People must take more responsibility for their own health, says health secretary Matt Hancock

Emphasis on preventative healthcare follows cuts to primary care services, says Labour

Matt Hancock is to announce a green paper focused on prevention (AFP/Getty Images)

People must take more responsibility for managing their own health, the health minister is expected to say, as he launches the latest NHS long-term strategy.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock is to announce a green paper focused on prevention that aims to stop people from slipping into poor health.

The paper, entitled “Prevention is better than cure” will argue for a shift towards primary and community care services, which help people stay well.

Labour said the aims were “laudable”, but warned the government was planning a further £1bn worth of cuts to health services, including public health, next year.

It also said the emphasis on preventative healthcare followed years of Conservative cuts to primary care services.

Addressing the Annual Meeting of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes on Monday, Mr Hancock will say: “Prevention is ... about ensuring people take greater responsibility for managing their own health. It’s about people choosing to look after themselves better, staying active and stopping smoking,

“Making better choices by limiting alcohol, sugar, salt and fat.

“But focusing on the responsibilities of patients isn’t about penalising people. It’s about helping them make better choices, giving them the all the support we can, because we know taking the tough decisions is never easy.”

Mr Hancock will say the “numbers don’t stack up” when it comes to spending on prevention as opposed to treatment.

He will say: “In the UK, we are spending £97bn of public money on treating disease and only £8bn preventing it across the UK.

“You don’t have to be an economist to see those numbers don’t stack up.”

Focusing on prevention will help to tackle health inequality, he will add.

“It can’t be right that today, in England, a boy born in the poorest parts of our country will die nine years earlier, and live 19 more years in poor health, than a boy born in the richest areas.

“That’s why prevention matters. That’s why we need a new 21st century focus on prevention.”

Public Health England will look at “harnessing digital technology” as a form of “predictive prevention”, potentially leading to targeted health advice for people based on their their location and lifestyle.

Duncan Selbie, chief executive Public Health England, said: “We need to move from a system that detects and treats illnesses to one that also predicts and prevents poor health through promoting health in all policies and puts people back in charge of their own health.”

The government’s ambitions to improve public health include reducing loneliness, halving childhood obesity by 2030 and diagnosing three quarters of cancers at stages 1 and 2 by 2028.

At the weekend Theresa May said the Conservatives “are now the natural party of the NHS” and said the Government was putting the public health system, created 70 years ago, on a path to “prosper for another 70 years and more”.

Her words came after Chancellor Philip Hammond found an extra £20.5bn to fund the NHS over the next five years.

Helen Donovan, from the Royal College of Nursing, welcomed Mr Hancock’s plans but urged serious investment at a local level to back them up.

She said: “Matt Hancock must realise his plans will start at a disadvantage as local authorities struggle with planned cuts to public health budgets of almost 4 per cent per year until 2021.

“While it’s clear he sees that prevention isn’t an optional extra, we need to see properly funded, accountable services delivered by a fully staffed nursing workforce backed by adequate resources.”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said:

“The Tories have imposed swingeing cuts to public health services, slashing vital prevention support such as smoking cessation services, sexual health services, substance misuse services and obesity help.

“In local communities, years of cuts and failed privatisation have resulted in health visitor and school nurse numbers falling, whilst children are losing out on the key early years health interventions they need.

“Many of the aims announced today are laudable but the reality is currently a further £1bn worth of cuts to health services including public health are set to be imposed by this Government next year.”

He added that unless the cuts were reversed, the green paper would ”be dismissed as a litany of hollow promises”.

Press Association