Martin McKee
martinmckee.bsky.social
Martin McKee
@martinmckee.bsky.social

Prof of European Public Health LSHTM
Co-Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policy
Member Independent SAGE
Past President BMA & EUPHA
Committed to 🇬🇧 rejoining 🇪🇺

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mckee.martin .. more

Clifford Martin McKee, CBE, is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Source: Wikipedia
Public Health 40%
Medicine 24%
Many thanks to the amazing @michaelspicer.bsky.social for bringing my @bmj.com paper to life! The actual paper is here:

www.bmj.com/content/bmj/...
Carol of the Bells in #
Kyiv subway.

Voices of the Embassies of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom came together to perform Shchedryk in the Kyiv metro as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.

Thankful to everyone who stands with us!

7/ Bottom line: Bulgaria has a real opportunity for change, but turning policy into impact requires stable leadership and consistent follow‑through. Read the whole paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cervical cancer in Bulgaria since EU accession in 2007: a struggle in the face of political instability
Bulgaria has one of the highest cervical cancer incidence rates in the EU, driven by persistently low screening uptake and HPV vaccination coverage. D…
www.sciencedirect.com

6/ Our findings offer lessons for other countries:
✔ external frameworks (like EU policy) help provide continuity
✔ screening must be organised, not opportunistic
✔ tackling misinformation is essential for HPV vaccine uptake
✔ underserved groups need targeted strategies

5/ If these reforms are implemented effectively, Bulgaria could finally see major reductions in cervical cancer incidence, but success hinges on sustained political commitment, funding, and coherent system‑wide coordination.

4/ There is renewed hope: the 2023 National Plan for Combating Cancer and the 2025–2030 HPV Prevention Programme propose organised screening, gender‑neutral vaccination, and stronger public awareness efforts.

3/ Since EU accession, Bulgaria has launched multiple initiatives, but political instability, fragmented governance, and weak implementation have repeatedly undermined progress.

2/ Screening uptake remains low and HPV vaccination rates are among the lowest in Europe. In 2021, only 8% of eligible girls received the first HPV dose. These gaps are driving avoidable illness and deaths.

🧵 1/ Our new @horizoneu.bsky.social funded paper from @cbigscreen.bsky.social just published in Health Policy. With Bulgarian colleagues we examine why Bulgaria continues to face one of the highest cervical cancer rates in the EU, despite the disease being highly preventable.

10/ Bottom line: We show that improving hospital work environments and staffing is both feasible and effective and leads to better wellbeing for nurses and safer care for patients. Read the paper here: journals.lww.com/lww-medicalc...
journals.lww.com

9/ We also demonstrate that Magnet principles can be implemented at scale in Europe. With appropriate support, hospitals can make rapid progress and achieve meaningful improvements in nurses’ working conditions.

8/ These results strengthen the evidence that burnout among nurses is not an individual failing, but a consequence of organisational conditions. Improving the work environment, not individual measures like resilience training, makes the biggest difference.

7/ Staffing adequacy emerged as an independent, powerful driver of nurse wellbeing.
Each 10‑point increase in nurses reporting adequate staffing resulted in:
• ↓ 5‑point reduction in burnout
• ↓ 3.6‑point reduction in intent to leave
• Fewer missed care activities
• Better patient safety ratings

6/ Hospitals achieving >25% of the intended improvements saw the greatest gains:
• Burnout down 6.3 points
• Intent to leave down 7.6 points
• Unfavourable quality of care down 6.4 points
• Unfavourable patient safety down 3.7 points

5/ Key finding: Better implementation of Magnet targets strongly associated with better outcomes for nurses.
Every 10‑point rise in implementation linked to:
• ↓ 2.1‑point reduction in burnout
• ↓ 2.7‑point reduction in nurses intending to leave
• Improvements in perceived quality and patient safety

4/ Despite COVID‑19 disruptions, hospitals implemented substantial organisational changes. Many achieved large increases in the proportion of Magnet model targets fully implemented—some by nearly 50 percentage points within two years.

3/ Magnet4Europe adapted the US Magnet model for European settings, focusing on empowering nurses, strengthening leadership, improving interprofessional relationships, and embedding evidence‑based practice and outcome monitoring.

2/ We studied 56 hospitals in six European countries, measuring changes in nurse burnout, staffing adequacy, intent to leave, and perceptions of care quality and patient safety. Over 7,700 nurses participated across baseline and follow‑up surveys.

🧵1/ Our new paper from @horizoneu.bsky.social funded Magnet4Europe just published in Medical Care. The largest international organisational intervention to date aimed at improving nurse wellbeing and the quality and safety of hospital care. Important findings for nurse retention & quality of care
An English local council innovates, evaluates what it did, finds it works (replicating an earlier study in Scotland) … and all councils are told by the Labour government not to try it. What message does this convey? Another victory for ideology & cowardice

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Councils warned against adopting four-day week
Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has told council leaders to not introduce four-day working weeks.
www.bbc.co.uk

One to keep just in case you come across anyone over the holidays even momentarily thinking about voting Reform. The Russia connection
Another outstanding work by @ledbydonkeys.org 👇
The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.
Here’s ten of the best papers I published this year (thread).
1. A rapid systematic review of the UK literature on physician associates. With @martinmckee.bsky.social
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
Physician associates and anaesthetic associates in UK: rapid systematic review of recent UK based research
Objective To summarise research on the efficacy and safety of UK physician associates and anaesthetic associates in the context of an ongoing policy review. Design Rapid systematic review. Search st...
www.bmj.com

And from me too!

Reposted by Martin McKee

This is the sweetest thing and I hope they keep hanging out periodically

I’m really proud to be a patron of HealthProm, supporting the great work they do in Ukraine, Afghanistan and other places. This year’s Christmas appeal supports work with refugee child just arrived in UK. Please support them if you can

www.justgiving.com/campaign/hea...
HealthProm's Christmas Appeal 2025
This year, we are asking for your support to stand alongside refugee children who have recently arrived in the UK after fleeing conflict, instability and loss.
www.justgiving.com

Reposted by Martin McKee

RFK Jr.’s anti-science, anti-vaccine agenda is “spreading like an infection all its own throughout the globe.”

Thank you to @melodyschreiber.com and @katlay.bsky.social for staying on top of RFK Jt.’s continued attacks on vaccines.

H/t @nerdparty.bsky.social for the heads up.
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com

Serious questions about the new US-funded trial of Hep B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau in @theguardian.com with quotes from me, @gavinyamey.bsky.social @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social Andrew Pollard and others. My view: “a policy desperately searching for evidence”

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com
The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.

And here is what we wrote

www.bmj.com/content/bmj/...
www.bmj.com

Reposted by Ruairidh Milne

Over a week ago @elstorreele.bsky.social & I raised serious questions about the still unpublished (if it actually exists) U.K. US Pharma “deal”.
Pleased to see that @chionwurah.bsky.social has written to DHSC asking the same questions as we did.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/13...
Life sciences: Science and Tech Committee presses government for details on US trade deal - Committees - UK Parliament
The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Chair, Dame Chi Onwurah, has written to Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health, and Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science and Technology, f...
committees.parliament.uk