Current NHS model unsustainable, Sheffield health board told

The current NHS model of care is "unsustainable", Dr Zak McMurray said

The NHS should shift its focus away from its current medical model of care and focus more on improving people's wellbeing, an expert has said.

Dr Zak McMurray, of the NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, said treating illnesses in a cause-and-effect approach was not sustainable.

The current model would "disintegrate if we don't shift to wellbeing", he told Sheffield Council's health board.

He said work should focus more on preventing illnesses.

A report presented to Sheffield City Council's health and wellbeing board said the city needed to concentrate first on "improving the health and wellbeing of those worst off the fastest".

The research set out a 10-year health strategy for the future of the city, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Dr Zak McMurray had been talking to Sheffield City Council's health and wellbeing board about a new strategy

People living in the city's poorest areas live on average a decade less than those in the better-off areas and they also spend more of their lives in poor health, data showed.

A Sheffield Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy has been looking at how to improve life for everyone in the city over the next 10 years.

It found the vision of the new strategy should be to "close the unfair gap in length and quality of life, by improving the health and wellbeing of those worst off the fastest".

Susan Hird, the council's assistant director of public health, told the meeting that people consulted spoke about a sense of disappointment and frustration about a lack of determined action in the past.

"There is a strong desire for the strategy to encourage new thinking and new bravery from all parts of the system in the future."

The board agreed that the 10-year strategy should be reviewed every three years and there should be a series of one-year delivery plans.

Dr McMurray said far more could be achieved if a shift of resources was allowed to move away from the "illness factory medical model approach that is completely opposed to what we're trying to achieve".

Meanwhile, council director of public health Greg Fell stressed the need for "holding our nerve when we know we've got it right".