Lessons of COVID-19 trigger radical 10-year Government plan to level up healthcare

·       Health plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health

·       Priority given to levelling up ‘postcode inequalities’ in healthcare

·       Technology-led investment will drive better diagnostics, early intervention and more de-centralised health system

A year of COVID-19 has exposed decades of travelling the tragically wrong path in UK healthcare according to a Government-backed ‘Levelling Up Health’ (LUH) presentation and report today.

Specialists drawn from healthcare, academia and industry heard how the pandemic may have caused 40,000 needless UK deaths, highlighted postcode-driven inequalities in healthcare, and confirmed the UK literally as ‘the sick man of Europe’.

It will now drive a radical shake-up with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, Prof Chris Whitty, as a ‘health supremo’ overseeing all issues feeding into the nation’s well-being and longevity and reporting direct to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

A 10-year Health Improvement Plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health and Prof Whitty said the NHS would also be re-shaped, within a 10-year plan for unified action across all functions including Whitehall: 

“No-one owns the whole problem and therefore we aim to bring these different government departments together in terms of resources and budgets.” 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the LUH report had had been widely praised ahead of publication, and had prompted a re-focussing on the nation’s health and a goal to add five years to people’s longevity by 2035:

“80% of our budget goes on acute care, in other words patching people up, and we have to change this in one of the most important healthcare reforms for a generation.” 

Mr Hancock highlighted two main themes to this: Prof Whitty’s new remit and how “the NHS will benefit from this through reversing the silos that exist currently.”

He said Whitehall had to change too, as things like transport and air quality both impact on health, but relevant budgets are split between different government departments – Prof Whitty’s new role was to help bring these together.

Mr Hancock said: “This is a unique opportunity and there has never been a better time to do this following the huge learning from managing COVID-19, where we have broken these silos to create real impact and change and this has never been better illustrated than through the vaccine programme.”

He added that investment in technology and a healthcare model based on prevention, early detection and early intervention is key to the Government’s 10-year plan.

Mr Hancock also highlighted the importance of the Government’s data strategy, as identifying people’s genome is massively helping with diagnostics, and enabling much better health outcomes through use of AI and other early intervention measures.

The LUH report said its ‘Ten-Year Health Improvement Plan’, along with targeted funding for areas with poor health, would complement the Government’s post-COVID ‘Building Back Better’ blueprint for economic growth, improved health resilience, and reduced health inequalities:

“A healthier nation would be a great asset and a great investment. There would be public support for launching such an ambition,” said the report, underpinning this through stark facts and comment:

·       90% of those who died with COVID had significant prior poor health.

·       The most deprived places had much higher COVID deaths; 345 per 100,00 in Blackburn and Darwen - five times more than South Cambridgeshire (68 per 100,000) – and suggesting that 40,000 fewer people would have died if the whole nation’s healthcare had been ‘levelled up’.

·       The UK has the unhealthiest population in Europe: a significant drag on economic growth that also increases our exposure to future pandemics.

·       Health is the principal reason for 1.2 million people aged 50-64 being out of work, and people living in the most deprived places in England get significant long-term poor health conditions 19 years earlier than those in the least deprived ones, and they stop work earlier and die earlier.

·       Health inequality between the North and South costs £13 billion a year in lost productivity and 30% of the productivity gap between the North and the rest of England is due to ill-health.

·       Premature poor health increases demand on the NHS, for social care and welfare support; becoming healthier is fundamental to growth, resilience, and NHS sustainability.

Paul Stannard, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation attended the meeting and said: “I was pleased to hear Mr Hancock talk about early diagnosis and prevention being key, as many of the waiting lists are not for treatments but caused by delays in testing and diagnostics. It was also good to hear the Government’s commitment to diagnostic hubs and genomic sequencing.

“COVID-19 has been devastating but this is just the response needed to re-shape our healthcare system to be protected and prepared for the world’s next major health threat, while also transitioning to a more de-centralised, point-of-care, early intervention model benefitting from the latest healthcare technology.

“Rapid deployment of new vaccines and rapid mass testing devices show what can be achieved when the will and investment are fully behind healthcare.

“That’s why we have partnered with the Vector Innovation Fund to launch an initial $300 million international healthtech sub-fund for pandemic protection and preparedness that will have a wider impact on future healthcare provision.

“Investment in nanotechnology diagnostics, therapies, novel treatments, genome sequencing, and precision medicines is already helping the cause with record amounts of funding enabling healthtech advances in less than a year, which would have taken 10 years previously, along with delivering wearable health sensors, telemedicine, highly-targeted drugs and treatments, as well as breakthroughs in testing.”