ARM – day four – rounding off with occupational health, tobacco and alcohol debates

To kick off the last session of the BMA’s 2009 ARM conference, members looked at the topic of occupational health, something which has been a pertinent issue at BMA Cymru Wales recently. We’ve been seeking assurances that the future of the Primary Care Support Service (PCSS), which is the ONLY occupational health service for doctors in primary care, will be secured during the NHS reorganisation agenda.

Next – on to motions on the environment, calling on the BMA to do more to highlight the global health risks associated with climate change and to reduce our own carbon footprint. We then turned to the important public health issues of nutrition, exercise and obesity, an area in which Wales faces considerable challenges if we are to address them, particularly childhood obesity. Motions calling for more local recreational facilities (swimming pools, cycle routes etc) remind me that when I get back I must find out how Dr Dai Lloyd AM’s proposed Measure on playing fields is getting on.

The HPV vaccine sparked a valuable and lively debate with conference deciding that the roll-out of the vaccine should be extended to boys not just girls, and that it has been a missed opportunity to vaccinate against other diseases such as genital warts.

Also a subject with high prevalence rates in Wales: drugs and addiction. The topics covered by this set of motions call for minimum unit pricing for alcohol; clearer labelling; a ban on alcohol advertising in the media and the redirection of revenue into prevention and rehabilitation programmes. These motions passed UNANIMOUSLY.

Tobacco also generated a good discussion with motions proposed for all forms of tobacco advertising to be banned, including at the point of sale and another calling for cigarette vending machines to be restricted.

After four days of rigorous and impassioned debate, conference draws to a close and its time to return to Cardiff. The ARM has set BMA policy and determined many of the issues that we will be working on for the next twelve months.

For anyone who wants to see a full webcast and results of the motions debated this week click here.

Doctors get sick too

Wales’ Auditor General report out today on staff sickness levels in the NHS makes for interesting reading for BMA members. It says it’s still a “significant problem”, even though some improvements have been made.

Since April 2004, time off work because of ill health has averaged out at 14 working days per year for an NHS trust worker. This is down on the previous two years, when the average rate was just over 15-and-a-half working days per year.

I don’t think it should come as any surprise that sickness levels by NHS staff are higher than in other professions. After all, they are coming into contact with various different kinds of illnesses constantly. Those with the strongest immune systems are going to succumb at some point!

Of course, we’re not just talking about physical ill health here either. “Sickness” can cover all kinds of ailments, including stress. And again, it’s hardly surprising if staff working in NHS trusts experience more incidents of stress than other sectors, considering the very stressful situations medics are faced with on a daily basis. Then you have to add to that the fact that occupational health services are found wanting in many parts of the NHS.

That’s exactly why the BMA is calling for a national roll-out of the Primary Care Support Service, as part of our consultation response to the proposed reforms of the Welsh NHS. The PCSS is currently the only occupational health service available to clinicians and disappointingly, isn’t on offer in all parts of Wales. Even the Auditor General, in his new report, highlights the need to improve occupational health services for NHS staff. If that happens, then maybe we really will start to see a dramatic fall in the number of sick days taken by employees looking after the health of everyone else.