Men’s use of General Practice: A 10-point improvement plan
The NHS Confederation has published an excellent new briefing, Health and Sport – a winning team, which outlines how the NHS can work in partnership with local sporting bodies to harness the expertise, profile and attraction of sport clubs to reach greater numbers of people and promote sport as a way to improve people’s health. The briefing includes numerous references to men’s health and reinforces other studies that have also made a strong case for health services working more with sport to engage men in health.
In recent years, the idea of taking services to ‘where men are’ (workplaces, pubs, betting shops, faith settings, sports stadia) has become a regular feature of men’s health work. A great deal of innovative and effective work has now taken place in these settings and the potential for more is clearly significant. But we must not also neglect the importance of making traditional primary care services as accessible for men as possible. After all, for the foreseeable future, these will remain the most important entry points for men into the health system. Read the rest of this entry »