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HEALTH

Good health is something that most of us are able to take for granted, for most of our lives. Even so, we will all require some form of healthcare at some point - even if only to pass a medical as part of a job application.

However, healthcare is literally a matter of life and death to very many people in our society. The National Health Service is our single biggest employer in the world and every family in the country has some contact on a regular basis.

Access to methods of disease prevention and treatment is a vital part of our modern society - and the current threat of a pandemic is concentrating people's thinking even more in recent weeks:

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in England has jumped by nearly 20% in a single day, latest figures show.

The Health Protection Agency statistics show that 535 new cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the total to 3,364.

Up to 15,000 people aged over 75 may be dying unnecessarily from cancer each year in the UK, according to research.

The North West Cancer Intelligence Service said their lives would be prolonged if UK cancer survival rates matched the best in Europe and the US.

Researchers said delays in diagnosing cancer in the UK and poorer treatment after diagnosis may be to blame.

The government's national cancer director said urgent action was needed over the study's findings.

Thousands of people in England and Wales are unaware they may have a high genetic risk of heart disease because testing is patchy, doctors warn.

When people are diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia - an inherited condition causing high cholesterol - family members should also be screened.

NHS Direct can be the first point of contact for people who are in need of medical advice but are unable to easily access their own gp.

This service provides health advice or information 24 hours a day, by telephoneon (0845 4647), digital TV or online.
Calls to NHS Direct are answered by a nurse who is able to give confidential advice and information.

Advice is available according to symptoms and general health information is offered on particular conditions such as diabetes and allergies.

NHS Direct can also tell you how and where to access a doctor, pharmacist, dentist, optician, support group or other health services.

NHS Direct also offers an online facility for those who want to try to determine the causes of their symptoms without discussion with anyone else at http://www.selfhelpguide.nhs.uk/

The NHS has benefitted from a tripling in funding since 1997 - but much of this money is being wasted through a lack of health promotion programmes.

Currently only 1% of the NHS budget is spent on promoting healthly living.

This 1% proportion is unchanged in twenty years, despite the potentially vast saving of resources that preventive programmes could provide.

It has to be far more cost-effective in money terms as well as quality of life measures to offer effective methods to help people stop smoking, than to treat their emphesema, lung cancer or macular degeneration later on.

Likewise, services promoting healthy eating, physical activity, safe sex behaviours along with alcohol education projects and mental health support can, long term, provide significant saving of precious NHS resources.

NHS money is often not wisely spent: far too many people are unneccessarily referred to hospital.

Accident and Emergency departments are overwhelmed by patients who could be adequately managed by their GP.

The practice of "defensive medicine" (doctors ordering extra tests to avoid the possibility of claims of negligence) means that too many people are being referred for unnecessary investigations.

Too many patients are taking expensive drugs when their doctors have access to perfectly adequate, cheaper alternatives.

The single most effective method of reducing overall health service costs over the life of any given patient is to increase spending on preventative healthcare - with patient education given higest priority.

Established programmes have been shown to help prevent chronic conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancers, chronic lung disease and mental illness.

All of these conditions create a huge burden for the health service.

As our population ages, we will require greater spending on healthcare.

But promoting health and wellbeing, and preventing disease, will keep people in better physical and mental shape and therefore less dependent on drugs and expensive treatments.

If we aim to put life into years rather than simply add years to our lives, we can sacrifice the modern day medical "god" of longevity.

Quality, not quantity of life should be the overriding aim of our health service spending.

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