|
|
|
|
NHS in Wales could do less in future - health minister
The NHS may do less in future following a winter of "unprecedented" demand, Wales' health minister has warned. Eluned Morgan has asked health bosses to prioritise next year and called on the public to take more responsibility for their own health.
She said if people did not change their behaviour, the NHS could have to offer fewer services.
Ms Morgan said: "We have very high levels of ill health in Wales and people can help themselves, do more exercise, stop smoking, eat healthier. If we're not going to see changes in behaviour from the public as well, then we will have to have a situation where we're perhaps offering fewer services.
"What I've asked the NHS to do next year is to focus on five or six priority areas and if they can do anything beyond that, that will be great. We need to understand that there is only so much money in the system and we'll have priority areas that we're going to have to focus on.
"And that will mean very, very difficult decisions for those health boards."
Source: BBC News, 10 January 2022
|
|
Times leading article: Stub It Out
David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI), has written in the Times following a new report from Cancer Research UK revealing government smoking targets are set to be missed. Looking to New Zealand’s bold measures to make them “smoke-free” by 2025, he argues that the UK should step up efforts to tackle smoking.
Rowland points to figures from the report that a million people will contract cancer from cigarettes by 2040 unless “much tougher restrictions” are enforced now. He states that progress in getting people to quit has slowed, with the number of smokers last year, about six million, less than a percentage point down on the total for 2020.
Rowland notes that despite the government’s public commitment for England to become smoke-free by 2030, the funding to support anti-smoking campaigns have fallen, calling the situation a “false economy”. To be able to provide the support that smokers need to quit, Rowland writes that Britain should introduce a levy and follow New Zealand in steadily raising the legal age for buying tobacco.
Source: The Times, 30 December 2022
See also: Cancer Research UK - England slips further off-track for smokefree 2030 target
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk
ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
