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To mark the 75th anniversary of the launch of the NHS, we’ve commissioned a series of articles addressing the biggest challenges the service now faces. In Finland, there is good evidence of the effectiveness of the Tobacco Act and cancer screening programmes on health, but the impact on healthcare expenditure is unclear. In the three countries mentioned, there have been very few studies on the economic impact of their preventive healthcare programmes.
If the “how” sounds clear, the “how much” (to what extent and to what budget) is a little less clear. The Health Japan 21 strategy, for instance, provides a nationwide framework to improve population health through interventions in workplaces, schools and local communities, focusing on diets, physical activity, smoking cessation and reducing alcohol consumption. It also has one of the lowest death rates from cardiovascular diseases in the world.Īnd Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world and one of the lowest rates of people with metabolic syndrome (a group of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease) because of the country’s focus on healthy lifestyles. Singapore has been as successful as the Finns at getting the public to quit smoking. Finland, Japan and Singapore, for example, have implemented preventive programmes that focus on promoting healthy lifestyles, early disease detection through national screening programmes and disease management while paying attention to health education and public health campaigns.įinland has been very successful at stamping out smoking. Starting with the how, there are a few countries to look to for “best practice”.
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The decision to follow this path wouldn’t seem so difficult if it weren’t for the small problem of figuring out how to do it and to what extent. And reducing the number of people with these chronic conditions would lead to a significant decrease in healthcare spending – which has been steadily rising in real terms since the NHS was founded. If it’s true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, preventive healthcare might really save the embattled NHS – now celebrating its 75th anniversary.īy promoting healthy lifestyles, early disease detection and timely treatment, the NHS could reduce chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
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