Is there a doctor in the pub?

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital consultant Stuart Irving will be setting up a health information clinic in a Norwich pub as part of this week's first-ever National Men's Health Week.

Mr Irving, a consultant urologist, is hoping to encourage men in Norwich's Trafford Arms pub to take better care of their health and to make more use of health services as too many men die prematurely, drink too much alcohol and are overweight. Men are often also reluctant to visit their doctor until health problems have become serious and harder to treat.

Men's health problems

• The average man can expect to be seriously or chronically ill for 15 years of his life.
• Nearly 22,000 men in the UK are newly diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and about 9,500 die; the number of new cases diagnosed is expected to treble over the next 20 year
• The incidence of testicular cancer has doubled in the past 20 years
• Over 4,200 men killed themselves in England and Wales in 1999; the rate among men aged 15-24 increased by 55 per cent in the period 1981-1997
• Depression is a widespread but under-recognised problem in men. At least one in five people men are believed to suffer clinical depression at some point in their lives.
• Sexual problems are common amongst men: almost one-fifth of men in their 50s experience problems maintaining or achieving an erection.
• 45 per cent of men are overweight and another 17 per cent are obese
• 28 per cent of men smoke. The average male smoker smokes 111 cigarettes a week
• 27 per cent of men drink more than the recommended limits. 36 per cent of men aged 16-24 drink excessively

Men are reluctant to visit their GP, especially for a preventive health check – on average, a man aged 16-24 has a health check once every seven years while a man aged 25-39 has a check once every five years.

Mr Irving said: “Because men are often reluctant to visit a doctor we've decided to take the health message to them and given it's the World Cup we thought what better place than a pub. We hope some of the health information we have will prove useful to men who might otherwise avoid thinking about their general physical and mental well-being.”

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's initiative is one of hundreds taking place throughout the country during the first-ever National Men's Health Week. The Week has been launched by the Men's Health Forum, a charity that promotes men's health, and is backed by the Health Development Agency and a wide range of other health organizations and charities.

Notes to editors

The Men's health information clinic takes place at The Trafford Arms, Grove Road, from 12:30 – 2:30pm on Thursday June 13.

Men wanting health information can visit the Men's Health Forum's website, www.malehealth.co.uk