Offer free swimming to help the nation’s health, MPs told

People across the country should be offered free swimming to help drive up the health of the nation, MPs have heard.

The House of Common’s Health and Social Care Committee heard that public health – the part of the health system involved with preventing disease and promoting health – has been “decimated” in recent years but there are a number of personalised approaches which could help improve people’s lifestyles.

Professor Sir Anthony Everington, a GP and former chairman at Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group, told MPs a personalised approach could mean telling a patient to get a dog rather than putting them on weight-loss injections.

He highlighted how in Tower Hamlets, east London, women and girls aged 16 and over, and men aged 55 and over, can access a free swimming programme.

Sir Anthony said: “I ask the question, actually, why couldn’t this happen in every swimming pool in the country that, on the whole, (are) substantially empty quite a lot of the day?

“It is the added services that are really important.”

On weight loss injections, he added: “The drive now for everyone to have mounjaro and all these injections is enormous … we have no idea the long-term effects.

“Yet again, we’re seeing biomedicalisation and the drive, whereas actually, going back to that personalised approach to an individual – it might be that what somebody needs is a dog to walk every day, that is the thing that’s going to get their weight down, get them motivated to change their lifestyle.”

He criticised Britain as the “sick note capital of Europe” and described how people who are signed off as sick can be “deconditioned” – a decline in the body’s function due to physical inactivity.

“One of the things that can really help somebody with heart disease is to have a job – the worst thing you can do them is to sign them off sick,” Sir Anthony said.

“We now are the sick note capital of Europe.

“My longest consultations actually are with people who are asking for a sick note, because I know actually, if they get into that sick culture, a deconditioning culture, similar to what happens in the elderly, that’s a disaster.

“I know that somebody with diabetes and heart disease, the best thing they can do is around activity, and the best thing they can do often is actually good finances within the family, so they can buy healthy food.”

He added: “I shop in the local supermarket. You see what people have in their trolleys. It’s just appalling.

“Most of what you see in supermarkets is not food. They call it ultra processed food. No, it’s not food, full stop.

“So, supporting patients in their managing their finance is really important.

“It’s a widely-held belief that healthy food is more expensive. Well, if you see the trolley full of coke and cakes and biscuits, I could spend the same money and give a really healthy diet for the whole family.”

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee, said: “Public health has been absolutely decimated. The budgets were meant to be ring-fenced, but they weren’t. And we used to have fantastic public health teams in our in our localities … so it’s a real shame that that’s been lost.”

MPs are investigating progress in the prevention of heart disease.

The investigation was launched after a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) which found that fewer than half of eligible people take part in the NHS Health Check, which is designed to spot people at higher risk of getting certain health problems.

The NAO concluded that the system, also known as a midlife MOT, “is not working effectively” and called for a review of how the checks are provided in England.

Experts from the Department of Health and Social Care told MPs that a number of pilots are taking place to try and broaden access to the check, including offering tests at home – such as at-home cholesterol checks and workplace assessments.

They said they had success with pop-up sessions in places like shopping centres, although they also described a reluctance of some people to attend the checks.

MPs also heard about financial incentives for GPs, namely an incentive which has been put in the spotlight recently called “advice and guidance” whereby GPs can request help from hospital colleagues without a formal referral.

“General practice is very fleet of foot – you give a financial incentive, and guess what? They’ll deliver, as was shown in 2004 in the contract,” Sir Anthony said.

“And as I can guarantee you will be shown now with the £20 for advice and guidance, that money will be spent very, very quickly.”

Huw Edwards, chief executive of ukactive, the UK’s trade body for the physical activity sector, said: “The Government must put prevention at the heart of its health strategy and that includes getting more people active, especially through swimming.

“Ensuring communities have accessible, inclusive, local swimming provision is important and needs to be part of an overarching and comprehensive strategy for sport and physical activity.”