HL Deb 16 March 1976 vol 369 cc212-4WA
Baroness GAITSKELL

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they are going to publish their Consultative Document on preventive medicine and whether they will make a Statement.

Lord WELLS-PESTELL

The Consultative DocumentPrevention and Health— Everybody's Business is being published today and copies are available in the Printed Paper Office. The aim of this booklet is to stimulate discussion on the possible contributions of prevention towards the solution of our health problems. It does not seek to be comprehensive but rather to draw attention to some general principles, to illustrate these by examples and to suggest how the prevention of disease and the promotion of health can best be advanced. It will be followed by further papers dealing more fully with specific issues.

Because of the pressures on resources of money and manpower in the health and other public services the opportunities for new developments in prevention will necessarily be limited in the near future. But the object of this document is not to recommend specific programmes but to start people thinking and talking about the place of prevention in the overall, longer term development of the health and related services. Thus members of National Health Service field authorities including members of Community and Local Health Councils need, in considering and planning the use of resources, to keep themselves informed about preventive measures and their potential so that they can ensure that full weight is given to their development. During the present period of economic restraint it is all the more essential that available resources are used to best effect, bearing in mind that not all preventive measures necessarily require additional, or massive resources. Much could be done by more effective deployment of existing staff and facilities; and much will depend on encouraging members of the public to make better use of the preventive services already available. We as a society are becoming increasingly aware of how much depends on the attitude and actions of the individual about his health. Prevention today is everybody's business.

House adjourned at twenty-six minutes past five o'clock.