Advertisement
News

Health Minister Lord O’Shaughnessy Backs Lord Bird’s NHS Agenda

Lord O’Shaughnessy says the Big Issue founder is right to champion NHS reform focusing on the prevention of health problems

A government health minister has said Big Issue founder Lord John Bird was “quite right” to champion a new, preventative approach to health care in the NHS.

Lord Bird, now a crossbench peer, raised the importance of investing in and supporting services that prevent health problems as a means of saving over the long-term during a House of Lords debate earlier this week.

“What we’ve got to do is push up the prevention [spending] amount,” said Lord Bird. “Is the minister prepared to come and talk to MPs and Lords who want to push up the prevention methodology?”

We need to move from an NHS that is dealing with illness to one that is promoting health care

Acknowledging Bird was “quite right,” Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health Lord O’Shaughnessy said: “We need to move from an NHS that is dealing with illness to one that is promoting health care, and preventive health care is a huge part of that.”

“We are providing over £16 billion of public health funding for local authorities over the spending review to do that, and I’d be delighted to meet any peers and MPs who wanted to talk about that further,” he added.

Lord Bird recently wrote in his weekly column for The Big Issue that “prevention is the best of all cures ever invented.”

Advertisement
Advertisement

Lord Nigel Crisp, the former chief executive of the NHS, set out his plan for reforming the UK’s ailing health service in our magazine. He too wants a prevention-based model – one that moves away from dependence on hospitals to a community based approach focused on creation health for all of us.

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
DWP benefit reforms to get people into work are 'smokescreen for cuts', disability activist says
dwp secretary liz kendall
Disability benefits

DWP benefit reforms to get people into work are 'smokescreen for cuts', disability activist says

Ending post-Grenfell cladding crisis could take until 2035 and beyond: 'Unacceptably slow'
Grenfell tower
Cladding crisis

Ending post-Grenfell cladding crisis could take until 2035 and beyond: 'Unacceptably slow'

We've given 50,000 haircuts to homeless people – here's how a simple trim can change everything
Photo of man hugging a woman to illustrate a story about the Haircuts 4 Homeless charity
Homelessness

We've given 50,000 haircuts to homeless people – here's how a simple trim can change everything

Cash-strapped council warns it's at breaking point as neighbour places homeless people in its town
homeless peoples' tents in street
Homelessness

Cash-strapped council warns it's at breaking point as neighbour places homeless people in its town

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue