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How can we fix the NHS crisis? Three solutions
Times Health Commission correspondents, Georgia Lambert, Eleanor Hayward and Bernard Lagan, discuss how virtual wards, surgery cameras and a smoking ban could alleviate NHS pressures.
On virtual wards and surgery cameras, the authors argue innovative interventions that allow patients and surgeons to access and monitor healthcare remotely may pose a number of benefits.
On a smoking ban, Lagan and Lambert highlight the £2.6 billion a year smoking costs the NHS and cite comments made by shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, that, if elected, Labour would phase out cigarette sales all together to ease pressure on the NHS. The authors state, “Streeting said he is interested in a similar policy to New Zealand, which is trying to eliminate tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes.”
The authors also state, “While some politicians fear that shops heavily reliant on cigarette sales will go out of business, polling suggests overwhelming popular support among young people for the measures New Zealand is taking”, and cite research which shows “96% [of university students] supported the smoke-free goal”.
Source: The Times, 17 January 2023
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Cake in the office should be viewed like passive smoking, says food regulator chief
Bringing cake into the office should be seen as harmful to your colleagues in the same way as passive smoking, Professor Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Strategy, has said.
Professor Jebb also expressed frustration with ministers’ decision to delay a television watershed for junk food advertising, which she said led to a “complete market failure” that marginalised healthy products.
She urged doctors to be more willing to broach the topic of patients’ weight and offer diet help, saying that despite obesity being bad for the nation’s health medics “mostly ignore it”.
While saying the two issues were not identical, Jebb argued that passive smoking inflicted harm on others “and exactly the same is true of food”. She argued: “With smoking, after a very long time, we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment. But we still don’t feel like that about food.”
A succession of prime ministers have repeatedly rowed back on anti-obesity measures because of the apparent difficulty of reconciling the need to improve the nation’s health and reduce pressure on the NHS with Conservative hostility to “nanny state” measures.
Source: The Times, 17 January 2023
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Why do we keep getting NHS reform wrong?
Writing for Reaction, Programme Director at the Future Health Research Centre, Richard Sloggett, discusses the history of ‘NHS reform’ and why previous attempts to reform the NHS have failed.
Sloggett argues the reason why attempts to reform the NHS have historically failed is because they ignore “the main problem the NHS faces”: capacity. Citing research from the Kings Fund, OECD, and Imperial College London, Sloggett argues, a lack of beds, a lack of the right equipment, a low functioning estate and staffing issues are the key problems facing the NHS.
However, Sloggett also argues, “we find ourselves not in an NHS crisis, but a healthcare crisis. And it is only by looking at it through this wider lens that we can start to properly address it.” He states, “if you have a population in poorer health, they will need more healthcare and overwhelm the health system at times of pressure […], if you do not invest and improve social care, given demographic shifts you will find your health system cannot function as beds are full.”
Sloggett highlights the abandoned health inequalities white paper, the “ignored” Khan Review on smoking, “long grassed” obesity policy, and delayed social care reform.
Sloggett concluded, “[…] if the next Government really wants to support the NHS long-term, they are going to need to start investing more fundamentally in both public health and social care […]”.
Source: Reaction, 16 January 2023
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Australia: Victorian mayor calls on councils to follow lead after banning gambling ads at local sports games
A local mayor in Victoria has encouraged councils across Australia to follow her lead and ban all gambling advertisements at local sport matches rather than waiting for state or federal action.
The City of Monash’s anti-gambling policy, believed to be the first of its kind in Australia, is facing coordinated opposition from local sports clubs that warn they could be forced to close, and from gaming venues that feel unfairly targeted.
According to the policy, sports clubs that continue to display the logos of sponsors that have gambling machines will eventually be banned from council grounds and clubhouses. At the moment, these logos appear on some jerseys, websites, newsletters and billboards around council grounds.
City of Monash mayor, Tina Samardzija, said local governments should “absolutely” play a bigger role in preventing gambling harm and dismissed claims that councils should not be involved in social policy.
Source: The Guardian, 14 January 2023
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House of Commons debate: Cancer Outcomes: Tees Valley
On Monday 16th January, Simon Clarke, Conservative MP for Middlesborough South and East Cleveland, led a debate on cancer outcomes in Tees Valley.
Mr Clarke stated:
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Cancer screening is at the heart of making sure we improve cancer care nationally as well as locally […]
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The north-east of England has the highest age standardised cancer rate of any English region for both men and women
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Smoking and obesity rates are higher in Tees Valley than the national average
Responding for the Government, Minister of State for Health and Social Care, Helen Whately stated:
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There is more that we can and should do to prevent people, both nationally and in the Tees Valley, from developing cancer in the first place, such as policies that help people maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle and stop smoking, and promoting the uptake of the HPV vaccine, particularly in groups where coverage is lower
Source: Hansard, 16 January 2023
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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.
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