The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken | Simon Jenkins

The algebra is simple. The NHS is having another terrible winter. It does not collapse, but “spills demand” on to the next line of defence, local government welfare. But while the NHS gets more money annually from the Treasury, local government gets less, some 30% less since 2011. It cannot cope with the new pressure.

The equation resolves itself into rationing, by quantity and quality: fewer care places, fewer home visits and fewer district nurses leads to more bed-blocking, fewer operations, longer trolley waits.

Tory Surrey is a responsible supplier of post-hospital care. Like all councils, it is allowed by the Treasury to increase its council tax by 5%, specifically to boost its care budget and thus ease pressure on the NHS – which the Treasury is responsible for funding. Surrey county council regarded this as nothing like enough. It therefore activated its statutory right to hold a referendum on a 15% increase.

Far from showing delight at a wealthy council accepting this burden, the Tory government was appalled. Tories do not increase taxes. The chancellor (and Surrey MP) Philip Hammond duly did what Jeremy Corbyn called a secret deal. If Surrey abandoned its referendum and the 15% hike, it could retain revenue from a different tax – the local business rate, which normally went to the Treasury. That is, the Treasury would in effect spend more on health and care in Surrey, but secretly and, so far, just for Surrey.

This is the stuff of a banana republic. If Britain wants to spend more on health and elderly care, it should raise it and spend it honestly. Instead, the Treasury is running around its fiscal A&E department, staunching the flow of political blood by slamming on plasters wherever a patient screams or twists an arm.

Leaked Surrey council tax texts allow Corbyn to ambush May at PMQs

Some might argue that an NHS free at the point of delivery has had its day. New disciplines and incentives, through fees or insurance or more prevention, must constrain marginal demand. But for the time being, it makes no sense to squeeze the NHS at the top – where politicians are exposed – and dump its problems on to local government and different funding streams at the bottom. It wastes money and distorts priorities. It is illiterate public finance.

If Surrey is harbinger of a new health and care service, and business taxes are to relieve an ever-burgeoning NHS, so be it. But few places are as rich as Surrey. Revenue will have to be redistributed from rich to poor areas. In other words, it is not just the NHS that needs rethinking, but the whole murky world of local government finance.

The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken | Simon Jenkins

Considerable Wellness Advantages Shown from Salt Reduction

An excess consumption of salt has been linked with a massive amount of well being concerns  including an improved risk of hypertension, cardiovascular ailment, abdomen cancer and total mortality. Regardless of the evidence, salt consumption in the modern planet remains quite large.

Processed foods are one of the major sources. Along with being substantial in salt, these merchandise frequently include hazardous substances such as trans-fats and large fructose corn syrup. However we live in an age of convenience, and processed food items look to fit the bill. Whilst they might appeal to the taste buds and are typically low in value, consuming them evidently comes at a a lot bigger value – our overall health.

An intriguing examine was not too long ago carried out in the Netherlands to evaluate the possible wellness benefits of numerous salt reduction approaches [1].

Three methods were utilized: one) replacing large-salt meals with minimal-salt meals, two) reducing the salt content of processed meals, and three) adhering to the suggested maximum salt intake of six grams per day.

The health outcomes of the review had been determined by means of a two-phase method. Salt consumption was first modelled into blood stress amounts. The Persistent Disease Model was then employed to translate the blood pressures into occurrences of cardiovascular ailments, disability-adjusted daily life years (DALYs), and existence expectancies. The overall health outcomes of the distinct situations have been then compared with health outcomes established from the current salt consumption.

The final results from the research were as follows. If salt consumption meets the recommended greatest intake of 6 grams per day, the burden of illness may well be lowered by 56,400 DALYs, and lifestyle expectancy could enhance by .15 y for a 40-y-old person. The examine also concluded that “4.eight% of acute myocardial infarction circumstances, 1.seven% of congestive heart failure cases, and 5.eight% of stroke cases may possibly be prevented”.

Although decreasing salt consumption beneath  6 grams per day showed benefits, some professionals argue that even this upper limit is nevertheless also higher. The WHO now suggests no more than 2000 mg of sodium a day, equal to five grams of salt [2], and some experts are suggesting even reduce values.

The Dutch research concluded that substituting food items with reduced-salt alternatives would lead to a slightly higher reduction in salt consumption than when aiming to just meet the 6 gram a day target alone hence would lead to a lot more overall health gains. Attempting to decrease salt content in presently processed foods however was estimated to create somewhat lower benefits.

The message to consider away looks to be: it is helpful to your health to lessen your salt consumption under the six gram a day limit. The most favourable method if performing so is to increase your consumption of complete food items that are naturally lower in salt, and reduce your consumption of processed food items that are large in salt, along with several other unfavourable substances.

References

1. Hendriksen, Marieke AH, et al. “Potential impact of salt reduction in processed foods on health.” The American journal of clinical nutrition (2014): ajcn-062018.


2. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/information/notes/2013/salt_potassium_20130131/en/

Considerable Wellness Advantages Shown from Salt Reduction