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NHS financial crisis ‘ignored’, depression and diabetes ramp up dementia risk and hearing loss drugs promise

The financial problems facing the NHS are being ignored by politicians in the run-up the general election, former NHS boss Sir David Nicholson has warned.

Sir David has told the BBC that NHS England is running up huge debts that will only become clear later in the year – bigger than the £1bn deficit the NHS faced in 2006.

Yet politicians are talking about expanding services instead of plugging the ‘financial hole’, says Sir David. He says managers will have to face up to it by freezing recruitment and rowing back on Government promises.

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More concerns about the link between chronic conditions and cognitive problems, as a study reported in The Times suggests people with both depression and type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to get dementia in later life.

Doug Brown, research and development director at the Alzheimer’s Society, said of the research: ‘This study adds to a growing body of evidence that poorly managed type 2 diabetes and depression may increase risk and suggests that, together, the two conditions could interact in a way that contributes to even greater risk.’

The first drugs to treat hearing loss problems like tinnitus could be on the market ‘in five years’, reports the Daily Mirror.

Apparently five drugs are already in the final stages of clinical testing and a further 13 are in the early stages of development, with the first new products to be approved and on the market by 2020.


          

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