I spent an evening recently in Canary Wharf that sought to discuss the future for healthcare in the UK and how we might begin to seriously tackle the big health issues, such as obesity, that affect the UK.  The evening also touched on how technology might provide new opportunities to deliver better healthcare for less.

There are already some interesting developments in this arena in terms of both clinical services (e.g. telehealth in Kent) and improved mechanisms to provide feedback on healthcare experiences (e.g. Patient Opinion).

What has continued to elude clinicians and other interested parties is a service or mechanism that intervenes early to prevent problems. It is sadly too late to decide to quit smoking in response to a diagnosis of lung cancer. As one respected clinician recently told me, and I’m sure others will have heard before:

“We don’t have a National Health Service, we have a National Illness Service”

With the country on the cusp of a general election, it will be interesting to learn more about how the NHS will be prepared for a future in which the demand pressures will be unprecedented. The NHS is a topic that has largely gone undiscussed in this election campaign, certainly it did not form a significant part of the Prime Ministerial Debates, which might lead one to believe that little will change in the NHS over the course of the next 5 years. But, if ‘health’ is to be put back into the NHS, something will need to change (and as if on cue…).