Crawley MP, Henry Smith, has welcomed the Government’s commitment to increasing Crawley's public health fund every financial year for the remainder of this Parliament.
Henry commented:
“I am delighted to report that the Department of Health has committed to increasing our local public health budget year-on-year to £27.4 million by 2015.
“We all know prevention is better than the cure so this increase in funding is great news. The funding should help deliver some innovative solutions to improve health outcomes and promote healthier lifestyles in our area.
“It’s also further proof that the Government is making good on its pledge to protect health spending from cuts. Despite the economic difficulties the Government inherited, they are putting people's health first by increasing NHS spending by an extra £12.5 billion in total compared with the previous Government’s plans.”
Public Health Grants allow local authorities to transform the lives of local people through commissioning a wide range of innovative services. The money can be used as a prevention against unhealthy lifestyles by promoting healthier ones, including to stemming obesity, binge drinking, smoking, reducing teenage pregnancy and providing health monitoring locally such as blood pressure checks. Prevention is important because we know unhealthy lifestyles can put pressure on the NHS in the long term.
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