The £200bn Question: Why Isn’t the NHS Getting Healthier?

In this episode of Prevention is the New Cure, former Health Ministers Steve Brine and James Bethell take analyse the status quo of UK health policy. With NHS spending in England projected to reach £217 billion by 2025/26, the debate isn't about if we have the money, but how we are wasting it.

James Bethell argues that the doubling of the NHS budget over the last 17 years has had "zero impact" on the nation's healthy longevity. We dive deep into why the political obsession with "40 New Hospitals" was a strategic blunder and why the future of the NHS depends on a "Cavalier vs. Roundhead" battle over health data and early intervention.

Also inside This Episode:

• The Hospital Trap: Why 80% of funding goes to acute care while community health "puddles" dry up.
• The Weight-Loss Jab Dilemma: Is paying GPs to prescribe drugs like Monjuro a breakthrough or "pharma capture"?
• The MAHA Movement: We look across the Atlantic at RFK Jr.’s "Make America Healthy Again" initiative as 18 US states move to ban candy and soda from food stamps.
• UK Biobank Breakthrough: A major 2026 milestone as 500,000 GP records are finally unlocked for research. Steve Brine reveals the "political fear" that held this back for nearly a decade.
• Fighting the Silent Killer: We discuss the £2.6m investment in 20 new DEXA bone scanners—a "tiny" spend that could save the NHS billions in fracture care.

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Prevention is the new cure is produced by Shortbread Media. This week's producer is Calum Macdonald.

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