The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has launched his prevention vision; confirming it as one of his key priorities alongside technology and workforce. PHE’s Chief Executive Duncan Selbie discusses why this is a transformative moment for public health.
Investing in public health is the smartest thing we can do – good health underpins a strong economy.
For years we have known that prevention is better than cure and that we should be moving away from a system that prioritises treatment, to one that can also predict and prevent poor health.
Up until now efforts to invest in prevention within our healthcare, workplaces and communities have fallen short. The NHS Five Year Forward View had genuine ambition to reverse this, but it failed to deliver with short term priorities taking precedence.
The Secretary of State, through publishing his prevention vision has shown he is determined to move more resources into prevention. And he has signalled the NHS Long Term Plan as one way to fund this.
We welcome this, as a promise of prioritising prevention is meaningless without investment.
Good health is of course about more than only healthcare. Wider determinants, including income, remain the most important thing.
But we all have a part to play and there are actions the NHS can take, as part of its Long Term Plan, which will help everyone to live for longer in better health.
Using bedside moments to promote wellbeing and avoid future illness is one step the NHS could take. For example, a smoker who comes into hospital for any reason should be helped to quit smoking. And then when they are ready to leave hospital, this support should continue in the community and at home.
The opportunity that we have now as a public health family is to embrace the energy and commitment of the Secretary of State, and to see more investment going into improving the public’s health.
A promise of radical action with no commitment, where nothing gets done is not an option. Realistic and tangible movement where we can actually achieve something is what we want to see.
This shift in focus is an exciting milestone and should signal a synchronised effort to place prevention at the heart of national and local government, and the NHS.
Written by Duncan Selbie, CEO, Public Health England (PHE). You can follow PHE on Twitter @PHE_UK.
If you’re an FPH member and want to play a bigger role in our Public Health Funding Campaign, please consider joining our membership ‘sounding board’. To find out more, email us via policy@fph.org.uk.
The Institute of Health Promotion and Education warmly welcomes the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s new vision ‘Prevention is better than cure’.(1) It has much to commend it including seeking to put prevention at the heart of national and local government policy and prioritising investment in primary and community healthcare. However, we do have three major concerns: timescale; potential focus downstream; and funding………………………..
https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4684/rr
Reblogged this on Public Health News.
BMJ briefing: meet the new masters of public health
The new masters of public health now face titanic challenges. In terms of topics it is easy to list a few that are putting a huge strain on our health service: obesity, alcohol abuse, smoking and heart disease. However, cutting across all these is the ubiquitous problem of health inequalities. In addition and at the same time, directors of public health are being expected to contest with: new roles and methods of working; structural changes; a very high workload; and the under-resourcing of public health……………………………………….
https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f4242/rr/652995