice for the Voiceless

Researchers at UC Berkeley have created an AI narrator for the paralysed that makes Stephen Hawking’s old device look like two cans with a string between them.

A whole slew of neurological conditions(ALS, brainstem stroke, take your pick) can rob patients of their ability to speak. And on top of all the dependencies that come with paralysis, not being able to ask for a sip of water from your nurse has to be the worst cherry on the worst cake.

It’s not like no one’s tried. We’ve had devices that track eye movement, cheek twitches, even neural implants—all designed to chip away at the communication problem. Problem is…they’re all kind of tedious. And dumb. Talking through them feels like FaceTiming someone with one bar of 3G. 

So UC Berkeley and UCSF created this new silent-speech neuroprosthetic. They put it in a quadriplegic patient with a right pontine stroke from 2005.

How does it work you ask? So they created a 253-electrode array and wrapped it around a patient's sensorimotor cortex. This array records real-time neural signals—not speech, just the intent to speak—as the patient silently mouths words.

No new device in 2025 is complete without AI. They trained a deep learning recurrent neural network transducer (RNN-T) on the neural signals produced when the patient mouthed out silent speech. This model could then decode the neural signal directly into text. 

Bonus points: They trained the model on recordings of the patient's voice prior to the stroke so the audio outputs and not Optimus Prime.

The trial involved presenting sentences to the patient and getting the patient to think about repeating the sentence, to test if the device would accurately be able to do so. (See the video here)

So this device had a median decode speed of 47.5 to 90.9 words per minute, depending on the phrase set. Flirting with natural speech speed of 110-100 wpm. And there was only 1 sec latency between neural detection and speech production. 

As cool as this all is, it’s only a single-patient trial. Larger, more diverse studies are the next step. But even now, it's clear—we’re edging closer to giving people their actual voices back.

OTHER NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• NICE Guideline Updates to paediatric pneumonia

• UK First: Woman with womb transplant gives birth

• Chewing Gum Vaccine for Viruses?

• Take Home Bladder Cancer Tablet Enters NHS

• Across The Pond: Trump's Medicaid cuts that his own supporters hate

Handover Over 🫡 

If you liked it, tell your mates.
If you hated it, tell your enemies.

See you on Sunday, for the first “Breaking The Bottleneck” Interview with a famous incoming neurosurgery reg 👀 

If you’d like to be involved with The Handover, interviewing clinicians in your dream roles, or writing articles on the latest happenings in the world of Medicine, reply to this email