When it comes to health, it’s Men who get a raw deal

Afounding principle of the nHS was equality: the idea that everyone was entitled to healthcare that was free at the point of delivery, regardless of who they were. it was — is — a noble ideal. Yet when it comes to health, not all things are equal. Take the latest nHS figures on prostate cancer, published this week.

Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed of all cancers. in 2018, there were 49,029 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in England, compared with 47,476 cases of breast cancer and 38,996 of lung cancer.

Prostate cancer also causes more deaths annually than breast cancer.

These statistics are sobering — as is the fact that research into breast cancer attracts more than twice as much funding as that into prostate cancer.

if it were the other way around — if a cancer that killed women attracted half the money apportioned to a cancer that killed men — imagine the outcry.

instead, the news is met with a shrug.

This state of affairs is all the more disturbing given that so much has been made of the ‘gender health gap’ in recent years. This refers to claims that women are discriminated against in medicine because it is inherently male-focused.

Critics point to a range of apparent inequalities, such as the fact that fewer women participate in clinical trials. findings disproportionately relate to men as a result, and drug doses tend to be based on the average male weight and body composition.

THIS is a narrative that fits with the pervasive view of the progressive Left that women are always victims, and men are always in the wrong, prioritising their own health needs at the expense of the opposite sex.

But this is patently untrue. The reality is that women live, on average, nearly four years longer than men.

Men are disadvantaged in other areas, too. They are significantly more likely than women to kill themselves, and less likely to be given treatment for depression or anxiety.

They are also more likely to drink to excess or use recreational drugs, and less likely to receive help if their consumption gets out of control.

To me the evidence is clear: it is men who are getting a raw deal in healthcare.

it relates to the pernicious spread of so- called ‘ identity politics’, which singles out and favours certain characteristics over others — such as gender, sexuality or race.

unfortunately, these characteristics don’t really encapsulate the

real inequalities and injustices in medicine.

White, middle-aged men, for example, are considered to be ‘privileged’ and therefore their concerns are often dismissed.

Yet the reality is that many middle-aged white men hail from poorer communities and have far fewer opportunities, lower status, less security and less access to healthcare than many minority groups.

Why do we pretend that a female barrister or a gay doctor struggles to the same degree as an unemployed docker?

in the race to embrace diversity, working-class, middle-aged men have been left behind.

identity politics has little to do with fighting injustice and inequality. Shockingly, it’s more about political correctness.

Shamefully, the medical profession, ministers, nHS chiefs and policy makers have fallen into this trap.

it doesn’t matter where the need really lies — it matters only that they are seen to be championing those ‘disadvantaged’ groups who happen to be in vogue.

i have had training on the health needs of every group imaginable, from the disabled, ethnic minorities and trans people, to women, asylum seekers and many different religious communities.

Yet i have never once received even one minute’s training related to the needs of working- class, middle-aged men.

They are the true victims — a disenfranchised group — in healthcare.

It Is only in recent years that we’ve begun to understand how minor head injuries can have profound effects on the brain many years later. A study of a group of amateur footballers by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has now confirmed an association between frequent instances of heading a football and the development of dementia. this is especially the case in those who carry a particular gene known to be linked to dementia. We know boxers who take repeated blows to the head are similarly vulnerable — hence the name for this condition, dementia pugilistica. But as other less obvious activities become implicated, we need to rethink our attitude to protecting youngsters involved in school sports.