Fit for the future: How a healthy population will unlock a stronger Britain (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, 23 March 2023)

Summary

This new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change sets out the need to both harness the power of new technologies and to create a streamlined, strategic state to revolutionise the delivery of public services. Nowhere is this approach more urgently needed than on the country’s health.

Healthcare demands continue to increase while costs are spiralling as health takes up an ever-higher proportion of public spending. At the same time, outcomes are deteriorating, with UK life expectancy stagnating and health inequalities on the rise. So, we’re all paying more and more to achieve less and less.

The report suggests a paradigm shift: we must begin to treat individual and collective health as a national asset. Government must focus its efforts and resources on creating the conditions in which population and individual health can flourish.