By Ian Quinn
Our round up of health news headlines on Tuesday 7 September
Depending on which article you may read in today's papers, the NHS is either a bloated, over-funded haven for fat cat high earners or facing its biggest recruitment crisis in years.
The Daily Mail exposes what it claims is the NHS jobs boom, reporting that staff numbers swelled to a record high in the run up to the election as Labour went on a spending spree.
According to the paper the dramatic increase highlights the scale of the task facing chancellor George Osborne and his Liberal Democrat henchmen, as they sharpen their axes for yet more brutal spending cuts.
Elsewhere, however, the Mail reports that up to a quarter of junior doctors are leaving the NHS just two years into their training, depriving the nation of future GPs and NHS managers.
The exodus, it says, is being blamed on the European Working Time Directive, which instead of helping junior doctors catch up on their beauty sleep has left hospitals in chaos and hospital docs working night shifts galore.
Almost 1,400 junior doctors leave the NHS after foundation training rather than go on to the next stage of more specialised learning.
The Times, which splashed on the issue yesterday, carries calls from doctors' leaders calling for an urgent rethink of the directive. A letter from the heads of the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Physicians claims that as well as disillusioned staff the rules are leading to ever more disjointed care.
Long hours and lack of sleep are not good for us all though, as the papers also report.
The Guardian carries news from the medical journal Heart that unfit middle-aged men who work more than 45 hours a week are more than twice ass likely to die of heart disease as those who don't.
Meanwhile, strategically placed next to a leather-clad Keira Knightley, who clearly has been getting her beauty sleep, the Mail warns children who dont get ten hours will never make it into her catsuit, as they risk becoming obese.
Spotted a story we've missed? Let us know and we'll update the digest throughout the day...
Daily digest Daily digest
