The Tories have ruined our health. Here’s what Labor needs to do to repair the damage | Devi Sridhar

IIt is widely accepted among independent public health experts, including former chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, that Britain’s health is deteriorating compared to that of many other countries. This applies to so many indicators – obesity ratescancer survival rates, healthy life expectancy and child malnutrition. Although the modern history of public health is one of progress, in Conservative-held Britain, public health has stagnated and even declined over the past fourteen years. Here are three priorities that would improve life for everyone.

1 Reduce childhood obesity

By 2023, NHS England released data showing that 36.6% of children are aged 10-11 years were overweight, including 22.7% who were obese. Children living in the most deprived areas of the country were more than twice as likely to become obese than children living in wealthy areas. For this reason, childhood obesity is seen as a health marker of poverty. Although the government sees it as a problem, ministers have postponed concrete measures to improve the situation until at least October 2025. So this is what needs to be done: expand and improve free school meals, so that there is less ultra-processed food and more vegetables and contains fruit. ; providing subsidies for healthier options such as fruits, vegetables and grains; and regulate the sale of ultra-processed foods, including misleading health claims on packaging, advertising to children, and multi-purchase promotions.

2 Invest in physical activity

Britain is facing an increasing burden of mental and physical health problems such as depression, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and dementia. There is clear evidence on how regular exercise and exercise reduces the risk of all these conditions, across the lifespan from children to the elderly. The government can help facilitate physical activity by investing in places such as swimming pools, gyms, football and basketball courts, playgrounds, indoor soft plays and green spaces, which also become social and community spaces. In recent years, these types of facilities have been privatized or closed, with the result that exercise has become a luxury good instead of a fundamental citizen right. A new government could reverse this trend by working with local authorities to improve community activity centres.

3 Improve NHS morale

The NHS is at breaking point – or already broken, depending on your definition of a functional healthcare service. The core issues are talked about as if the workforce is the enemy and the cause of those problems, rather than the lifeblood of the system. For example, Rishi Sunak blames striking employees for the long waiting lists, instead of recognizing their concerns about patient safety. Others have used the same accusatory language to talk about immigrants taking their place. In fact, they are immigrants and their children, who do huge amounts of care work within the NHS. The result of the lack of access to care is a growing economically inactive population. An unhealthy workforce means an unhealthy economy. A new administration can take a fresh look at this challenge by engaging senior medical leaders, junior doctors, nurses and support staff as equal partners and finding solutions rather than demonizing them.

All this will require far better management of public health finances than the British public has become accustomed to. For example, the New York Times analyzed 1,200 contracts worth nearly $22 billion during the Covid-19 pandemic and found that about half went to companies run by friends and associates of Conservative Party politicians, or who had no experience in that field . Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has announced that Labor would appoint a new Covid corruption commissioner to track down the billions of pounds that have been lost and return as much of it as possible to the government. It is fair that when this money is recouped, it is put back into the country’s healthcare system in a transparent and direct manner to make up for Tory mismanagement.

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