'Bold action needed if NHS is to survive'

10:12am Wednesday 13th August 2008

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A LEADING North-East academic is warning that the Government needs to do more to curb lifestyle related disease or risk the NHS becoming unaffordable.

Professor David Hunter, an expert in health policy and management at Durham University, called for action in his new book, called The Health Debate.

Despite frequent rounds of reorganisation, the NHS had still not been transformed into a true health service, he warned.

Prof Hunter said: “One of the curious ironies of the NHS, and many other health systems like it, is that it does not pay enough attention to health, focusing instead on illhealth and disease. The NHS diagnoses and treats rather than predicts and prevents.

“The Government needs to shift this balance as the increasing cost of lifestylerelated diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer, will prove financially unsustainable making the NHS unaffordable.

“Changing people’s behaviour is difficult and merely giving people information and advice is known to be ineffective.

It needs for the Government to take bold action to control rising obesity levels and other health problems.

Yet, Government does not want to be accused of being the ‘nanny state’ and is reluctant to act on some of the determinants of ill-health.

“Bold action on the part of the Government should include taking tough action to control levels of fat, sugar and salt in foods, as well as trying to narrow the income gap between rich and poor.”

Prof Hunter said that despite 14 reorganisations, the NHS has evolved into a “sickness system”, primarily designed to repair those who fall ill and doing little to promote or improve health.

The health expert argues that the Goverment needs to take action if it is to control health problems such as obesity and reduce the burden on the health system.

He also criticised “an unwise and unproven” reliance on private sector management styles and international healthcare businesses.

Prof Hunter also attacked a “fixation on the latest fads and fashion in management”

combined with what he called a “terror by target” culture, which has resulted in low staff morale and a breakdown in relations between doctors and managers in the NHS.

His book is to be published by the Policy Press at Bristol University.