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Patients seeing the same GP ‘key to reducing hospital admissions’
11:40 GPs are the profession most likely to claim on their car insurance for the fourth year running, according to figures from Gocompare.com reported in London Love Business.
The research found that 12.58% of GPs made a claim, over double the national average of 6%. The top ten was dominated by medical professions and included: hospital consultant, outreach worker, hospital doctor, surgeon, health visitor, insurance consultant, psychotherapist, dental surgeon and psychologist.
According to London Loves Business, Dr Craig Knight, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, who specialises in the Psychology of working environments said: ‘Jobs in the health sector seem likely to attract high-risk car accident factors for a number of reasons.
‘Firstly, the roles carry a significantly raised degree of cognitive load – making decisions that will affect somebody’s chances of sustained well-being or survival which can lead to distracting thoughts whilst driving.
‘Secondly, almost all of the professions in the top 10 are working with clients who themselves are typically stressed, adding to the demanding nature of their job. Stress has a level of contagion which doesn’t help with concentration.
‘Thirdly, health professionals are often completing short hop journeys, usually in sub/urban areas where most accidents happen. Either that or they are driving into hospital car parks, which are notorious accident black spots.’
9:35 Good morning and welcome to Pulse’s live blog!
More than half a million people in the UK could have a ‘faulty gene’ that puts them at risk of developing coronary heart disease or sudden death, a charity has warned.
The British Heart Foundation estimates that 620,000 people have the faulty gene and many of those affected would be unaware that they were at risk, the BBC reports.
According to the charity, each week around 12 ‘seemingly healthy people’ aged 35 or under are victims of sudden cardiac death with no explanation – largely due to undiagnosed heart conditions.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, BHF medical director, said: ‘The reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of people across the UK who are unaware that they could be at risk of sudden death.
‘If undetected and untreated, inherited heart conditions can be deadly and they continue to devastate families, often by taking away loved ones without warning.
‘We urgently need to fund more research to better understand these heart conditions, make more discoveries, develop new treatments and save more lives.’
