Our health service is unwell. You’ve read the news stories – staff at breaking point, pitiless waiting times, patients languishing in corridors. The problems it faces are deep and knotty – but hope is not lost. For this series, Men's Health assembled a team of field-leading thinkers to share their strategies. Here are their prescriptions. To read each article in full, follow the links below.

‘Tech Can Achieve Things We Always Wanted But Never Could’

By Rt Hon Alan Milburn, Secretary of State for Health 1999-2003

‘Some of this is about money, but it’s largely about where we get the system focused. Healthcare is undergoing a wholesale revolution where the alignment of data analytics and genomic science is beginning to allow us to concentrate on predicting and inhibiting ill health, rather than purely diagnosing and caring for patients. This is what we should be focusing on. But to do that, we need to change how staff are trained, how the workforce is configured, how resources are provided. We need a new 10-year plan.’

Read the full article here

how to save the nhs mens health
Illustration by Ryan Todd

‘To Get People Into Healthcare, We Need To Increase Morale’

By Max Pemberton, NHS psychiatrist, journalist and author

‘We’re seeing billions of pounds haemorrhaged on agency staff. It’s creating a downward spiral: there are gaps in provision, so the staff already there are placed under more pressure and more of them leave.

‘I think the strikes pose an interesting question. At what point would you, as a doctor or nurse, accept unbearable working conditions for better pay? At what point would the stress be worth it for the remuneration? I’d suggest that first we need to increase morale.’

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‘We Can Learn From Countries With Better Outcomes’

By Tim Knox, author of the International Health Care Outcomes Index 2022

‘The first and most important thing is to rule out any suggestion that we should have anything resembling a US style of healthcare. By nearly every measure, the American system fails: worse outcomes, extremely high costs, appalling inequity. But what we can do is to learn from the countries that do have better health outcomes than us, those that preserve the principle that everyone has access to first-class healthcare, irrespective of their ability to pay; where public, patient and staff satisfaction is high; and where the financial costs of healthcare are supportable. Many other countries meet these criteria.’

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‘We Tend To Treat People Far Too Late’

By Dr Raghib Ali, Chief Medical Officer at Our Future Health and NHS consultant

‘If I can say to you, “This is your risk of this disease and this is what you should do, based on what we already know about you,” that’s what’s called personalised prevention, which is relatively new.

‘We think about 80% of your health outcomes are based on social determinants of health – where you live, your economic situation, your job, etc. People in the most deprived areas live up to 20 years less than those in the least deprived areas. Fixing that inequality is important. But it’s also about giving people the ability to make informed choices.’

Read the full article here

how to save the nhs mens health
Illustration by Ryan Todd

‘Today’s Pressures Stem From A Decade-Long Lack Of Funding’

By Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive of The Health Foundation

‘The pressures we’re seeing now are because of a fundamental lack of resilience, due to underinvestment, a failure to address chronic staff shortages, and the neglect of adult social care. This is a political failure.

In 2019, per capita public spending on health in the UK was £2,646.95 – well below France (£3,307.54) and Germany (£4,131.21). Spending on health capital – buildings, equipment and IT – was also lower than other advanced health systems. Even before the effects of the pandemic were felt, NHS performance against a range of important indicators was the worst on record.’

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‘We Are A Population That Drinks, Smokes And Take Too Many Drugs’

By Will Self, journalist and author

‘The solution lies in a taking back of responsibility for health on the part the individual. Yes, it’s easy to be bedazzled by what medical science can do – it does, indeed, approximate to magic when compared with the healthcare practices of the very recent past. But if we want to revert to a statistical view rather than indulging in individual credulousness, the fact is that if we, as a society, halved our drinking, quadrupled our exercise, and cut out refined sugar altogether, both the crises in social care and the NHS one would belong to the past.’

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‘The NHS Is Swamped. Pharmacies Want More Work’

By Dr Nick Thayer, Head of Policy at the Company Chemists’ Association

‘The NHS estimates that, in England, there are 20 million GP appointments a year that could be treated in a community pharmacy. That’s a big number! Twenty million appointments could be moved over right now.

Many GP surgeries can already refer you to a pharmacy. The problem is, that doesn’t help – because you’ve got to go to the GP in the first place to get referred. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare.’

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‘It's Time To Rethink The Whole System’

By Sebastian Rees, senior researcher at public services think-tank Reform

‘Many of our modern health giants are avoidable. From type 2 diabetes to heart disease, addressing the circumstances that lead to unhealthy choices can help shift the dial. That means a massive movement of resources away from treatment and towards prevention. It means dismantling our hospital-centric model.

‘Obsessing about healthcare is not the same thing as obsessing about health. Failing to recognise that feeds our seemingly insatiable – and ultimately unaffordable – demand for more clinical care.’

Read the full article here