What advice would you give to a new healthy lifestyles manager who wants to work more closely with healthcare professionals? We’ve talked a lot previously about the leisure sector’s pivot to active wellbeing [link to previous post] and how our industry can work more closely with healthcare professionals (HCPs). The face of leisure is changing, with health playing more of a role than ever before, but that doesn’t mean working with health teams comes easily. We asked our social media communities to share what works for them.
#1
“The journey towards an effective exercise referral scheme starts much earlier than convincing a patient to join your service. Good relationships with referring partners in healthcare are vital. To achieve this, before you even start to build relationships, you need an impactful, successful scheme that understands and meets people's needs. The healthcare professional must be able to trust that your scheme is safe and effective.”
#2
“Be patient and be prepared to revisit, sometimes several times. Your priorities aren't always at the top of a HCPs’ to-do list. Keep at it until you find your ‘Referring Champion’ – someone at the practice or Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who will advocate for what you're doing. Once you have one champion, it will snowball.”
#3
“Identify common goals. Leisure and healthcare both have a vested interest in promoting health and wellbeing in the community. By identifying common goals, you are more likely to convince a HCP that your programmes and initiatives can actively benefit both of your organisations.”
#4
“Invite HCPs to your facilities, show them your services in action. Coming face-to-face with an over-60s line dancing group loving their session or a walking football match in full swing is one of the best ways to build trust and open the lines of communication for working more closely. Or offer to attend their healthcare events like flu clinics, Covid jab clinics or community health checks.”
#5
“Tell them what you’re doing! If HCPs and CCGs don’t know about the programmes you offer, how can they refer patients to you? Shout it from the rooftops, and make sure the referral process is seamless too – obstacles to referral will hamper your progress.”
#6
“Show off about your successes. If you share date-driven insights with HCPs it can significantly improve the effectiveness of partnership bids. Stats showing the health outcome markers that matter most to HCP’s are weight management and mental wellbeing improvements, as well as physical activity levels you’re generating for the community. Stats showing improvements in these are hard to ignore. There’s nothing wrong with creating a bit of healthy referral competition between practices, CCGs and Primary Care networks either!”
#7
“Work with them to find mutually beneficial ways to work together, perhaps by developing joint initiatives. If you can offer effective prehab or rehabilitation for chronic conditions, such as cancer or cardiac, and support tailored to specific health concerns, you’ll ultimately be reducing the frequency of visits to the surgery or hospital.”
#8
“Try to help HCPs to see the big picture but at a local level. That way it has meaning."
Until next time,
Rach
Rachel Stokes | Account Manager
P.S. Please don't hesitate to reach out and start a conversation: 📲 
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