Daily digest June 23 2015

Letting dementia patients drive is like giving them a gun, warn GPs

Countless people with dementia are continuing to get behind the wheel after slipping through the cracks of an outdated driving licence system, say doctors.

A senior GP said allowing some patients to drive was as dangerous as letting them 'out with a shotgun'.

As reported in the Daily Mail, leading members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will today call for an investigation into how far dementia impairs driving.

Peter Holden, a GP and member of the BMA council, said that the licensing system and medical procedures are not keeping pace with the nation's ageing population.

'My great concern is that one day someone will, god forbid, put a car into a line of children,' he said.

To read more go to the Daily Mail website

Millions more to be tested for cancer

Cancer tests are to be extended to more than half a million extra people each year under new guidelines to overhaul Britain's shameful treatment record, the Times has reported.

New GP guidance means that the chance of patients being referred for tests will almost double, leading to two million cancer tests each year.

The guidelines, issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, are part of an effort to close a 'cancer gap' between Britain and the rest of Europe.

At present, Britain is underperforming compared with the European average, with an estimated 10,000 extra deaths related to cancer per year.

Read more on the Times website 

Sick children denied the right to die at home

Terminally ill children are being denied the right to die at home due to staff shortages and inadequate training, a report warns today.

As reported in the Mirror, nearly 50,000 children live with life-threatening illness in the UK and 2,500 die each year as a result.

Many are forced into hospices or hospitals because they cannot get round-the-clock care at home.

The Royal College of Nursing found 31% of children's nurses do not have the resources to deliver adequate care in the home, and 57% have had to send a child to a hospice who had asked to die at home. Some 20% have never had specific training in this area.

It is not known exactly how many children's nursing posts have been cut, but community nurses overall are down 8% since 2010.

Read more on the Mirror website