UK Government has announced that an extra £20.5 billion a year will be given to the NHS, one of the key priorities being the prevention of ill health.
Currently the UK spends £97 billion treating diseases but only £8 billion preventing them.
In the UK alone, nearly two thirds of adults and a quarter of children are overweight or obese increasing the risk of a variety of diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Obesity-related ill health is costing the NHS £6 billion a year and £27 billion to the wider society, while the total cost of type 2 diabetes currently sits at £24 billion a year.
Yet many of the diseases putting a significant strain on our NHS are not inevitable. They can and should be prevented.
