Clinicians will need to work with the commercial and voluntary sectors as well as local authorities to shift the focus of healthcare upstream to prevention, in a bid to save lives and money, delegates at a London conference on preventive health were told.

The chief medical officer for England, Sally Davies, said that the aim must be to continue to provide excellent care but to direct it to preventing ill health and help people at risk “to get it right for themselves” and avoid ending up in hospital.

Professor Davies acknowledged that the current financial constraints faced by health and social care made this difficult, but said, “In one sense that makes it even more important to focus on the preventive side.” …