Sheffield health board told current NHS model unsustainable

An expert has said the NHS should shift its focus away from its current medical model of care and focus more on improving people’s wellbeing.

Dr Zak McMurray of the NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, said treating illnesses in a cause-and-effect approach was not sustainable, telling Sheffield Council’s health board that the current model would “disintegrate if we don’t shift to wellbeing”.

Data shows that people living in the city’s poorest areas live on average a decade less than those in the more affluent areas and they also spend more of their lives in poor health.

A Sheffield Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy has been looking at how to improve life for everyone in the city over the next ten years, finding that the vision of the new strategy should be to “close the unfair gap in length and quality of life, by improving the health and wellbeing of those worst off the fastest.”

The board agreed that the 10-year strategy should be reviewed every three years and there should be a series of one-year delivery plans.

Dr McMurray said that far more could be achieved if a shift of resources was allowed to move away from the “illness factory medical model approach that is completely opposed to what we’re trying to achieve”.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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