Tame the flame - were you there?

Now that I and the FIA team have recovered from Flame jetlag, we can look back and reflect on the experience. I’ve said it already by a big thank you to everyone who attended Flame Conference 2012 in Sheffield last month and made it such a brilliant event. Thank you also to everyone who has passed on their feedback about the events, both negative and positive. We do use these comments to make Flame better every year (although the dozen or so of you who pointed out too me that the Ball of Fire was too hot may have overestimated the team’s ability to regulate the weather!)

Although the Ball of Fire did live up to its name, the glorious weather in what has been the wettest summer ever made for an excellent pre-conference Golf Day at Tankersley Manor Golf Club, and some impressive final results from our enthusiastic golf teams including a hole in one for DLL’s Paul Batty.

That evening we returned to Tankersley Manor for a pre-conference drinks reception and dinner, where we enjoyed some astounding evening entertainment from comic magician Ian Keable, who to my (and everyone else’s!) disbelief, hypnotised some of the industry’s finest – or did he?

The following day delegates arrived early for the Flame Conference at the Magna Science Adventure Centre. We heard a huge range of speakers including SAS hero Chris Ryan, trend-spotter Henry Mason, neuroscientist Dr Jack Lewis and brand guru Shaun Smith.

That evening Ponds Forge International played host to the FIA Ball of Fire for the Flame Awards ceremony. A highlight of the evening for me was inviting former England rugby player Matt Hampson to address guests. I’ve mentioned before that my team bought be a copy of Matt’s memoir, ‘Engage’ for my last birthday, and it is a truly brilliant read. The Matt Hampson Foundation (MHF) is the FIA’s nominated charity, formed by Matt after he was left paralysed by an accident whilst training for England under 21s. The MHF helps support young people suffering serious injury or disability, particularly those sustained through sport or physical activity. Speaking about his experience with such humour and positivity, Matt received a standing ovation, and I know that his is a cause our sector is well and truly behind.

Guests were all very generous in donating to the MHF through our silent auction and charity prize; I was pleased to announce today that we raised over £5000 for the charity.

Another highlight, as always, was seeing the reaction of the winners of our Flame Awards 2012 (sponsored by Matrix). Seeing just how ecstatic the teams were to win really brings home the value of these awards.

All in all it really was brilliant to see so many members of our sector together and I hope that we carry forward a spirit of unity and collaboration as a sector in the coming year.

We are now gearing up for LIW in September, where as always we will be running the FIA networking hub and launching our new Supplier Directory, and following that our Summit – the sector’s set piece political event for the year. Following on from the success of the re-launched FIA summit last year I know that I am really looking forward to this event, and we already have some top speakers in the pipeline. The event will be taking place in London on 22^nd November, so get it in your diaries now; more details will be released shortly.

The political agenda is front and centre for the FIA and our sector at the moment, with the upcoming publication of a report from a Lords select committee examining the physical activity and the Olympic legacy; watch this space for further information.

We were also very encouraged by a report released this week by the Royal College of Physicians which outlines a series of recommendations for establishing exercise as a routine tool for the prevention and management of illness. This is a ground-breaking document for our sector, and I was delighted that the report on several occasions highlighted the FIA as a “key collaborator” and the Joint Consultative Forum as the body to take forward many of the recommendations of the report.  There is still much work to be done in engaging the medical community, but this is a significant and positive step forward for our sector.

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Reinforcements needed - Supersized (and STRONG) ambulance service

‘Fit and abnormally strong’ are the latest additions to the job spec of the UK ambulance service. Not only so they can respond quickly and tend to the deteriorating health of the nation…. but so they can also transport the obese to hospital. And they WILL need to be taken to hospital…..

I was bemused, if a little concerned this week to hear that the ambulance service have revamped their fleets with heavy duty wheels chairs, stretchers and lifting cushions to transport the ‘larger’ patient to and from hospital. What a sad and somewhat wasteful reflection on the state of the nation’s health and fitness.

Bariatric ambulances have even been introduced into some regions, costing us, the tax payer up to £90,000 a time! And it seems there will need to be more in the pot where that came from - figures point to a 30% increase in hospital admissions for obesity and a 40% increase in bariatric surgery over the last few years.

Surely money would be better spent in prevention as opposed to accommodation?

Treatment and SOLUTIONS versus infrastructure adjustments. Whatever next – larger plane seats, train seats, theatres seats, changing rooms, school desks…? I could go on….

With 24 percent of men and 25 percent of women in the UK now obese, we can’t ignore the problem, but is changing our entire infrastructure really the best solution? Money well spent?

Smoking and alcohol abuse sit alongside obesity as a major cause of disease but we have a smoking ban installed … we have put taxes on alcohol consumption….. THIS is support towards positive behavioural change…. And its working.

Support is key to tackling the obesity problem and our industry is at the forefront of delivering it. The problem is not obesity. The problem is the CAUSE of obesity. I am talking about a lack of physical activity and poor diet. We HAVE to get more people moving and eating better.

We mustn’t sit back and accept the problem…. And we’re not. We are doing great things working with the medical professional through the Joint Consultative Forum, the Government through Change4Life, industry through the Responsibility deal. We have to work together.

Medicine is not the answer. Surgery is not the answer. The solution is at the very heart of our industry. Exercise, diet - energy in and energy out. Support and customer care.

How can we make our offering more appealing to the obese or overweight? Physical activity for all…

The supersized footprint has to stop here.

Fitness in Practice – a united approach

What do a bunch of doctors, fitness professionals and a physio talk about when they sit around a table together? It’s agreed, they have a common interest in health and well being but until recently, they rarely spoke with each other, let alone work together to promote them.

We all know that the UK population is getting fatter and sicker because we are inactive. 85% of the population see their doctor at least once a year. The GP has the opportunity to encourage them to be more active but quite often doesn’t have the time to see that they are.

Fitness practitioners have the time, knowledge and skill to do just that. So it makes obvious sense to work together. And this is exactly what the Joint Consultative Forum of the Medical Royal Colleges and the Fitness Sector (JCF) does. It was put together in the early part of 2010 and I am proud to say, it is now a fully independent working group .

For the first time we have a group of doctors, fitness practitioners and a physio who can provide well informed advice to the fitness sector, the health professions and the Department of Health about getting healthy and fit.

It has set itself a very important immediate task; there is strong evidence that exercise can make a big difference to people with chronic illness but there is quite a lot of confusion about what exercise referral schemes are for and how they should function. So the JCF is currently drawing up new standards of professional and operational practice for working with patients. The new standards will be ready by the Autumn of 2011.

The JCF is another example of how the FIA works with other sectors to make things happen and how it brings together the interests of its members and the wider public health.

John Searle
Chief Medical Officer