IN MY VIEW ... START GOOD HABITS EARLY

HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock has noted that we spend almost £100 billion annually on treatment, but less than £10billion on the prevention of ill health and he’s announced a new era of prevention as a pillar of the NHS Long Term Plan.

It is a first step — but I don’t feel he is going far enough. The NHS accounts for more than 23 per cent of spending on public services but this is predicted to rise to nearly 40 per cent. It is a lot of money, but our performance for many basic measures to improve the nation’s health lags behind that of many countries.

UK survival rates for breast cancer are a decade behind France and we are second only to Bulgaria for worst five-year survival for lung cancer.

Mr Hancock is determined that prevention will, in part, come from people taking greater care and accepting greater responsibility for themselves. Fair enough. Yet, while no one would dispute the need to encourage more people to take measures to improve their well being I urge him and those at the top of the NHS to liaise with equal determination with their peers in education, for this policy of prevention must start with children at school.

What we need is funding for learning about food and nutrition, and reinstating a programme of sport and exercise — now sadly lacking with only one in 30 children getting the amount of physical activity recommended by the Chief Medical Officer, reports the Journal of Physical Activity & Health.

Surely to turn the health of the nation we need to teach the next generation not just how to read and write but also what steps to take to ensure their life is a long and healthy one.