Good Health for All: The Kings Fund

This month the King’s Fund have launched a report on the forecasted doubling of healthcare spending. 

As the King’s Fund’s Sarah Arnold writes: 

“In my view, how much the government spends on health is a vitally important question. Should we be concerned about an ever-increasing quantum spent on health care? Yes, because it is not necessarily bringing the desired gains in health, and because it crowds out spending for other areas – that in themselves are important and may also improve health.” 

“The key to truly ‘shift the curve’ is to get serious about prevention, about intervening early, about spending our resources so that people are able to live their lives in good health rather than needing expensive healthcare.” 

“Only a very small fraction of what we currently classify as health spending is on preventive care or public health – around 5%.” 

“To truly prevent ill health, a more radical rebalancing, so that more funding is spent preventively, is a necessity – one that moves even beyond the current promised shift into the community, and that encompasses local authority and other public health spending as well. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has been doing research into how to do this in practice.” 

“Second, you could look beyond what we traditionally think of and measure as health spending. If health is the main goal, we should be seriously looking at all the factors that can worsen health – poverty, poor housing and so on, and scoring budget policy decisions on how they impact health, not just on cost. There are examples from other countries – such as New Zealand’s wellbeing budget approach which assessed all spending in terms of health, wellbeing, the environment and other social outcomes – that could provide a blueprint for how to do this.” 

CRP is very interested in delivering to reduce social and health inequalities, and particularly in addressing some of the factors that can address health outcomes e.g. lack of access to outdoor space, lack of exercise. 

Many of CRP’s delivery programmes are designed to do exactly that, for example Just Streets, Healthy Streets Everyday II and more upcoming health sector projects which will focus on improving health outcomes of staff and patients through the use of active travel and physical activity, to support mental and physical prevention.

 

Together, we can make a difference! 

Please see Sarah Arnold’s full article here: Concern About Forecasted Doubling Of Health Care Spending | The King’s Fund