Integrated Care Systems aim to enable a stronger focus on prevention, and on the specific approaches needed in different communities to help ensure that they are “healthy places”. But this is a long-term agenda. The mixed longer-term outcomes of initiatives such as Healthy New Towns demonstrate that building communities that protect good health is not something that can be accomplished through isolated programmes over a few years. The immediate pressures on health services are numerous and co...

Integrated Care Systems aim to enable a stronger focus on prevention, and on the specific approaches needed in different communities to help ensure that they are “healthy places”. But this is a long-term agenda. The mixed longer-term outcomes of initiatives such as Healthy New Towns demonstrate that building communities that protect good health is not something that can be accomplished through isolated programmes over a few years. The immediate pressures on health services are numerous and compelling, and there is already evidence that these are crowding out longer-term strategies including prevention. Because the numerous costs of “unhealthy Type: conclusion | Number: 13 | Paragraph: 55 | Response status: under_consideration