A Health services health-check
Without abundant and cheap oil, our healthcare services would look very different. Whether it’s energy-intensive NHS buildings, heating and lighting for hospitals, electronic equipment such as scanners, basic medical products such as gloves and syringes or the actual medicines themselves (which are largely made from oil), the current healthcare system is perilously reliant and therefore vulnerable. Current trends indicate that this dependence is growing.
Healthcare expenditure across the board is increasing, making many services highly vulnerable to the impacts of the credit crunch and rising energy costs. The NHS drug budget is increasing by 7.5% a year, meaning that it will double in 10 years. In 2002 the direct cost of treating obesity was estimated at around £47m and around £one billion for treating the consequences of obesity. Hospital services are being increasingly centralised requiring patients, staff, goods and visitors to travel further for both hospital and GP services. As in other realms of society, healthcare is also undergoing its own de-skilling. Over-reliance on machines and technology is leaving the medical skills base vulnerable to loss of experienced and knowledgeable staff who can apply a more hands-on diagnosis based on touch, feel, sound and careful observation. Orthopaedics and midwifery are examples of diagnoses previously reliant on experienced touch and feel which have been largely replaced by machines (i.e. x-ray and ultrasound).
Added to this, there is an increasingly widespread concern within the NHS that climate change will bring additional challenges:
- Heat waves will become more common
- Sunburn, skin cancer and poor air quality rates will increase
- The risk of hurricanes and flooding will increase, with associated health consequences
- It may also cause an increase in infectious diseases in the UK, affecting food-borne, water-borne and vector-borne disease.
As with other aspects of our lives, this assessment of the vulnerabilities of our healthcare system can also reveal the possibilities inherent in a new approach. A more localised healthcare system, combining the best of modern medicine with complementary therapies, the promotion of healthy eating and exercise, and with health centres re-conceived as market gardens, re-skilling centres, apothecaries, energy generators, cookery schools and much more, would not only be an improvement on the present, but could also become a key player in the wider transition of society.
An Unhealthy Lifestyle? (© Jenny Band)
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