Over the past year the President of the BMA for 2021-22, Prof Neena Modi, has been compiling her President’s Report “Valuing health: why prioritising population health is essential to prosperity”
Valuing health: Why prioritising population health is essential to prosperity
This sets out that good population health is essential for sustainable economic growth and looks at the fact that often government policy takes the flawed view that economic growth drives population health, and that it fails to recognise the role of population health in driving economic prosperity. This has led to a failure of successive governments to prioritise health, creating a ‘ticking time-bomb’ of ill-health.
The report details three key actions:
· Improving how governments measure success, moving away from the narrow economic index of GDP and ensuring that health indicators are central to how success is measured.
· Ensuring cross-government accountability for population health that transcends political party boundaries.
· Improving appraisal guidance and mechanisms to ensure policy-makers consider the health impacts of any new decisions.
Wales
From a Welsh perspective, this report compares the policies of Welsh Government with UK Government and other devolved nations and, at times, recommends that UK Government should adopt policies and approaches that have been taken by Welsh Government.
In particular, Prof Modi recommends that Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, and the Future Generations Commissioner which stemmed from this, should be replicated in other parts of the UK.
The report in full can be accessed here, while a brief outline of the report can also be found here
