Increasing demand for unplanned hospital services can be met either by increasing the capacity of hospitals or investing in prevention services, either by Public Health or Primary Care. Historically, justifying this investment has been difficult, with funding discussions focusing on how much can money the prevention will save in secondary care, and then the difficulty of releasing that money. However, switching the narrative to one based upon improving health outcomes, and working within the existing capacity of secondary care rather than building new hospitals as the population grows may provide more positive in releasing cash for prevention activity.
Model to quantify the benefit of providing Public Health and Primary Care interventions to reduce the risk of unplanned hospital attendances.
