17 May 2024 More funding for prevention before the NHS goes bust!
Time for a prevention-led model to rebuild the nation’s health
BANT 2024 Election Manifesto – A call for change!
Healthcare funding has not kept pace with demand, and cost pressures within the NHS have left it at imminent risk of collapse.
In 2021, total healthcare expenditure in the UK was calculated as £280.7 billion, equating to £4,188 per person with just 5-6% allocated for preventive care, eventually doubling in response to the pandemic (1).
If the NHS was only dealing with acute care this provision may be considered adequate. However, obesity alone costs the NHS 58 billion a year, equivalent to 20% of the annual expenditure. (2) Chronic diseases are now demanding far more of the healthcare budget .
In the US, 86% of health care costs are attributable to chronic disease, creating an unfinanceable epidemic (3). The UK is following a similar trajectory. In the US, 50% of the population is living with a chronic disease whilst in the UK the 45.7% of men and 50.1% of women report having a long-standing chronic health problem (4).
BANT is calling for the Government to increase funding provisions to facilitate the NHS transition towards a prevention-led model and relieve the pressure on General Practitioners, who too often are the front line in chronic care.
We need funding now to invest in long-term initiatives to change the current health trajectory. Funding, together with an expansion of the workforce would pave the way for a prevention-led model to bring in experts in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to focus on diet-induced chronic illness and allow for:
- An expansion of social prescribing to facilitate referrals to Professional Standards Authority (PSA) -accredited nutrition practitioners.
- Funding of nutrition consultations for patients with food-mediated illnesses.
- Introduction of government-funded healthy food prescriptions to empower GPs to prescribe healthy whole foods.
Download the full manifesto here or access our online flipbook.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- Office for National Statistics. (2020). Healthcare expenditure, UK health accounts: 2018. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/bulletins/ukhealthaccounts/2021
- Cost of Obesity: Frontier Economics, accessed 02 May 2024
- Holman HR. The Relation of the Chronic Disease Epidemic to the Health Care Crisis. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2020 Mar;2(3):167-173. doi: 10.1002/acr2.11114. Epub 2020 Feb 19. PMID: 32073759; PMCID: PMC7077778.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/ukhealthindicators/2019to2020#:~:text=Almost%20half%20of%20the%20UK,months%20than%20men%20(18.5%25)
BANT is the leading professional body for Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners in one-to-one clinical practice and a self-regulator for BANT Registered Nutritionists®. BANT members combine a network approach to complex systems, incorporating the latest science from genetic, epigenetic, diet and nutrition research to inform individualised recommendations. BANT oversees the activities, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of its members.
Registered Nutritional Therapists are regulated by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) that holds an Accredited Voluntary Register (AVR) for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). A report by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Professional Standards Agency made a key recommendation that AVR practitioners have the authority to make direct NHS referrals, in appropriate cases, to ease the administrative burden on GP surgeries. BANT nutrition practitioners are the key workforce asset to harness 21st-century lifestyle medicine to tackle the rising tide of stress-related fatigue, obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, dementia and other chronic diseases.
To find a BANT nutrition practitioner, please click here
BANT WELLBEING GUIDELINES:
The BANT Wellbeing Guidelines are specifically designed to provide clear, easy-to-understand general information for healthy diet and lifestyle when personalised advice is not available.
Alongside these guidelines, the BANT “Food for your Health” free open-access resources are available to educate and guide the public towards healthier food choices in the prevention of diet-induced disease. Download a wide range of food and lifestyle guides, recipes, infographics, planning tools and fact sheets and start making healthy choices today.
