Unemployment
is disastrous for long-term health, Professor Dame Carol Black told a
prestigious lecture in
The
National Director for Health and Work at the Department of Work and Pensions
was speaking at the historic Gamgee Lecture to the Birmingham Medical
Institute, sponsored by BHSF.
Her
lecture focused on the damage done by absence from work through ill health and
the opportunity for both government and employers to significantly improve the
lives of thousands of employees and their families by tackling the problem.
“Work is a
determinant of good health” she said and went on to emphasise that being out of
work is “disastrous for long-term health”.
In a summary
of the current situation, which she and her team have extensively researched, Dame
Carol, the most eminent woman in British medicine, made reference to the fit note system she
feels must replace the current sick-note.
“We
presently have a system of certification which labels people as being sick”, she said and added that
sickness can go on to be long term and in many cases would see the employee
never return to their former job role.
The fit note
still has some way to go, she added, and quoted figures that suggested nearly a
quarter of GPs remained unfamiliar with it.
Dame Carol
put forward a compelling case for change, bringing occupational health into the
mainstream of medicine, encouraging employers to invest further, offering
guidance and direction to SMEs and advancing a new strategy on mental health
and employment due this month.
While many
in the audience were keen to agree with the aims set out in the lecture,
questions were put about the willingness of Primary Care Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities and others to
divert hard pressed funds into this area.
Concerns
were expressed too about the ability to resource this important branch of
medicine with the next generation of enthusiastic young doctors.
The case
however was pushed hard by Dame Carol. “If we do not intervene, we will send
more people to a place where they will lose their dignity and self esteem,
where families lose their self respect.”
The annual
lecture, chaired by the President of the Birmingham Medical Institute, Dr Ian
McKim Thompson, celebrates Joseph Sampson Gamgee’s contribution to medicine and
in particular the welfare of the working population. Gamgee was founder of both
the Birmingham Medical Institute in 1875 and earlier, in 1873, the Birmingham
Hospital Saturday Fund, now BHSF.