Pressures on GPs in England and Wales are so great they feel they are failing patients and potentially providing unsafe care, doctors leaders say.

British Medical Association GP leader Dr Chaand Nagpaul said doctors were having to rush patients to keep up. and he said this could be potentially dangerous in terms of identifying cancer and getting medicines right. But ministers in England responded by promising they would invest in services to address the concerns.

The frank admission by Dr Nagpaul comes as the BMA releases the results of an online survey of nearly 2,900 practices in England and 145 in Wales – about one in three of the total in both nations. In England it showed that 55% thought the quality of the service their practices was providing had deteriorated in the past 12 months. Some 68% said their workload was unmanageable, while 92% reported demand had increased in the past year. Similar findings were reported in Wales.

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Depression in men is as deadly as obesity and heart disease, according to new research.

Scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Technical University of Munich and the German Centre for Cardiovascular Disease found that around 15% of deaths related to cardiovascular disease were caused by mental illness.

Alarmingly, men who suffer from depression were nearly just as likely to develop heart problems as if they were suffering from high cholesterol.

And only those with high blood pressure and smokers are at a greater risk, according to the report, which was published in science journal Atherosclerosis. Researcher Professor Karl-Heinz Ladwig said: “Our investigation shows that the risk of a fatal cardiovascular disease due to depression is almost as great as that due to elevated cholesterol levels or obesity.”

The research team tested 3,428 male patients between the ages of 45 and 74, observing their development over a decade.

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Help Musicians UK has revealed the findings of a survey conducted as part of its MAD (Music and Depression) campaign.

Conducted by the University of Westminster and MusicTank, the survey explored the mental health issues faced by musicians and the wider music industry and asked the question: ‘Can music make you sick?’

Of the 2,211 musicians who took the survey, 71% believed they have experienced anxiety and panic attacks and 65% reported they had suffered from depression. This suggests musicians may be up to three times more likely to suffer from the illness compared to the general public.

Respondents attributed this to the poor working conditions within the industry including: the difficulty of sustaining a living, anti-social working hours, exhaustion and the inability to plan their time/future.

The results also revealed that 54.8% of respondents feel that there is a gap in the provision of services for musicians, with 46.6% wanting to see a dedicated counselling service for musicians.

The survey is the largest of its kind in the UK to date. The majority of respondents (66.2%) were between the ages of 18-35, with a relatively even gender split (55.2% male, 43.9% female). The largest group of respondents described themselves as musicians (39%) and worked across a wide variety of genres. Other professions represented included DJs, live crew and music management.

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