Bladder and Bowel Continence Care

Nick Fletcher Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) on his moving opening speech. I also thank Prostate Cancer UK, PRS, the Men’s Health Forum and the Absorbent Hygiene Product Manufacturers Association for their campaigning work on this issue.

Since becoming a Member of this House in 2019, a key policy area that I have campaigned on is improving men’s health. The Boys Need Bins and Dispose with Dignity campaigns fall within that remit. They seek to break the taboo around this type of experience, which many men face but is never discussed.

There is no need for me to repeat the statistics that my hon. Friend set out, although they are important. However, the fact that we are having this debate at all shows that there is a need to discuss not only this issue but men’s health more broadly. In many ways, it shows that we are not taking men’s health seriously enough. It seems obvious to me that amending the Health and Safety Executive’s code of practice and guidance is necessary to ensure that men have access to the support they clearly want and need. It would be interesting to hear whether the Government support that in the name of equality, inclusion and dignity.

As I have stated many times in the House, and directly to Ministers, we need a men’s health strategy and a Minister directly accountable and responsible for delivery. Piecemeal initiatives and campaigns are welcome, but we would not have to do that work if we had an overarching strategy to look at all the health issues facing men and all the causes, and deliver all the solutions, just as the women’s health strategy does.

In addition to the statistics that underpin this debate, it is vital never to forget that one in five men do not live to 65, 33 men die every day of prostate cancer, and 13 men die every day by suicide. The psychological harm caused by this issue has a negative mental health impact on men. An overarching strategy would pull all that together. If we can have a women’s health strategy—which we need—why can we not have a men’s health strategy too? We could then deal with this issue under that umbrella. It could be the first win for the Government under a men’s health strategy.

It is important to deal with the common myth that men do not seek support for their health, and that they want to tough it out because they are men. Recent research from the Movember Foundation shows that men are more likely than women to make an appointment to see a health practitioner as soon as they think they have a physical health problem. Research from the Men and Boys Coalition shows that three in five men say they face barriers to seeing GPs.

The increasing problem with men’s health, which is in crisis, shows that the health sector is not male-friendly enough. Whether through the NHS, public health provision via councils or support through mental health services, supporting a men’s health strategy would start to change that, as would the initiative we are discussing today. People wrongly say, “Men do not speak up about their health,” when on issues like this they do and have. We must listen and act or men will think, “What’s the point?”

The Prostate Cancer UK campaign led by the actor Colin McFarlane shows that men are speaking up. There is even the annual March for Men happening next month—I encourage Members to sign up. We can no longer ignore these men, so we need the Government to change the code of practice and we need councils and health bodies to take a lead. I see that Winchester City Council is already doing so. We need to make it normal for bins to be provided—a new normal so that it is not seen as an issue or a pain, but just as the normal way of doing things. We need this normal and a new way of supporting men’s health.

I urge the Government to change the code of practice and—importantly—create a men’s health strategy and a Minister with accountability for this issue. We owe it to the men in our society and the women they share their lives with to deliver all this and more.