More targeted spending on prevention could double return on investment, say analysts

Adopting a more evidence based approach to commissioning health prevention services could yield a bigger return on investment (ROI) each year, an analysis1 has suggested.

The report by the NHS Confederation and the consultancy firm Carnall Farrar estimates that in England around £5bn a year is spent across the NHS and local government on public health interventions in primary, secondary, and social settings. The potential ROI from this spending could double from around £11.2bn to £22.4bn if the upper quartile ROI was achieved across all current interventions, the analysts estimate.

They said that investment should be targeted at high impact areas such as education, vaccines, employment, interventions to tackle …