The UK will fail to meet international commitments to reduce deaths from preventable diseases – Richmond Group

The UK will fail to meet international commitments on reducing deaths from preventable diseases unless it prioritises the prevention of ill health, warn leading health charities.

Without a national plan for health improvement, led by the Prime Minister, the World Health Organisation’s target of reducing preventable deaths by 25% by 2025 simply will not be met.

The call was made in a new report – What is preventing progress? – from The Richmond Group of Charities which makes clear that if this goal is to be achieved, local and national government, the NHS, public services, the private sector, charities and patients must all work together to put prevention first.

The report highlights how in England tackling common risk factors such as smoking, inactivity, unhealthy diet and alcohol would drastically reduce the number of people affected by common diseases such as heart disease, cancer, lung disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and stroke, while helping to prevent or delay the onset of conditions like dementia.

The report also emphasises the importance of supporting those who already suffer from long term conditions so that they can take control of their condition, and reduce the risk of a life-threatening episode, a condition progressing or other illnesses developing. While much of the responsibility for these areas is devolved in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, many of the basic health challenges remain the same.

Last month, NHS England formally recognised the need for a radical upgrade in prevention and public health as part of its NHS Five Year Forward View. This ambition offers a welcome momentum, which political leaders should seize to make clear that they too are getting serious about prevention.

The report outlines nine key calls to action through which political leaders and key decision-makers can ensure disease prevention is placed at the top of the agenda. These include:

• A national plan for health improvement, led by the Prime Minister
• Making public health the business of all Government, with all new policies and publicly funded programmes being assessed for their impact on health, and
• Making prevention a key consideration in local authority responsibilities.

The report highlights that while real action on prevention must be led from the very top – by the Prime Minister – it must also be prioritised throughout government, reaching across health through to education, housing, transport, planning, licensing and regulation.

Chris Askew, Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said:

“Preventable ill health costs the NHS and costs the economy, but more importantly means avoidable suffering. We know that many diseases – including breast cancer – have common lifestyle risk factors, and simple but effective measures can help individuals take control of their risk and manage existing conditions.

“We urgently need a clear plan for how we tackle these risk factors and support everyone to live healthier lives, and this will require everyone across government, the NHS, public services, the private sector, charities and patients to work together. Prevention must be a top priority as we enter an election year if we are to prevent tens of thousands of people dying needlessly, and living with avoidable conditions.”

Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “The Government’s target of reducing preventable deaths by 25% by 2025 is at serious risk.

“They urgently need to take more action to tackle smoking, physical inactivity, alcohol and unhealthy diets to drastically reduce the number of people with heart disease.

“Tens of thousands are dying unnecessarily from heart disease, and hundreds of thousands more have to live with the burden of a condition which is largely preventable.

“A clear prevention strategy is crucial for cutting the number of deaths and cutting costs for the NHS that is already buckling under the strain.

“Everyone has a role to play in this. Along with taking steps to improve our health, we need to make it clear to politicians how important this issue is to patients, carers and the general public.”

Dr Lou Atkins, from the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London said:

“The key to success in preventing ill health will be to take a co-ordinated approach at policy, community and individual levels. It’s not as simple as telling people what they should and shouldn’t be doing to take care of themselves and those around them. The facilitators and barriers to behaviour change are complex and implementing changes that can reduce the risk of developing certain diseases is no mean feat.

“We must harness all of our collective efforts and draw on behavioural science. Only through doing that will we achieve significant progress in disease prevention. I’m pleased that ten of our major UK charities are choosing to highlight the vital importance of this collective action and hope that our political leaders will take up their calls.”

The social and economic costs of preventable disease are enormous: The Office of National Statistics has estimated that nearly one in four deaths are potentially avoidable, amounting to more than 100,000 deaths every year. This does not include the many thousands living with disability or ill health as a result of preventable disease. Furthermore, the cost to the NHS for treating preventable disease could increase by £5bn a year between 2011 and 2018, while more than 100,000 deaths could be prevented if appropriate systems were in place.

Jon Barrick, chief executive of the Stroke Association said: 

"Disease prevention has to be addressed at a national level to ease pressure on health services and diminish needless suffering.  The Stroke Association estimates up to 80% of strokes could be prevented, that is potentially 121 600 strokes prevented every year. As a charity, we do a lot to educate and support people to adopt healthy lifestyles but there is so much that could be achieved if prevention became a national policy.

Behaviours that reduce the risk of having a stroke, like not smoking, regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet also reduce your risk for other conditions. Supporting people to live a healthy lifestyle is particularly important for people who have already had a stroke. We need a national plan for health improvement that brings together charities, individuals, health services and government to make a real difference and save lives"

Statistics

Delivering on the WHO goals in England will be challenging.  It will, for example, require that by 2025 there will be:

·  2,600,000 fewer adults in the smoking population;

·  1,300,000 people becoming physically active

·  9,900,000 people bringing their salt intake down to recommended maximum daily levels, and

·  430,000 fewer adults drinking at harmful levels

Key facts

• 1 in 4 of the UK adult population is at high risk of Type 2 diabetes, but up to 80% of cases could be delayed or prevented
• 75% of cardiovascular disease is preventable
• 3 people die every single day because of asthma, yet 2 of these deaths are preventable
• Up to 80% of strokes are preventable
  
• Smoking is responsible for over 80% of all deaths from lung cancer and COPD
• Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by changes in lifestyle behaviours
• Modifiable risk factors account for over half of the disease burden in later life
• Up to 30% of cases of Alzheimer’s disease are attributable to modifiable risk factors
• If every woman in the UK was regularly physically active, 9,000 fewer women would develop breast cancer each year
• Walking for a mile at a moderate pace each day could reduce prostate cancer patients’ risk of dying from the disease by 30%

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