Daily digest April 13 2015

NHS services to require passports

Patients will have to take their passports to hospital as part of a clampdown on health tourism, the Mail Online reports.

Hospitals are being told to ensure everyone proves they are entitled to free NHS treatment.

Those at outpatients clinics and in emergency departments will have to fill in forms stating their passport number and expiry date, and say how much time they have spent abroad, if they are to be admitted on to a ward.

Read more on the Daily Mail website: click here

Rise in bad backs among the young

The number of young people living with back or neck pain has risen to nearly half in a year - caused by long spells sitting at computers, according to the Mirror.

The British Chiropractic Association found that 45% of 16 to 24-year-olds have neck or back pain, compared with 28% of 18 to 24-year-olds last year.

Read more on the Daily Mirror website: click here

Women fail to act quickly on cancer symptoms

Nearly one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer after spotting a potential symptom had waited for longer than a month before seeing their GP, jeopardising their chances of effective treatment, a poll has found.

Reported in the Guardian, the research by YouGov for Breast Cancer Care found that one in 20 women wait more than six months, with potentially fatal consequences.

Nearly one-third of the women who waited over a month to visit their GP believed their symptom was not a serious issue.

Read more on the Guardian website: click here

Being lonely can seriously damage health

Loneliness can have a massive impact on a person’s health, according to a study.

The Daily Express reports on a study conducted by scientists at the University of Chicago, which found that social isolation did not just affect older people, the widowed or retired. Researchers found that up to 80% of Americans under the age of 18 reported being lonely at least some of the time and 40% aged over 65 complained they regularly felt lonely.

This sense of isolation could have a serious effect on both mental and physical health, according to Louise Hawkly of the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago.

Read more on the Express website: click here