Steven Broomhead says it is time for a change of direction in health care

IT’S good news that discussions are now starting regarding the building of a new ‘state of the art’ hospital for our town.

Sadly, despite everyone’s best efforts, the current buildings are not fit for purpose for a town of our size and significance.

It’s important that we actually scope carefully what a new hospital should comprise of.

Obviously we need top class clinical facilities but we also need to do more to treat and keep patients away from hospitals by providing more support in the community.

As a country we are overly pre-occupied with cure rather than prevention and it is leading to an inefficient allocation of public spending and stagnating health performance.

The root cause of poor health can only be addressed by tackling its social determinants.

By the mid 2030s approximately 35 per cent of all public spending in our town will be for health, with the majority going to the NHS.

Perhaps a change of direction is needed?

Lives in our town are significantly shortened by social economic inequality.

One example of this is that the life expectancy gap between Longford and Lymm is seven years.

Based on the assumption that everyone could live as long as those in the least economically deprived areas it is estimated that for England’s population today almost 80 million life years will be lost – one-and-a-half years per person.

Social deprivation not only affects how long a person lives but also how healthy their life is.

Healthcare is only responsible for approximately 30 per cent of health outcomes.

The social determinants of health, such as income, good employment, housing and education all account for a much greater share of health outcomes.

Whilst health spending in our town has continued to rise in real terms far too little of this is dedicated to prevention – less than five per cent.

The matter has been made much worse by the fact that the Government has reduced the total actual amount of money for prevention and public health by some 15 per cent since 2012.

A new hospital would be really welcome but what also needs to be discussed and resolved are the underlying socio-economic determinants which are the most significant influences on patterns and prevalence of ill-health.

I hope our new ebullient ‘Churchillian’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson is listening, particularly as he is on an investment/promises spree (take your pick).