The Government must end the ‘boom-bust’ NHS funding approach, and commit to providing sustained annual increases in funding or face a public backlash, the head of NHS England has said.
The Guardian reports that NHS chief Simon Stevens has said he hopes the government will commit to additional funding beyond the £2million allocated to the NHS in the autumn statement.
Mr Stevens told the Financial Times: ‘Either we have a thoughtful, sequenced series of annual real funding increases, building on next year’s ‘downpayment’, against which the health service can plan and make the necessary efficiencies, or we have a heavily constrained squeeze.’
And parents are being urged to make healthy food ‘swaps’, such as replacing ice-cream with yoghurt, to help cut down on their children’s sugar intake, as part of a new Public Health England campaign.
The BBC reports health guidelines advise 10% of a person’s calorie intake should come from sugar, but officials fear children age 4 to 10 are consuming much more.
Professor Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at PHE, said: ‘Reducing sugar intake is important for the health of our children both now and in the future. We are all eating too much sugar and the impact this has on our health is evident.’
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