Health column: Happy, healthy Hindley

In my last column in early November, I gave a little bit of information on some of the many amazing things that GP practices across the Borough are doing to support patients and help them to stay well. This month I am zooming in on this work in Hindley.

We often think the NHS is there only to make us well again when we are sick – an “is there a pill for that” type of approach. However, making sure people are able to stay well is incredibly important too.

More and more people in the Borough are getting diseases and conditions that could be prevented, if only the signs were spotted early enough and right support and advice given and acted upon. These include things like heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and high blood pressure, but also some cancers and other illnesses.

Illnesses like these mean that no matter how many pills we can give, people are likely to have a lower quality of life, die earlier, and need to go into hospital more.

So it is important that NHS services spend more time helping people to stay well. This is particularly vital in communities where people have more money worries, more uncertainty about their work, and more challenges keeping their homes and their families warm and well fed.

GP practices across Hindley have been working together to offer these communities more help and support with their health and wellbeing. They have been working with community groups like St Nathanial’s Food Pantry, and the Bethel Community Centre, employers like Bakkavor Foods, the big local Tesco supermarket, and local partners like the council to offer services in the communities where people need them. This makes it easier for people to get help and offers more opportunities to catch people as they are going about their daily lives.

Through these partners and communities, they have offered blood pressure checks, heart rate checks, BMI checks, cholesterol checks, plus advice on healthy eating and referred people on for further tests if needed. They also helped people to access other services around stopping smoking, debt, housing, drug and alcohol intake.

They even held a health and wellbeing day and encouraged people to try new hobbies like archery, cycling and football.

Overall, out in the community this summer they have helped over 900 people – over and above the many thousands of appointments they have offered within practices. Most of these people are likely to have never come near their GP practice in the course of a normal year and wouldn’t have got the advice or referrals otherwise.

So, that is nearly a thousand people who may be healthier and happier as a result. Which is absolutely huge, and absolutely worth celebrating.

Hindley GP practices are not the only ones doing this, so next month we will look more closely at the work happening in the East of the borough.