Prevention is the cure for health service

Nottinghamshire County Council is convinced prevention is better than cure when it comes to saving cash for the NHS.

The council has responded to a new five year plan for the NHS in England by emphasising its preventative approach to Public Health, and highlighting the importance of health and social care teams working together closely to ease financial pressure on the NHS.

Part of the report, which claims that the NHS will face a £30bn shortfall by 2020, focuses on the role that Public Health in local authorities can have in tackling the deficit through preventative work in areas like smoking and obesity.

Cllr Joyce Bosnjak, chair of Nottinghamshire County Council’s public health committee, and of the Nottinghamshire health and wellbeing board said: “It’s clear the NHS faces massive challenges financially which is compounded by an ageing population, and worsening national health outcomes on things like obesity.

“This is where public health initiatives can make a real contribution to easing the long-term burden on both health and social care, as well as leading to a healthier population.

“Within public health in Nottinghamshire, we’re concentrating on population-wide long term changes in lifestyles and behaviours. Wherever possible when we commission services we take an approach where we focus on prevention as a key principle.”