A coalition of health experts have drawn up a strategy to tackle the UK’s general lack of exercise across the country. Supposedly, the health complications that arise from the issue costs the economy an estimated £20bn per year, with the loss of around 37,000 lives.

The government, along with the NHS and organisation UKactive have created ‘Blueprint for an Active Britain’ a strategy to see the Department of Health, Work and Pensions to take action across the NHS, social services, public transport and the workplace to create a more physically active approach on-going to tackle the issue. Changing the public’s habits ahead of future health complications is a top priority.

A key recommendation from the pilot scheme is to introduce a trained physical activity professional into each GP surgery to help patients improve fitness, cardio-respiratory and mental health. The care will be delivered similarly to that of GPs’ access to physiotherapists for patients in need.

The coalition claim that the minimal costs to introduce the scheme will quickly off-set the on-going costs to treat in-active health issues, in that prevention is easier, and in this case cheaper, than treatment.

Tanni Grey-Thompson, UKactive’s chair, and British Paralympic champion said “We know that physical activity programmes only attract around 4% of public health funding at present. This is much lower than funding to tackle alcohol abuse, obesity and STDs, despite physical inactivity contributing to more premature deaths. It’s vital that helping people to establish good exercise habits is central to the NHS’s core business.”

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With staff shortages on the rise, and posts being left vacant, research has been carried out by the Centre for Health Economics to find more about our GP’s education in the UK.
 
Based on the research results, less than a third (31%) of current UK-educated GP trainees attended private schools, the smallest representation of all medical specialties assessed. This compares to nearly half of all surgical trainees (44%), with 37% of medical trainees overall being privately educated.
 
69% of GP trainees are female, and the workforce looks to become more female-dominated in the coming years
 

Source: http://www.gponline.com/uk-gp-trainees-likely-state-education-specialties/article/1376133

Recently published calculations have suggested that giving HIV drugs to healthy gay men on a daily basis could help to prevent new infections from taking hold.

The calculations, published in the Lancet, suggest that if daily drugs are administered to those with the highest risk of contracting HIV, the number of infected people could be cut by more than 40% in the UK.

Statistics show that gay men in London are at the highest risk of contracting HIV in the UK, with one in eight gay men living with the infection. The rest of the UK shows one in 26.

How can HIV contraction be prevented?

The simplest and one of the most effective methods of prevention is to use condoms. However, these are often ignored.

Studies show that by 2020, there will be 16,955 further cases of HIV in gay men. Tests carried out last year on 500 men examined the effects of an alternative prevention method – pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep).

The tests showed that giving men Prep drugs for a year could prevent one case in 13. That is a staggering 7,399 cases of infection.

Medical Director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, Dr Michael Brady said: “This study is really important as it demonstrates that, in a relatively short space of time, Prep could have a dramatic impact on reducing HIV transmissions.”

Prep is being evaluated by the NHS to judge whether it should be administered. 

Source: BBC Health

Latest figures from PHE (Public Health England) show that the number of flu vaccines given to patients for free at their GP practice has risen this year in comparison to previous years.

Data provided by PHE and RCGP (Royal College of General Practitioners) previously suggested that the number of vaccines was declining, causing concern that the public may be avoiding the jab or visiting their local pharmacy for the vaccination instead.

The data shows a rise in vaccinations of 1.8% in pregnant women, 1% in age 65+ patients, and 0.5% in 2 year-old children. There has however, been a 2% decrease in vaccinations for patients under 65 years old with long term health conditions.

PHE are urging those with existing health conditions to receive the jab as this will prevent the virus from circulating.

Dr Richard Pebody, head of flu surveillance for PHE said:

‘It’s not too late for people in "at risk" groups to get the vaccine for free. This includes people with health conditions, even those that are well managed, such as asthma, diabetes, heart, lung, liver or renal diseases, those with weakened immune systems, as well as older people and pregnant women. Anyone in these groups who hasn’t yet had the vaccine should contact their GP, pharmacist or midwife.’

The NHS is being called on by GP leaders to bring a halt to time wasted due to the need to rearrange patients’ missed referral appointments.

Research shows that 4.5% of GP appointments are taken up because hospital referrals are being missed and GPs have to re-book them on their patients’ behalf.

GPC chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul claims that this is as many as 14 million appointments in a year being used to re-book missed referrals. He said this is a ‘scandalous waste,’ which is ‘denying other ill patients access to a GP.’

 Dr Nagpaul has requested NHS England to create new guidelines implementing an automatic re-booking system to make patients and GPs’ lives easier.

Dr Nagpaul also said: ‘we are trying to sort this out at a national level as well as putting pressure on CCGs. But we need NHS England to direct CCGs to ensure every provider stops automatic requests for a re-referral.’

The GPC asks all GPs to contacts hospital and CCGs and request that this new system is put in place.