“Continuing with the status quo isn’t an option, sticking plasters won’t cut it, we’re going to have to make big changes”
That was the verdict of Health Secretary Wes Streeting as he spoke at the launch of the IPPR report on Health & Prosperity
Streeting said that The Left will “have to accept health service reform or there will be no health service, at least not as we currently recognise it.”
One hundred thousand infants aged between zero and two have been left waiting more than six hours to be seen in A&E last year. Cancer is more likely to be a death sentence for NHS patients than patients in other countries.
“Fifty years of progress on cardiovascular disease is going into reverse, and patients have never been more dissatisfied with the service they receive.”
He added: “As the Prime Minister set out in his speech, continuing the status quo isn’t an option, sticking plasters won’t cut it.”
Today’s report by the IPPR think tank was what they describe as the most ambitious blueprint for the nation’s health since Beveridge.
The report says that if trends continue, economic inactivity due to sickness could hit 4.3 million by the end of this parliament, up from 2.8 million today.
As of the end of 2023, an estimated 900,000 extra workers are missing from work.
These 900,000 missing workers could mean an estimated £5bn in lost tax receipts in 2024, while better population health could save the NHS £18bn per year by the mid-2030s.
Some occupations – including elementary occupations, and caring, leisure and service roles – have seen particularly high rates of workers becoming inactive due to sickness. The rate of inactivity due to sickness is highest among the working age populations of Northern Ireland, the North East and Wales.
At the core of the Commission’s recommendations is to move from a reactive, sickness orientated 20th century healthcare system into a proactive 21st century health creation system, working in parallel to the NHS’ ‘sickness service’.
To do that, the Commission sets out an “oven-ready” first parliament policy programme for the new government’s health mission – covering a bold new childhood health programme, a comprehensive health industrial strategy to penalise polluters and support innovators, nationwide restoration of critical community infrastructure, higher standards for health at work and more integrated health and employment support services.
Specific proposals include taxing health polluters: including tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food companies to raise over £10billion per year by the end of the parliament, which could fund new good health schemes such as a fresh fruit and vegetable subsidy
The report recommends Establishing Health and Prosperity Improvement (HAPI) zones’: modelled on Clean Air Zones, with new powers and national investment to rebuild local health infrastructure – such as swimming pools and green spaces – in the most health-deprived areas
A ‘right to try’ for people on health or disability benefits: an ironclad government commitment of a guaranteed period where people in receipt of benefits can ‘try’ work with no risk to welfare status or award level, lasting months, for everyone with a long-term condition or disability, regardless of what other reforms to health benefits look like
A new ‘neighbourhood health centre’ in every part of the country: a one-stop shop for diagnostics, primary care, mental health and public health with a focus on prevention
It also recommends creating a new health index: Like GDP, the health index will provide a snapshot of how the nation’s health is changing – in a single number – to help monitor progress
The Commission also proposes a ‘new beginning’ for childhood health. New IPPR analysis finds that there has been a substantial decline in childhood health over the last decade – meaning thousands more infant deaths, tens of thousands more children with obesity and hundreds of thousands more young people with health conditions than had stagnation continued.
The report argues this constitutes a breakdown in children’s ‘health inheritance’ – and is the first time in around 200 years that a generation is not guaranteed to live a much longer, healthier life than that that came before it.
To get children’s health back on track, the Commission proposes a future generation health plan including universal free school meals, restoration of Sure Start and an end to the Two Child Limit.
Just as education is seen as an investment in children’s wellbeing today and economic prospects tomorrow, so should childhood health be seen as key to our long-term economic outcomes, the report contends.
