HEALTHCARE - A PERSPECTIVE

There is an articles by Roger Steer entitled Alternative European Healthcare Perspective published this month. For anyone interested in the future of the NHS and Healthcare generally it is, in my view, a must-read. It certanly gives one a view of what is going on in France as well as the UK. 

He brings together a number of texts, all providing very useful insight into the problems of Healthcare and the contributory factors directly affecting the nation's health. I found the references to the Health Foundations conclusions of particular interest:

Findings include

Money and resources: people on the lowest incomes (the bottom 40% of the income distribution) are more than twice as likely to say they have poor health than people on the highest incomes (the top 20%), and more than 5 times as likely to say they have bad or very bad health. Poverty in particular is associated with worse health, especially persistent poverty.

Employment: employment, or the lack of it, can have considerable influence on health and wellbeing. Poor health can limit people’s ability to have and sustain work. The nature of people’s work matters for health, but also impacts other factors that influence health, such as having sufficient income and forming social connections.

Housing: housing affordability matters for our health. Difficulty paying the rent or mortgage can cause stress, affecting our mental health, while spending a high proportion of our income on housing leaves less for other essentials that influence. health, such as food and social participation. People on the lowest incomes are hit particularly hard – 26% of households on the lowest incomes spent more than a third of their income on housing costs in 2019/20, compared with only 3% on the highest incomes. Ending the freeze on housing benefit and increasing support would help people who rent their homes to meet their housing costs. Alongside this financial support, there needs to be an increase in the proportion of social homes and new affordable homes for the future.

Transport: increasing physical activity and minimising time spent sitting down helps to maintain a healthy weight and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and depression. The NHS recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity, or 75minutes of vigorous activity, each week. Walking and cycling as part of one’s travel routine – whether for an entire journey or to access public transport – can help meet these targets. There will be little benefit, however, if this means of exercise merely displaces the time for physical activity, or if the activity is not prolonged or intense enough to affect health outcomes

Reading the above acrtually comes as no surprise and more or less fall into the category of "we hold these truths to be self evident". Comments relating to Wes Streeting and Rachel Reeves are a bit of a worry, but I urge you to read the piece for yoursleves: It is at:

Aug 2023FINAL.pdf(Review) - Adobe cloud storage