Last week, the Secretary of State for Health announced she would prioritise ‘A, B, C and D’ – ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists – to fix the most glaring issues within the NHS. However, P for prevention shouldn’t be left off, argues ILC, the UK’s specialist think tank on the impact of longevity on society.

Preventing ill health will not only help the NHS find long-term solutions to these immediate problems but is key to helping the Government reach its target of five extra healthy years, say spokespeople from the ILC.

Arunima Himawan, ILC Research Fellow, said:

“Fixing A, B, C, and D is undoubtedly important, but so is prevention. Otherwise, there is a serious danger of the urgent driving out the important.”

“Preventing ill health will not only help us find long-term solutions to backlogs, doctors’ shortages and acute care, but is key to helping the government reach its target of 5 extra healthy years by 2035.”

“In the context of an ageing society, we need to be moving upstream to keep people healthier for longer. Investing more in prevention is key to long-term prosperity and to help us emerge from the cost-of-living crisis, as poor health hampers people’s ability to work, spend and support local economies.”

Professor Les Mayhew, ILC Head of Global Research, speaking this week on health inequalities and smoking at the Longevity 17 Conference at the University of Waterloo in Canada, added:

“One place the new Secretary of State should start to bring forward the proposed measures is tobacco control.”

“Although smoking prevalence has been falling, it still kills 75,000 a year in England alone, and results in over half a million admissions to hospital every year.”

“If current or ex-smokers had never smoked, overall earnings could be 1.9% higher, boosting the UK economy by £19.1 billion every year.”

“The Government has set itself an ambitious target of increasing healthy life expectancy by five years. This can’t be done without action on prevention, and smoking cessation could be a great place to start.”

Ends

Contact

Contact press@ilcuk.org.uk or +44 (0) 208 638 0832 for press queries. Spokespeople are available for interview. 

Notes

On 9 June 2022, the Department for Health and Social Care published an independent review by Dr Javed Khan OBE which set out important recommendations to support the Government to meet its smoke-free ambition by 2030 and tackle health disparities to level up the health of the nation.

ILC research Levelling up: the great health challenge by Professor Les Mayhew, Professor of Statistics at Bayes Business School, and Head of Global Research at the International Longevity Centre; Professor Andrew Cairns, Professor in Actuarial Mathematics at Heriot Watt University; and Dr Mei Sum Chan, Health Analytics Consultant at Lane Clark & Peacock.

Increasing preventative health spending by just 0.1% could unlock a 9% increase in annual spending by people aged 60+. Stopping people from smoking alone, would add an average of 5.4 more years of good health to every individual and boost the UK economy by £19.1 billion.

The geography of smoking-related deaths strongly correlates with health expectancy and with deprivation. The local authorities with the highest prevalence of smoking, as ranked by the Office for National Statistics on their smoking index, are Blackpool, Kingston upon Hull, Barking and Dagenham. Those ranked lowest are Richmond upon Thames and Windsor.

Earlier research conducted by Professor Mayhew on The cost of inequality: Putting a price on health, published in July 2021, by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CFSI), in partnership with ILC and The Business School at City University, challenges conventional wisdom by proposing a novel way of thinking about inequalities that link health to wealth and the economy.

 About ILC 

The ILC is the UK’s specialist think tank on the impact of longevity on society, and what happens next. 

The International Longevity Centre UK was established in 1997 as one of the members of the International Longevity Centre Global Alliance, an international network on longevity. 

Since our inception, we have published over 275 reports and organised over 350 events including the annual Future of Ageing conference. 

We work with central government, local government, the private sector, and professional and academic associations to provoke conversations and pioneer solutions for a society where everyone can thrive, regardless of age.