Men must have better access to healthcare

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 19th Jun 2009

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has today called for a "rethink" of how healthcare services are offered to men after figures released by Men's Health Forum Scotland showed that male life expectancy in Scotland is 5 years less than for females.

The call came during this year's National Men's Health Week as the National Cancer Intelligence Network revealed that men in the UK are almost 40% more likely to die from cancer than women.

Most men in the UK work full time and access to the GP, healthy eating clinics, healthy heart clinics and smoking cessation services can be difficult for those who work more than 35 hours a week. In addition, men are traditionally more reluctant to visit their doctor.

Experts believe that the disparity between males and females could be due to men being less health conscious as women, their attitudes towards symptoms - including playing down early signs - and living an unhealthy lifestyle.

Robert Brown said:

"There is no real need for the difference in life expectancy between men and women in Scotland today.

"It's even more worrying to discover that men are more likely to contract and then die from cancer than women, even when gender specific cancers are ignored.

"A big reason for the differences between men and women could be down to men's attitude towards health and their frequent failure to act on early symptoms - we all know you can't overestimate the importance of doing something about the issue when symptoms appear.

"But I think there is also a connection with the way men access health services and in particular, the availability of health services, particularly those within the community.

"Healthy living clinics, smoking cessation services and the GP all need to be more available to those men who work full time and in particular those who work long hours.

"It's time health care providers and local health services came together with men's health charities so we can have a rethink about how we offer services and clinics to men.

"It's clear that a more flexible approach is needed if we are to prevent this gap between the health of men and women worsening in the future"

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TUC report on working hours: ://www.malehealth.co.uk/www.tuc.org.uk/extras/longhoursreturn.pdf

Cancer Research Report - http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/pressreleases/2009/june/men-greater-cancer-death