In the latest blog by BJSS, they’ve raised how our health and care needs have changed dramatically since most modern healthcare systems were conceived. According to BJSS, we now lead very different lifestyles, live considerably longer and increasingly with multiple long-term conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and dementia. At the same time, populations have soared and become much more diverse whilst health inequalities within them have widened.
All of this contributes to a huge increase in the volume and complexity of demand that our hospitals and other health and care providers are faced with. Factor in the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and multiple global financial crises and we end with today’s situation where global health and care systems are at breaking point. The NHS is in complete crisis from ambulance response times to bed logjams to an exhausted, disaffected workforce and patient satisfaction at an all-time low.
Fundamentally, BJSS states that the way in which our health systems have been designed – to treat the patient once they become ill – is no longer fit for purpose.
BJSS goes into more details on the need to tackle the more complex challenge of how to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place. How do we identify individuals and groups at most risk of becoming ill, or most at risk of being unable or unlikely to access services? How do we design targeted interventions that proactively support people to manage their health and care in the community and therefore protect secondary care services for those that need them most?
Read more on their website.