“A true focus on prevention… means our GP surgeries, our hospitals, our care homes, our entire health and care system working more closely with local authorities, schools, businesses, charities and all the other parts that make up our communities.”
The words of Health Secretary Matt Hancock this week, as he outlined his vision of the role of prevention in keeping us all healthy and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Ambitions to shift the NHS’s strategic emphasis from firefighting illness to preventing poor health in the first place are certainly not new. And after years of concern over funding for public health, can the touch paper really catch light this time?
The Secretary of State talks of ‘prioritising investment in primary and community healthcare, where the majority of primary prevention in the health and social care system is likely to occur.’ Place is fundamental to this, in every sense of the word. The strategy puts the work of prevention squarely in our communities: it is about how people, projects and organisations can work together to help us all live more healthily. That includes physical spaces, and the buildings where we access healthcare services should be leading the way: pleasant spaces to spend time in; designs which encourage us to engage with health experts and support before we get poorly. Adequate space to accommodate growing health workforces together in the community, and to link clinical services far more closely with social prescribing projects. Facilities which are fit for the purpose of healthcare in the future; able to accommodate all the opportunities that emerging technology will bring.
The forthcoming ten year plan for the NHS and next year’s Spending Review will set the scene for the capital investment needed to support this vision; to underpin the efforts of that range of workforces to work more closely together on preventative healthcare – from GPs and pharmacists to physiotherapists, health visitors, sexual health specialists and occupational therapists.
Government has set the strategic place for prevention. In the planning that follows, we mustn’t forget about the physical.
Jonathan Murphy is our CEO
Read more of how buildings can support a mix of primary care services under one roof.