Something a bit different is happening at your local Spoons
There are more than 30 Wetherspoons pubs across Greater Manchester(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
Garish carpet, pints for £3, a cheap breakfast for a hangover, and a warm welcome – likely all iconic traits of your local Wetherspoons pub.
But now, something a bit different is happening at your local Spoons, and it could just save your life.
The NHS has announced that branches of Wetherspoons will offer drop-in lung checks to identify people with serious respiratory conditions who have gone undiagnosed and unmanaged.
It comes after a trial of the scheme in Spoons pubs in Lancashire proved a success. More drop-clinics will now be offered in a ‘range of community venues’ in the region, the health service has said.
Get news, views and analysis of the biggest stories with the daily Mancunian Way newsletter – sign up here
The Wetherspoons pop-up clinics are part of the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS. It aims to offer people health care ‘closer to where they live, including through neighbourhood health services, giving access to more health services via the NHS App, convenient prescriptions, quicker specialist referrals and round-the-clock mental health support’.
It’s hoped that hospitals will be freed up to focus on patients needing urgent and emergency care.
The carpet at The Paramount pub on Oxford Street in the city centre(Image: MEN)
Dr Linda Charles-Ozuzu, Regional Director of Commissioning for NHS England in the North West, said: “NHS teams and partners across the north west are coming up with ever more innovative ways to take healthcare out into the community so that we can reach the people who need our help closer to where they live and allow hospitals to focus on delivering only the best, personalised care for those who need it most.
“Through this work we are making it easier and more convenient for patients to get medical advice, diagnosis and treatment, as well as making it possible for them to access services that can help prevent ill health, like vaccination and cancer screening, on their doorsteps.”
Join our Manc Life WhatsApp group HERE
One Lancashire health group has brought respiratory assessments to Wetherspoons pubs to try catching people who might be seriously suffering with their lungs, but have never been diagnosed.
The Morecambe Bay Respiratory Network provides assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care for a range of respiratory conditions – including complex asthma and COPD – in communities and people’s homes across north Lancashire, Barrow in Furness, and the south Lakes.
Customers getting served at Wetherspoons pub The Moon Under Water in Manchester(Image: Getty Images)
This includes community ‘Breathe Easy’ support groups, community-based pulmonary rehab chest physiotherapy immediately after hospital discharge to reduce the risk of readmission, and specialist services supporting people to ‘die well’ in their preferred place, rather than in hospital.
The network’s assessment clinics at Wetherspoons pubs proved successful, says the NHS, and more are being planned.
The network brings together GPs, hospital consultants, occupational therapists and specialist nurses, who meet to discuss and plan care for up to 26 patients every month.
The NHS says this approach helps people to get an earlier diagnosis and treatment, allows the most complex patients to receive care at home, and improves access to services for those who may struggle to get to a hospital because of travel times or cost, ‘with the number of referrals to hospital reduced by more than 70 per cent as a result’.