People with osteoporosis are waiting too long for essential scans because of poor access to equipment, a new study has revealed.

Osteoporosis is weakening of the bones. It means bones are more likely to break and that they take longer to heal. In this country, one in three women and one in 12 men over 50 are thought to have osteoporosis.

The survey, carried out by NOP, was answered by 200 GPs and showed that a quarter of them felt that patients were waiting too long for bone checks.

Ninety-five per cent of the group considered it important that high-risk patients should be treated for osteoporosis within a month of a fracture. However, one quarter of the group said that their patients waited on average six to twelve months for bone density checks that would help decide the course of treatment. Two thirds of GPs found their patients suffered more fractures while waiting.

The National Osteoporosis Society said that there are 250 centres with bone density testing equipment – DXA scanners.

The society believes that if each scanner did 10 scans a day, there should be adequate provision to meet the needs of the population. 'Unfortunately,' said the spokeswoman, 'access to DXA scanners varies widely across the country. This is due to the geographical location of scanners and lack of qualified staff to operate them.'

The DoH said that £1.7 billion was spent annually on services for people with osteoporosis and it was down to local health bodies to distribute services.

Government plans to cut spending on GP training have been reversed just hours after criticism from senior doctors.

The government originally promised to give strategic health authorities (SHAs) an extra £266 million for training this year. However, this was cut to £166 million, leading many SHAs to plan cutbacks in GP training.

The British Medical Association said that the cuts would have a major impact on the recruitment of GPs, and the Royal College of GPs also voiced concerns.

The DoH held emergency talks on the matter on 20 May. Health minister John Hutton insisted there would be no drop in trainee GP numbers, adding: 'If the current planned allocation for training doesn't meet the needs of SHAs then we will top up accordingly.'

Almost half the ties worn by doctors at New York Hospital Queen's contain dangerous bacteria, which can cause dangerous conditions such as pneumonia and blood infections, research has found.

Of the 42 doctors’ ties examined, one in three contained the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, of which a resistant form is the hospital superbug MRSA.

Dr Steven Nurkin of the New York hospital looked into the issue for New Scientist and said:

‘Studies such as this remind us about what we may bring to our patients' bedside. Being well dressed adds an aura of professionalism and has been correlated with higher patient confidence. Senior physicians and hospital administrators often encourage staff to wear neckties in order to help promote this valuable relationship, but in so doing, they may also be facilitating the spread of infectious organisms.’

However, infection control expert Ed Mangini, a colleague of Dr Nurkin, thinks ties are unlikely to be a major culprit:

‘The contribution that ties make to the transmission of infection is minor compared with that of hands,’ he told New Scientist. ‘If we could just get people to consistently wash their hands between patients we would cut down on transmission of infection dramatically.’

The news follows last year’s annual conference of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors, where calls were made for GPs to wear shorter ties or switch over to bow ties (as modelled by Michael Dixon, NHS Alliance chairman).