Health is made at home, hospitals are for repairs: Building a healthy and health-creating society

by Nigel Crisp

The NHS has been fighting for our lives for the last few weeks and months. Throwing all its resources at the COVID-19 pandemic. The millions of health and care workers involved have been magnificent and we must resource them better for the future.And it’s been up to us, the general public, how far and how fast the virus spreads. There will still be a vital role for us when this pandemic is over because the NHS can’t by itself deal with many of today’s major health problems such as loneliness, stress, obesity, poverty and addictions. It can only react, doing the repairs but not dealing with the underlying causes.There are people all over the country who are tackling these causes in their homes, workplaces and communities. People like the Berkshire teachers working with children excluded from school, the unemployed men in Salford improving their community; and the bankers tackling mental health in the City.They are not just preventing disease but creating health. And they take pressure off the NHS, so it is always there when we need it.Health is made at home challenges us to set aside our normal assumptions and take off our NHS spectacles to see the world differently and take control of our health. And it calls for a new partnership between the NHS, government and the general public to build a healthy and health creating society.

257 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2020

Reviews

[Shalini · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of creating health, rather than treating disease is excellent. Lord Crisp offers some clear directions for what needs to change. However some of the examples are problematic such as a trust portrayed to work with community needs, when all it has done is sold hospital land to property developers. Also these changes need sustained investment, the criticism of austerity measures and its impact on programmes that create health is far too mild. The call for Britain, with its entrenched racism, colonial past and role as a global bully, to be global health leader is an issue even when he alludes to a two-way exchange.

[Dr Ian M Newington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book making the case for creating health rather than fixing ill health. It will be really challenging to make this switch but some serious investment is important if this is going to happen. Some great case studies of what is already happening in small pockets arounf the UK and the world.