Focus on prevention to tackle falling healthy life expectancy

Responding to analysis by the Health Foundation showing that healthy life expectancy in the UK has fallen, the director of policy at The NHS Alliance, Dr Layla McCay, said:

"The figures are a stark reminder of how deeply health inequalities are affecting people’s lives, with too many communities in deprived areas spending more years in poor health.

"Our members have been clear that the answer has to be prevention first - tackling the wider determinants of health, strengthening community-based care and improving access to support closer to home.

"The government’s neighbourhood health direction is the right one, but the test now is whether  local systems, councils and voluntary sector partners get the resources and flexibility needed to turn that ambition into real action that will narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy.

"If we don’t make this a priority, the gap could widen."