Petition - NHS services for people who do sport or exercise

Dear All,

I'm sure you all thoroughly enjoyed London 2012. For myself as a Sports Physician, I was working at the Olympic Stadium on the track, and was able to see much of the athletics up close. It was truly inspiring.

With the games over, focus has rightly shifted to understanding how we can best ensure there is a genuine legacy generated from the games. The hope is that increased sports participation will increase the health of the UK.

The NHS can help this legacy by delivering services for people who want to do exercise or sport to improve their health. As well as encouraging patients to be active, have you considered taking up some regular exercise yourself?

One adverse consequence of exercise is occasional injury. In 2005 a new medical speciality - Sport & Exercise Medicine was created to provide medical support to anyone from elite sport, to grassroots sports, school sports and people who just want to exercise to stay fit.

These services are in their infancy, and a few have been set up in NHS hospitals in London, Birmingham and elsewhere but we need a Musculoskeletal Physician or Sports Physician in every district in the country.

Please, if you support this initiative please sign my petition asking parliament to discuss this, and also forward this message to your friends,

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36185

Many thanks,

Dr Leon Creaney
BMedSci MB ChB MRCGP MRCP FFSEM
Consultant in Sport & Exercise Medicine

done

Please distribute the text and link to anywhere you feel appropriate. Any secret Bikeradar members out there (other than Hatbeard)?

Can LCC etc help?

@stonehedge if you send me a link on FB I'll put it up. I don't know how to do that otherwise #idiotwithakeyboard

Done

Me too.

Thanks ladies and gents. I've emailed Lucy at LCC to ask if they can support.

Lets see if we can get a much needed petition rolling....

will get this to pct colleagues and others for you.j

Email has gone to all nhs.net email address holders but might not have gone to PCTs that don't use NHS.net...cheers Jay

Signed and posted on my FB page. Nice work! Thanks.

signed

Shameless bump.

Has nobody here been to the doctor with a sporting injury only to be told to stop doing sport with no advice on treatment and no referral to physio etc?

Signed.

Thanks mate

If by some miracle funding is achieved it will be in place of another service that is currently provided. No one votes for more taxation so it's either sack a few thousand more idle NHS managers who have time to look at LFGSS or do without something that may be viewed as less of a priority.

Actualy things are completely and utterly f*cked nhs funding wise at the moment despite it not being much on the news. Various mechanisms for rationing are having a catastrophic effect on waiting times, eligability for procedures and service availability.

Given this it's understandable that people who are generally fitter and better (because of their sport) get less service than the 80year old who is curently being denied a cataract operation until she is near blind or dead http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9470797/Cataract-patients-being-wrongly-denied-eye-surgery.html and that's without the 33% increase in long waits for A&E beds etc etc.

What we really need to do is increase the number of long distance driving, heavy drinking smokers who drop dead without chronic disease.

ps I'll sign

Thanks for sig.

Signed. The irony is, of course, that well, fit people use the NHS and its resources less.

done

Agreed Pete. We offer good value for money though. Overall...

A&E attendances are very expensive so could we all stop falling off our bikes please? ;-)

Agreed Pete. We offer good value for money though.

Agreed. And petition signed. The depressing aspect is that in terms of provision of medical care, the NHS is utterly swamped with firefighting without the resources to take a broader view and get involved in prevention rather than cure (or in most cases, damage limitation). Sports and Exercise Medicine I fear will be seen as a low priority as it will be seen as a 'luxury' compared to cancer, heart disease and social care for the elderly.

Personally I would love to see a government white paper addressing a long term strategy for public involvement in exercise and sport with a view to reaping the benefits for all, no matter what age or health status. An aspect of this would naturally be to support the necessary services to advise, educate and rehabilitate following injury.

I wish GPs had more knowledge or sports. I should go private and get myself my own doctor.. a Ferrari or Fuentes perhaps.. anyone?

Need to sort this hip/left leg out now. Actually sod it, season's almost over.

I wish GPs had more knowledge or sports. I should go private and get myself my own doctor..
Or at the very least, appreciate how important sport is to even non-elite level people.

I was entirely unable to get my collarbone plated on the NHS, even though there is a wealth of evidence that plating provides the best functional outcome, as I am only an amateur.

Need to sort this hip/left leg out now. Actually sod it, season's almost over.
Off season is the best time for an op, no?

Shameless bump.

Has nobody here been to the doctor with a sporting injury only to be told to stop doing sport with no advice on treatment and no referral to physio etc?

Only to stop while something is healing, though I had to push my GP hard to refer me for physio once, and then had to wait some for some time.

Or at the very least, appreciate how important sport is to even non-elite level people.

I was entirely unable to get my collarbone plated on the NHS, even though there is a wealth of evidence that plating provides the best functional outcome, as I am only an amateur.

Off season is the best time for an op, no?

I don't know what's wrong with it yet. It was only one race at a slightly lower position. Probably just a trapped nerve.

EPO on NHS FTW

If by some miracle funding is achieved it will be in place of another service that is currently provided. No one votes for more taxation so it's either sack a few thousand more idle NHS managers who have time to look at LFGSS or do without something that may be viewed as less of a priority.

ps I'll sign

Signed...by an idle NHS manager who clearly has nothing better to do than look at LFGSS!!!