#GPnews: 41% of doctors ‘have fallen asleep at the wheel after night shift’

16:55 More than two in five doctors in the UK (41%) say they have fallen asleep at the wheel when driving home from a night shift, a survey has indicated.

The Doctors.net.uk survey of over a thousand doctors also found that on average, each respondent knew six colleagues who had fallen asleep while driving and more than one in four knew a doctor who had died in a road accident while driving after a night shift, reports the Guardian.

15:40 Scans have revealed how the brain develops during adolescence, giving clues to mental health disorders.

Cambridge University’s department of psychiatry scanned the brains 300 people between the ages of 14 and 24, finding that the area of the brain associated with complex thought processing changes the most during the teenage years.

The study also found that the genes involved in the brain’s development during adolescence were similar to those associated to many mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Research Associate Dr Kirstie Whitaker told the BBC how the discovery ‘has shown a pathway from the biology of cells in the area through to how people who are in their late teenage years might then have their first episode of psychosis’.

14:56 The Health Service Ombudsman, which makes final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS in England, UK Government departments and some other UK public organisations, has set out a new service charter for patients.

The Ombudsman said this would help patients know what to expect from their complaints process.

It also sets out a number of expectations on the patient, including that they should ‘complain to the organisation you are unhappy with first, so it has a chance to put things right’.

13:35 On a similar topic, Japanese researchers have found that binge-watching TV raises the risk of fatal pulmonary embolism.

Studying the long-term health of viewers, the researchers found that for every extra two hours of TV watched per day the risk of a deadly blood clot in the lungs increased by 40%.

In response to the risks, the scientists recommended that instead of watching back-to-back episodes of TV box sets people should get up and go for a walk and stretch every hour, reports BBC Newsbeat.

11:52 Pokemon Go could be an ‘innovative solution’ to beating obesity and diabetes, reports the Sun.

The GPS-powered smartphone game, which launched in the UK the other week and apparently has more daily users than Twitter, is credited with getting youngsters off their backsides and out walking to find elusive virtual monsters.

Dr Tom Yates, physical activity and sedentary behaviour expert at the University of Leicester, told the paper: ‘If there is something out there which is getting people off the sofa and pounding the streets then this game could be an innovative solution for rising obesity levels.

‘Walking is hugely underrated yet it is man’s best and the cheapest form of exercise. It’s an easy and accessible way to get active and help maintain a healthy body.’

09:34 The very young, elderly and pregnant women can safely eat raw or lightly cooked eggs, a report from the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food has said.

The committee found there was ‘very low’ risk of salmonella from UK eggs produced under the ‘Lion’ code, reports the Guardian.

The advice up to now has always been that ‘eating raw eggs, eggs with runny yolks or any food that is uncooked or only lightly cooked and contains raw eggs may cause food poisoning’.