Downing St has a radical change in mind for the NHS: shifting its focus from treatment to prevention

A mountain of evidence has shown that health prevention works – but the government as a whole has a role to play

In Lancaster the community nurse Lizzie Holmes knocks on doors to persuade people who are unwell but reluctant to accept NHS help. In Blackpool, “community connectors” help low-income families get their children into healthy habits early in life. Both do necessary, vital, proactive work known as health prevention – stopping illness occurring in the first place and spotting it early when it does. The idea is that this will create a virtuous circle of a healthier population and thus less need for NHS care.

But while the initiatives described in a Guardian investigation are imaginative and effective, they are also atypical of the way the NHS works. Over recent decades governments of different political colours have talked about turning the NHS from a service primarily focused on treating illness to one that does far more to prevent disease in the first place. A raft of expert reports over those years have urged ministers to make exactly that transformational change. It has never happened.