The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has accepted recommendations for NHS staff to take every opportunity to promote good health. The NHS Future Forum called for action to ensure that "every contact counts" in helping address the impact of alcohol misuse, poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise. See here for the Forum's Public Health report and coverage from the BBC and The Telegraph.
The report warns millions of opportunities to improve patients' health and well-being are missed - every day GPs and practice nurses see over 800,000 people, dentists see over 250,000 and 1.6 million people visit a pharmacy. A recent report by Cancer Research UK suggested 40% of cancers were preventable through lifestyle changes, and over one million hospital admissions each year are alcohol-related - and rising.
However, Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the RCGP, expressed concerns suggesting that not every contact is an appropriate time to question lifestyle behaviours. Other concerns have highlighted that helping patients to change does not address the wider causes such as health inequalities, poverty and poor housing.
Making "every contact count" is based on brief intervention principles of behaviour change - motivating an individual to explore the pros and cons of unhealthy behaviours. This often leads to change where an individual further realises the benefits of acting, or the risks of not changing.
Brief interventions for alcohol - or 'Identification and Brief Advice' (IBA) - have been shown to be the most effective health behaviour intervention. However challenges to mainstreaming IBA appear to include staff's fears about raising the subject, although NICE suggests 62% of people will accept alcohol advice when offered it.
North East Lincolnshire have developed an Every Contact Counts website and the West Midlands have developed an E Learning package. Yorkshire and Humber have developed a competence framework to underpin the Every Contact Counts agenda.
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