The future of health: whole person care

Labour enters the conference season following a difficult summer of bad news headlines and claims of infighting. Despite Ed Miliband’s bold move to redefine our relationship with the unions and blocking of a rush to war, Labour’s lead over the Tories is shortening. The economy is beginning to recover with favourable indicators; the OECD has claimed economic growth will occur by 1.5 per cent spurred on by construction and retail. Labour has attempted to shift the economic debate to living standards, however this is not enough. With 20 months left to a general election, what Labour needs over the coming months is a set of bold policies, covering a range of policy areas. One area Labour can begin to lead on is health.

In January 2012, as chair of the Young Fabian health network, I took part in a policy series looking at how a future Labour government could shape health policy. At the peak of the opposition to the coalition’s NHS health bill, we decided to not only examine the here and now but look beyond 2015, at the possible post-coalition landscape. The social care series culminated with a policy roundtable where I first heard Andy Burnham lay out his vision of a healthcare system centred on the idea of whole person care.

Mildred Blaxter once wrote that ‘health can be defined negatively as the absence of illness, functionally, as the ability to cope with everyday activities, or positively as fitness and wellbeing’. Whole person care is the notion that an individual’s health is not solely dependent on their physical wellbeing but also their mental and social health. Therefore in order for the NHS to cope with the increasing burden of disease as the population ages, there must be a structural shift within the NHS where physical, social and mental care is integrated at a primary, secondary and tertiary level.  This means creating a healthcare system where very person in Britain has the access to good quality mental health care and the right to old age care no matter income or tax bracket.

This is a policy which is bold and channels Labour’s legacy of engineering social change, rather than mirroring the government we are offering an alternative, while maintain the centre ground.  However the policy is still in its early stages; we are yet to figure out how we can fund this project and, in an age of austerity, this may prove to be a roadblock.

Today, the Young Fabian Health Network will launch a policy pamphlet titled ‘Irreversible? Health and social care policy in a post-coalition landscape’ edited by me and Daniel Wilson Craw.  It is a collection of six essays embracing the notion of whole person care, as well as looking at the challenges a future Labour health secretary will face. May 2015 is a change election and this is the perfect moment for Labour to lay out a bold plan and embrace a policy offering a real alternative to the coalition. The policy of whole person care is clear and easy to digest and is message the electorate will hear loud and clear.