Our roundup of the health news headlines on Tuesday 3 January.
You're probably fatter than you think, according to the Daily Mail, after a Bupa study found that four in ten obese people consider themselves a ‘healthy size' and are ‘blissfully unaware' of the health risks involved with being overweight.
In a charming effort to further drive home the findings of the report, the paper quizzes five ‘ordinary' people who hadn't realised their weight might be putting them at risk. Happy New Year - you are at considerable risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and a host of other diseases!
The Mail is also aghast that women were being charged £50 to check if their breast implants were the ‘deadly' PIP brand that have made the headlines this week after top doctors and toxicologists warned they are susceptible to rupture and should be removed.
Bad breast implants is top of the Telegraph's agenda too, as shadow health minister Andy Burnham said that private clinics rather than the NHS should pick up the £150 million cost of removing PIPs. The shadow health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Government should begin negotiating with the cosmetic surgery industry, suggesting they need insurance policies that cover aftercare so that the NHS won't have to foot the bill.
The Guardian reveals concerns over the care of people with learning disabilities. A Mencap report accusses the NHS of institutionalised discrimination which resulted in the deaths of 74 people with learning disabilities. The newspaper highlights the ‘appalling neglect' of Lisa Sharpe, a 21-year-old girl with learning disabilities who in the last four days before her death received no painkillers and was left with a drip that had run dry. Investigating a complaint by her mother, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled that the failings in Lisa's care amounted to ‘service failure' though there was not enough evidence to say the failings led directly to her death.
