A TEAM of specialist nurses has been set up to find the hundreds of Glaswegians at risk of missing out on care.

City health chiefs have hired five experts in helping people with learning disabilities which can prevent them from taking up offers of healthcare or seeking help when they need it.

More than one in seven women with learning disabilities have not had an up-to-date smear test compared with 74% in the general population.

And there are fears that men and women miss out on vital routine checks to prevent heart disease, often as a result of difficulties with reading, understanding or remembering the details of appointment cards.

The new specialists will sift patient lists to find people who are likely to benefit then visit them to assess what their individual needs are.

Linda Allan, a nurse consultant in learning disabilities, said: "This means we can identify the different long-term health needs of people with learning disabilities and so improve the quality of their lives."

Many people with a learning disability can't or won't approach the health service for treatment because they have difficulty communicating and friends of family caring for them will not usually have the medical knowledge to spot a problem.

In some cases a carer may believe that a symptom is just another part of the patient's disability until they are very ill.

The nurses will work with GPs to ensure patients are seen as often as necessary as well as developing new appointment cards that are easier to understand.