What are the health impacts of sea-level rise, and who should pay?

In November in Solomon Islands, the former Tongan health minister Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala stood outside the main hospital in Honiara and “watched seawater lapping at its outer walls”.“The facility is now under threat, with plans under way to relocate it to higher ground – a massive and costly undertaking,” Saia, a surgeon and now the World Health Organization’s regional director for the western Pacific, tells the Guardian.“It should never have come to this.”The impact on patients and health services is just one part of a growing health burden driven by sea-level rise, including water contamination, infectious disease, food insecurity, displacement and worsening mental health.In 2024, at the inaugural UN general assembly meeting on sea-level rise, representatives of small island developing states and low-lying countries described the issue as a global crisis threatening 1 billion people worldwide, urging governments globally to act to protect their health and lives

Charity cleared after false claims online over migrant welcome project

A refugee charity subjected to vicious social media attacks over a migrant welcome project in schools has been cleared of wrongdoing after watchdogs found allegations it encouraged pupils to send Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers were misleading and false.City of Sanctuary UK came under fire last year after rumours spread online that under its schools programme, children were being “forced” to write heart-shaped welcome cards to adult migrants, including cards addressed to “my fiance”.The Tory MP Gavin Williamson made a formal complaint against City of Sanctuary last August in the wake of the online attacks, claiming the charity had acted inappropriately and breached the law by acting in a “highly politicised” manner.However, in a finding published on Tuesday, the regulator rejected Williamson’s complaint and said the charity had been the victim of a baseless misinformation campaign that resulted in its staff and trustees receiving threats.Helen Earner, the director of regulatory services at the Charity Commission, said: “In this case, concerns about the charity’s work were fuelled by online misinformation, something charities are increasingly subject to and a concern for us as regulator

Early treatment is key to children recovering from eating disorders

Your article on 45% of primary teachers encountering eating disorders in primary schools should alarm policymakers, but it will not surprise those of us working in clinical and rehabilitation services (Almost half of primary teachers in England see pupils with eating disorders, survey finds, 31 March).Children are presenting signs of eating disorders at younger ages, and by the time they reach specialist care their conditions are often more complex and entrenched. This earlier onset reflects a combination of pressures, from social media amplifying body image concerns to unmet emotional needs in children still recovering from the pandemic, and also a system that remains too slow to respond.Teachers are increasingly the first to spot the signs. Yet they are not clinicians, and many feel ill-equipped to act

Judith Rapoport obituary

The child psychiatrist Judith Rapoport, who has died aged 92, is credited with bringing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to public awareness. Her book The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing (1989), which was translated into more than 20 languages and written in jargon-free style for a non-medical readership, was based on her groundbreaking research into the condition.People with OCD can feel their lives are upended by the feeling that they must constantly retie shoelaces, check light switches are turned off or doors are locked. Others describe the “torture” of having to perform rituals before leaving home or having to constantly wash their hands.Until the book was published, most people with OCD were unaware that others suffered similarly, and many were so embarrassed by their behaviour that they hid it from family and friends

Resident doctors’ strike has torpedoed pay rises and training posts, says Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England.The health secretary said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages but that the British Medical Association had scuppered any chance of a breakthrough when it rejected what he said was a serious offer from the government to transform medics’ conditions.Resident doctors began their longest strike yet at 7am on Tuesday after talks to end the long-running dispute collapsed. Walking out for a fourth year in a row, this is the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their campaign for “full pay restoration”.NHS officials told the Guardian the strike would cost the health service an estimated £300m, lead to appointments being cancelled, and would force patients to wait longer for tests, treatment and surgery

‘It’s heartbreaking’: resident doctors in England face halt on new training posts

After almost two years on the NHS frontline as a resident doctor, Heather Gunn says she is bracing herself for unemployment. Like many of her colleagues, she was desperate to secure one of the up to 4,500 additional training posts the government agreed to introduce in England over three years to help doctors progress into more specialised fields.The posts were promised in negotiations between the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the government in a long-running dispute over resident doctors’ pay and job security.Last week, with disagreements on pay still unresolved, the first 1,000 of these posts were withdrawn. Talks between the parties had broken down again and the union had refused to call off its 15th strike since 2023, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning and last six days