Prioritising prevention: can primary care systems cope?

One of the key themes of the recently published 10-year Health Plan for the National Health Service is moving from ‘sickness to prevention’.1 In 2023, the Chief Medical Officers of the UK’s four nations called for a reinvigoration of preventive care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.2 There is, of course, an enormously strong argument for prevention. At a societal level, public health and policy measures such as tobacco control, alcohol pricing and the soft drinks industry levy have had an impact on population risk of disease. For individuals, healthy lifestyles, when maintained, reduce the risk of illness and disability. In addition, we have an array of risk-modifying medicines which have strong evidence of benefit in reducing cardiovascular events, fractures, complications of diabetes and more (although the potential benefit for individuals varies significantly according to their baseline risk). There are obvious benefits for patients and the sustainability of healthcare systems.