Heathrow and Health

If MPs are serious about the health of the population (and it seems they are, given recent promises of increased funding for the NHS), then when they vote later today about whether or not Heathrow airport should get a third runway and therefore a programme of expansion, they should ask them selves the following questions:

 

  1. Are we taking seriously the Public Health England, World Health Organisation and World Health Innovation Summit advice seriously to write health into ALL policies? If so, will the expansion of Heathrow improve or worsen health outcomes, given that air pollution is the second biggest attributal cause to early death in England? How much consideration is given to health outcomes currently when it comes to transport, energy or business policies?
  2. Will the expansion of Heathrow prevent exposures to hazards that cause disease or injury? We know that pollution is worse in our more deprived, urban populations. We know that people in these areas are more likely to suffer with respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD. Therefore we must ask, is the expansion of Heathrow likely to improve respiratory conditions in London or worsen them?
  3. Will the expansion of Heathrow help to tackle the underlying social determinants of health? No, as Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics) and Greg Fell (DPH for Sheffield) have demonstrated, sadly it won’t. It may help certain businesses to thrive, and may help stave off some of the economic downturn post Brexit, but the premise is still built on the idea that trickle down economics works and helps to tackle inequality (and therefore health inequality), which it does not.

 

It seems very odd to be making a promise to invest more money in the NHS, whilst acting through other policies to actually make health worse. Some very clear thought is needed ahead of this vote.

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Living Well with Illness

In my experience with patients I find two broad categories of people who live with chronic ill health (be that back pain, a life limiting condition like MS, COPD/Asthma/Diabetes whatever).

Firstly, there are people who refuse to be shaped by their illness. They remain robustly determined that the illness will live with them but they will get on with life. It has become my conviction as a result, that you can have chronic ill health, be that physical or mental and still be well.

Secondly, there are those who are defined by and shaped by their illness. Some of this is the fault of the medical profession who label people according to their illness. In my last practice, we had a great policy (especially championed by one of our amazing nurses, Irene) that we would never talk about anybody as a ‘diabetic’ or an ‘asthmatic’. Rather we talked about a person who also happens to have diabetes or asthma. We wanted to define the person not the illness. But often people end up being wrongly defined and it hugely affects the way they live.

In these conversations about reimagining health, I want to recognise that 18 million people in the UK live with a chronic condition of some sort. So, if you are one of those people, my question is this: Are you living well with your illness or is it completely defining you?

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