16.10.14
Better Health for London sets ‘radical’ targets
Plans to make parks in London smoke-free, as well as Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, have been put forward within the ‘radical’ Better Health for London report.
Carried out by surgeon and former health minister Lord Darzi, the plans form part of a major new initiative that aims to make London the healthiest major global city within 10 years.
As well as the public places smoking ban, the study proposes a range of measures, unprecedented in their scope, to combat the threats posed by tobacco, alcohol, obesity, lack of exercise and pollution which harm millions.
Lord Darzi has advised that London mayor Boris Johnson should use his byelaw powers to make Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square smoke-free.
He added: “It would be a powerful message for the iconic centre of our city and the political heart of our country to become smoke free. What better way to show our city’s ambition to be the healthiest major global city?”
Lord Darzi added that the measures would set a “better example for children”, warning that the equivalent of two classrooms full of children were still taking up smoking in London every day.
Chief medical officer for England, Professor Sally Davies, has backed the measures. She said: “We all know smoking is bad for health. So I welcome any measures to reduce both active smoking and its role modelling in front of children.”
Better Health for London was produced by the London Health Commission, an independent inquiry established in September 2013 by the Mayor of London. But both Boris Johnson and Downing Street have distanced themselves from the anti-smoking recommendations.
Johnson is quoted as saying: “This idea in my view, as a libertarian conservative, comes down too much on the side of bossiness and nannying. One feature of life in London is that we are a city that allows people to get on with their lives within the law provided they are not harming anyone else. I think smoking is a scourge and it's right to discourage it; I am very sceptical at the moment.”
The report also sets tough targets on health and well-being for the next 10 years, including that 80% of Londoners walk, jog or cycle to work or school, halve the number of obese children, for London to have the lowest death rates in the world for cancer, heart disease and respiratory illness and close the gap in death rates between patients admitted to hospital at weekends and those in the week.
It also made recommendations with regards to the way health services are shaped in the capital and called for a £1bn investment in GP surgeries. Lord Darzi added that GP surgeries should be open from 8am to 8pm.
In response to addressing these issues, Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The promise of £1bn investment in a modernisation programme for GP surgeries is very encouraging – but it must not be used as a trade-off to force exhausted GPs into working 8am-8pm and at weekends.
“Seven-day working may be right for some areas, but it needs to be properly funded and we need at least 8,000 more GPs to do it.”
With regards to the health aspects of the report, she added that obesity, smoking and alcohol are three of the biggest threats to our children’s health – and that of future generations –
and the plans unveiled by Lord Darzi are an ambitious means of tackling them all.
NHS Confederation chief executive Rob Webster stated that this is “a bold and well-evidenced vision for delivering sustainable health and care services in London”.
He added that it’s only by thinking - and acting - on this kind of scale that “we will deliver the health and health service London deserves. Politicians now need to respond to this call to action”.
Dr Nav Chana, chair of the National Association of Primary Care, said: “We welcome any plans for significant investment to support the transformation of primary care and hope this translates to genuine action. Workforce development and education and training for today's and tomorrow's workforce should be based on delivering value to a population and we support any approaches that move education systems in this direction.”
(Image: c. Christian Reimer)
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