The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh values the report by IPPR authored by Lord Darzi and Dame Sally Davies on Health and Prosperity and believes it should be the beginning of a necessary public conversation in the UK.
College President Prof. Rowan Parks commented:
The ideas expressed in this report show some of the practical steps that need to be taken to achieve the new government’s stated aim of a pivot from a focus on illness to prevention. The historic norm of each successive generation living longer and healthier lives is in danger of being broken. Judging government decisions and actions on whether or not they advance a target of increasing healthy life expectancy is a sound idea, which will focus minds of policy makers on the broader determinants of health.
We also agree with the concept of ‘the health polluter pays’ but are aware that a large driver of the obesity epidemic in children from lower income households is low pay. Whilst this is rightly discussed as a driver of poor mental health in the report, it is also a driver of poor physical health, as the reason many parents feed their children poor quality, unhealthy food is that that is frequently the most affordable option. Taxing those foods to make them more expensive as a standalone measure without support for families to switch to healthier alternatives risks simply leaving children to go hungry. Measures to assist in that need to account not only for the financial cost of healthier, less processed food, but also the time commitment and in some cases the necessary skills to prepare meals using fresh ingredients.
Despite this concern, we believe that this is an excellent piece of work that deserves the greatest attention from policymakers across the UK, and we applaud the Health and Prosperity Commission of the IPPR for their report.
- RCSEd was first incorporated as the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1505 and is based in Edinburgh and Birmingham.
- It is one of the oldest surgical corporations in the world with a global membership of more than 32,000, including 15,000 members in the UK.
- The College also has a significant worldwide presence with members in over 140 countries.
- The College promotes the highest standards of surgical and dental practice through education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical and dental workforce.
- The College has six faculties: The Faculty of Dental Surgery, The Faculty of Surgical Trainers, The Faculty of Dental Trainers, The Faculty of Perioperative Care, The Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care and The Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare.
- It is also home to the UK’s only Faculty of Surgical Trainers, open to all those with an interest in surgical training regardless of College affiliation.
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For further information, please contact comms@rcsed.ac.uk.