GETTING THE WORD OUT

ASTELLAS INNOVATION DEBATE
Supported by New Scientist
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN PAGE
Our Healthcare:
Situation critical?
Ageing populations, expanding waistlines and stricter
budgets are making the future uncertain for healthcare
systems. How should they prepare, ask a panel of experts
at the Astellas Innovation Debate in London
When Trish Greenhalgh
broke a few bones in an
unfortunate accident, she
went to her local accident and
emergency department. What she
wasn’t expecting was a 6 hour wait
on a hospital trolley to get the
treatment she needed. As professor
of primary care health sciences at
the University of Oxford, she is no
stranger to the trials and tribulations
of the National Health Service but
cites her experience as an example
of a service undergoing a crisis.
For her, the reasons for the delay
are clear. “GPs are so stressed that
they are taking time off, so patients
go to accident and emergency
instead,” she told an expert panel
and an audience of invited guests
Trish Greenhalgh says GP morale is low
at the Astellas Innovation Debate
2016 at the Royal Institution in
London in February. “The whole
system is at breaking point.”
So what needs to be done? To
address this question, the Astellas
Innovation Debate drew together
a wide range of healthcare experts
to share their ideas.
Norman Lamb, health
spokesperson for the Liberal
Democrats and a former minister
of health in the UK, painted a stark
picture. “I feel we are sleepwalking
“While the UK spends
£1 in every £12 on
health, the US spends
$1 in every $6”
towards a crash in the healthcare
system in this country,” he said in
his keynote speech.
But other health systems face
similar challenges. “Across the
developed world, costs are rising
at about 4 per cent a year, and they
have done throughout the postwar
period,” he said.
The reasons are many. For a
start, we are living longer and with
higher levels of chronic disease.
“The number of people with three
or more chronic conditions is
projected to rise by 50 per cent by
2019,” he said.
SQUEEZED BUDGETS
All this is set against a backdrop
of ever tighter budgets, particularly
in the UK, where the NHS is
expected to have a funding deficit
of £30 billion by 2020. Lamb says
that only five OECD countries
spend less per capita on health
than the UK; all of them former
Soviet bloc countries in Eastern
Europe. “In terms of our spending
on health, we’re way behind
countries like Germany, France,
the Netherlands and so on.”
But simply spending more
money is not the answer, says
Lamb. Some healthcare systems
26 | NewScientist | 2 April 2016