Preventing illness and disease with predictive technology to become a key NHS goal
Ministers now spend £97billion on treating disease but only £8billion on stopping people falling ill in the first place
PREVENTING illness and disease with state-of-the-art predictive technology is to become a key NHS goal under plans unveiled today to revolutionise the public’s health.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will outline his 21st century vision today which aims to predict disease and pinpoint those at risk before they fall ill using digital apps to analyse personal data.
Stopping people falling ill in the first place rather than cures will become the long term focus - saving lives and money.
Ministers currently spend £97 billion on treating disease and only £8bn on preventing it.
Mr Hancock is due to address the Annual Meeting of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes today.
In a keynote speech he will argue early support in the community can prevent bad health taking hold.
He will say: “Prevention is also about ensuring people take greater responsibility for managing their own health. It’s about people choosing to look after themselves better, staying active and stopping smoking.
“Making better choices by limiting alcohol, sugar, salt and fat.
“But focusing on the responsibilities of patients isn’t about penalising people. It’s about helping them make better choices, giving them the all the support we can, because we know taking the tough decisions is never easy.”
Mr Hancock will say the “numbers don’t stack up” when it comes to spending on prevention as opposed to treatment.
He will go on: “It can’t be right that today, in England, a boy born in the poorest parts of our country will die nine years earlier, and live 19 more years in poor health, than a boy born in the richest areas.
“That’s why prevention matters. That’s why we need a new 21st century focus on prevention.”
A green paper, titled “Prevention is better than cure”, will outline the vision for a “new 21st century focus on prevention”.
Public Health England will look at “harnessing digital technology” as a form of “predictive prevention”, to help give targeted health advice for people based on their their location and lifestyle.
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Duncan Selbie, chief executive Public Health England, said: “We need to move from a system that detects and treats illnesses to one that also predicts and prevents poor health through promoting health in all policies and puts people back in charge of their own health.”
The Government’s ambitions to improve public health include reducing loneliness, halving childhood obesity by 2030 and diagnosing three quarters of cancers at stages 1 and 2 by 2028.
It came as Theresa May said the Tories “are now the natural party of the NHS”.
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