When the government’s 10-year health plan is published in July, prevention is expected to get a promotion. This won’t be the first time that ministers will have stressed the importance of healthy lifestyles. But nine months after Wes Streeting announced that a shift from treatment to prevention would be one of the principles governing Labour’s stewardship of the NHS, we are just a few weeks away from knowing how the idea will be put into practice, and turned into a narrative for voters.
In recent years, obesity has dominated discussions of the rising burden of chronic illness. But alcohol, too, is expected to feature in sections of the plan dealing with public health. Alcohol-related deaths in the UK reached a record high of 10,473 in 2023, with men more than twice as likely to die as women, and over-55s drinking far more than younger adults. The highest death rates are in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
