NHS cuts?

[observer]

Don't let them kid you, the NHS will no doubt have to take it's share of cuts in the new era of austerity, ( estimated at around ?20billion by 2014?); so aside from the Quango committees and CEOs and any other non-essential admin posts: what NHS services are YOU prepared to lose?

[inky pete]

All smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, obesity reduction and drug rehabilitation programmes for a start.

 

Any project with the words "education" or "awareness" in its description.

 

The NHS is for treating and curing sick and injured people, not for throwing away money on futile attempts to tell us all how to live our lives.

[Sue Durnim]

Sort of agree with Inky Pete,

however I thought that prevention was better than cure?

[Paul Kennedy]

Any project with the words "education"

 

Be careful, Post Graduate Education Training, is very important, it is how Junior Doctors become Consultants, and how trainee GPs become GPs.

[observer]

You've hit on it Sue - the reasoning behind all these lifestyle interventions IS about "prevention", but "prevention" being cheaper ultimately than cure - that's the theory anyway!

[inky pete]

I've yet to see any evidence that the vast amounts of money spent on all these prevention and education projects has actually had any effect at all.

 

We've been throwing money at them for decades now and yet alcohol consumption is at an all time high, obesity is at an all time high, drug use has become a normal part of life in some sections of society, and the number of smokers has only declined because of the tax burden placed on them (although the NHS is very quick to take the credit it!).

 

Interestingly, total tobacco consumption has not dropped by anything like the same percentage as the number of people who class themselves as smokers has. The average number of cigarettes per day smoked by those who do smoke has actually gone up significantly.

 

To me that indicates very strongly that those who have quit (or say they have!) were the less heavy smokers who were at the lowests risks of suffering expensive health problems anyway.

[Sue Durnim]

Inky Pete,

 

If you did not have prevention measures, how much strain and short of cash would the NHS be in now?

 

It must be difficult to quantify 'what ifs'

[inky pete]

If the prevention measures haven't worked - and I still haven't seen any evidence which suggests that they have - then the NHS would be under EXACTLY the strain it is now, but would be LESS short of cash because all of the money spent on failed prevention could have actually been spent on doing something useful.

[observer]

I have to admit to being agnostic on the issue, as it's a two edged sword in any case: if folk pollute their bodies with drugs and junk food, there will no doubt be a surge in medical support, as they try to overcome the consequences of their lifestyle aquired ailments - early death. However, that "early death" in itself will no doubt provide an overall saving in pensions and elderly care. Conversley, a healthier lifestyle may prolong life spans, but that may not necessarilly mean extending the quality of that life, and indeed, the costs of elderly care will no doubt soar - unless they authorise euthanasia!

[Bazj]

I gave up smoking with the NHS and now eat lots of sweets instead so instead of dying of lung cancer, it will probably be obesity that gets me!!

[observer]

Diabetes!