UK Health ‘Crisis’ – cause and effect example
There is a health crisis in the UK and much of the Western World due to rapidly rising levels of obesity, heart disease, an ageing population kept alive by medical advances, and many stress related illnesses including mental health breakdowns. Doctors, nurses, administrators and researchers are bravely trying to keep up and the Government has tried hard to give the service the funding it needs.
Much has been achieved and in the UK we have one of the finest National Health Services in the World. Paid for by our taxes and therefore ‘free’ on the point of entry, it is obvious that the system will not be able to cope in the future due to increasing elderly and unhealthy people.
Imagine the analogy of an Olympic athlete doing the high jump, being trained using the finest most expensive training methods, eating a specially medically ordered top quality diet, low in fats and high in carbohydrate, having the best shoes, jumping slightly higher each year as the bar is raised.
Then imagine that same athlete being told they now have to undergo a lot more stress before they jump and eat a very unhealthy diet full of saturated poor quality fats, sugar and salt for a month before the competition but still jump higher. No, we can’t imagine that because it is stupid and obvious it will not work.
So why is the Government pumping billions of pounds into making the National Health Service the finest high jumper in the World, then allowing the food industry to produce huge amounts of poor quality, over processed food full of saturated fats, sugar and salt which is leading to the system being overwhelmed by sick people. One reason is the might of the food industry and their lobbying power. But the same food industry could still make a lot of profits from producing healthy alternatives.
The NHS has therefore been forced into being a ‘sickness service’ rather than a ‘health service’ because health relates to the whole system including food, agriculture, work, exercise, leisure, housing, education, relationships and the economy. You can’t solve the health crisis by just fixing one, we need a joined up system that links them all together.
It is difficult for Government – we have free will as a core principle of our society, but this has to be balanced by individual responsibility as well as education. But taking the simple model to analyse this health problem:
Causes > effects > current system used > has this fixed problem > remedies >
leading to design and implementation of new system more clearly linked to change
UK Health Crisis
Causes – already identified by experts as
i) poor nutrition,
ii) unhealthy processed food full of too much fat, especially saturated fats, as well as sugar, and salt together with chemical additives and pesticide residues
iii) sedentary lifestyles, not enough exercise
iv) too much stress leading to increased physical and mental health problems
v) genetic problems
vi)increase in numbers of the elderly needing complex care
Effects – National Health Service does an amazing job treating thousands of people successfully yet cannot cope despite huge increase in funding and it will get much worse however much it is funded
Current system used to solve problem –
i) train more doctors and pay them a lot more
ii)provide huge extra funding for equipment and to provide more capacity
iii) carry out low level education campaign about healthy eating and exercise
iv) work with food industry to establish voluntary labelling and reduction in fats, sugar and salt Has this fixed problem – No, though extra capacity within the health service has helped for now but increasing obesity, sedentary lifestyles and mental health issues have been described as a time bomb by health professionals. Voluntary labelling and reduction of fats, sugar and salt offset by huge amount of cheap (only because consequent poor health costs are not built in) poor quality food still on the market. Genetic research under way to treat diseases such as Alzheimers in the future but could take 30 years. Work and huge credit and mortgage repayments put people under more strain and stress than ever before.
Remedies –
i) Treat the cause not the effects – make standard government health warning labelling of food compulsory within 3 years (as has been done with cigarettes) to give food industry time to change
ii) Ban hydrogenated and trans fats from processed foods and set mandatory limits on saturated fats, sugar, salt and chemical additives and pesticide residues within 3 years, coupled with advice to consumers about how much mono and poly unsaturated fats these can be replaced with
iii) put greater taxes on food known to be unhealthy on the ‘polluter pays’ principle which can be put towards illness prevention . Cost rises will cut demand for them.
iv) train expert nutritionists to be part of every GP practice and provide free cookery classes for adults, as well as crèche facilities for single parents and subsidy vouchers for fresh healthy food . Reintroduce cooking, horticulture, agriculture and shopping to the school curriculum for all
v) train GP’s to a higher standard in preventative health care including diet and nutrition and how to prescribe exercise
vi) Provide budgeting, purchasing, storage, preparation and cooking for taste, nutrition and health practical help in GP practices to show families how they can eat healthy food at low cost
vii) provide counselling sessions at GP’s surgeries to help spot and alleviate stress early on and teach coping strategies and exercise
viii) design urban areas and road pricing to encourage people to walk or cycle to work and to shop where feasible, or prepare a costed plan to make these changes within the next 15 years
ix) Offer those at greatest risk sophisticated screening tests such as CRP below 3 for cardio vascular disease
New system –
Use the remedies above and :
i). new system needs to be joined up so that the National Health Service is given the resources to spend time working with people, to avoid future illness rather than treating the illness when it is already causing problems.
ii). The food industry needs to be part of the solution, not the problem, and to be forced to do so via a combination of incentives, education, taxes and where necessary, regulation. The food industry could work with the Health Service to provide more nutritious healthy natural food and to be a key part of the educational process.
iii). Individuals need more education about health and food and to take more individual responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
iv) The financial system needs to be restructured to move away from the reliance on credit, and to take less ‘profit’ by helping people become more financially self sufficient which will help build ‘worldwide health and wealth’.
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