NHS staff to be given 'duty' to promote good health

An independent panel of government advisers says health professionals should take every opportunity to discuss diet, exercise, smoking and drinking habits.

At first glance this may seem like a good idea. Lack of physical activity, poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking is costing the NHS a fortune. GP's, practice nurses and pharmacists are at the front line in terms of having contact time with people with poor health. But are they the right people to be providing lifestyle advice.

I would argue absolutely not. How much time will they have available to discuss lifestyle changes? Anyone who works in this field will be aware that you can't just tell someone what to do. You need to understand what their readiness to change is, what barriers they may face, how confident they are that they can make changes and what support they may need. Unless health professionals are to be given training in areas such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy then they are likely to do more harm than good.

Are health professionals in a position to identify patients who want to make lifestyle changes and then refer them onto specialist smoking cessation, exercise referral programmes, etc? Absolutely. What waits to be seen is whether these sort of initiatives will receive the funding, or if the government will continue to look for what it considers to be a cheap, quick fix.

BBC article "Ministers back call to quiz patients on lifestlye"