Digital Health Christmas Coffee Briefing 🎄

Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”.

👇 News

🎅 Online pharmacy Pharmacy2U has warned that requests to NHS 111 for urgent repeat prescriptions are set to spike in the coming month, as busy festive schedules collide with seasonal pressure on the NHS. Based on the latest NHSE statistics, around one in five (20%) enquiries made to NHS 111 online in 2025 are for urgent repeat prescriptions, up from just one in 15 (6.6%) three years ago.

🔔 NHS Wales staff are urging those facing festive financial strain, loneliness, or feelings of grief to use its free online mental health support service, SilverCloud. SilverCloud is available via self-referral – without seeing a GP – to anyone aged 16 or over dealing with mild-to-moderate mental health issues including anxiety, stress, depression and sleeplessness.

⛄A trio of UK-based academics claim that lessons from the Covid pandemic can help ease the pressure faced by the NHS this Christmas. The experts, writing in the BMJ, say that a three-pronged approach of administering flu vaccines, boosting support so that ill people can stay at home, and improving ventilation and air quality would help to protect people from flu.

🎁The MHRA has released tips for staying safe when it comes to medicines, and medical devices this Christmas. The advice includes a warning that cranberry products, including juices and sauces, may increase the likelihood of bruising or bleeding in people taking warfarin, while tyramine-rich foods – such as aged cheeses, cured meats and dark chocolate – can cause problems for people taking medicines like monoamine oxidase inhibitors, a type of antidepressant.

🍷For those who have over-indulged this Christmas, Get a Drip clinic offer vitamin IV drips, vitamin injections and longevity treatments including a detox drip containing antioxidants. The firm was founded by Richard Chambers after he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 18-year-old and admitted to intensive care. After benefitting from IV nutritional therapy administered in hospital and continued privately, he was inspired to set up the business.

🎄NHS data reveals that there were more than 200,000 A&E attendances last winter for conditions that could have been dealt with elsewhere – including 8,669 attendances for itchy skin and 96,998 for a sore throat. The NHS has released a short film titled “24 Hours Not In A&E” as part of a campaign to help people avoid unnecessary visits to A&E departments and GPs.

❓ Did you know that?

Research from conversational AI voice companion firm Sentai, reveals that loneliness and falls the biggest fears for families with elderly relatives this Christmas. A national representative study of 2,000 Brits found that 65% are concerned about their loved ones feeling lonely.

When asked to rank what worries families most, 47% of families said that they worry most about falls, while 41% are most fearful of loneliness.

Paul Statham, chief executive of Sentai, said: “Christmas is almost synonymous with family time and being together but this can heighten feelings of loneliness when people aren’t able to be with those they care about.

“The consequences of not tackling this can be detrimental. Many families want nothing more than to help and support their loved ones but the challenges of daily life mean that isn’t always so simple.

“One of the biggest concerns not only reflected in our data but in the conversations we have with Sentai users is the fear of becoming a burden.

“Companionship tools, like Sentai, mean families can maintain connection without always having to be in the same room.”

Age UK research, published on 4 December 2025, indicates that more than a million older people in the UK could face Christmas Day alone.

The charity’s polling of more than 2,600 people aged over 65 revealed 11% will eat dinner alone, while 5% will not see or speak to anyone during the day.

📖 What we’re reading

The BMJ Christmas article, published on 11 December 2025, examinesthe surge in people, especially younger people, turning to AI chatbots for companionship, emotional intimacy, and support, and why this presents a concern particularly around loneliness and mental wellbeing at Christmas time.

AI chatbot systems, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, are used increasingly as confidants of choice. The article says that while this may be seen as a positive democratisation of emotional support and care at the point of need, there is growing concern surrounding potential psychological and social harms, particularly pertaining to social isolation and loneliness.

The article warns that “we might be witnessing a generation learning to form emotional bonds with entities that lack capacities for human-like empathy, care, and relational attunement” and says that evidence based strategies for reducing social isolation and loneliness are paramount.

In light of this evidence, the article says that it seems prudent to consider problematic chatbot use as a new environmental risk factor when assessing a patient with mental state disturbance.

🚨 Upcoming events

30 January 2025, virtual event – NHS Digital Transformation 2025