By Nigel Praities
Our roundup of news headlines on Friday 15 January.
A new eye test developed by British researchers could help diagnose Alzheimer's disease, according to The Telegraph.
The simple technique – published in Cell Death and Disease journal – uses an infra-red camera and some eye drops to highlight nerve damage in the eye.
The rising birth rate across Britain is leading to a shortage of midwives, the Daily Mail warns today. The Nursing and Midwifery Council has called on health authorities to ‘act swiftly' after they found midwife shortages in many areas of the country faced with a spiralling number of births.
Conservative health spokesman Andrew Lansley is in trouble after being accused of being ‘hand in glove' with private providers of healthcare.
The Times reports Mr Lansley received £21,000 in November from Caroline Nash, wife of John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, according to official registers.
The newspaper says the company is ‘well-placed' to benefit from a Conservative promise to make it easier for private providers to perform NHS work.
A Labour peer and Government adviser warned there would be hospital closures as the NHS underwent a ‘massive reconfiguration' because of reductions in funding.
Ironically – or perhaps not - Lord Carter of Coles made the claims while opening a new private hospital from the company Circle in Bath.
The controversy over out-of-hours provision continues, as the Times reports from the inquest into the death of David Gray, a patient given a fatal overdose by German locum doctor Dr Daniel Ubani. The inquest heard Dr Ubanai was ‘dithery' and ‘muttering to himself' as he administered a fatal dose of painkillers.
And finally, The Daily Mail reveals how the average woman burns 48000 calories a year – by shopping. The paper says the average woman covers 2.96 miles on a shopping trip and spends around 2.5 hours browsing in stores every week, according to the study, commissioned by (ahem) Debenhams.
Spotted a story we've missed? Let us know and we'll update the digest throughout the day...
Daily Digest
