Tyneside charity has 'saved the NHS and social care £41.3m' according to new analysis
Healthworks has saved the NHS and social care in Newcastle and the wider North East more than £40m according to analysis that attempts to estimate the "social return on investment" of its work.
by Sam Volpe · ChronicleLiveAnalysis of the work done by a North East health charity over the last twelve months suggests it may have saved health and social care services more than £41.3m.
Tyneside-based Healthworks works with the NHS and other partners across Newcastle and the wider-region with initiatives including work to prevent falls and help those on long NHS waiting lists. The organisation's patron is health inequality guru Professor Sir Michael Marmot, and he paid tribute to the charity's work, too.
Local technology start-up SportFin used the "social return on investment" framework to investigate the financial impact of the work Healthworks has done - and found, for example, breast cancer risk reduction work would have saved around £13.1m alone.
In the charity's annual impact report, it lays bare the figures which are estimates based in large part on the power of early intervention and illness prevention to save health services money further "down the line".
Speaking a week after Lord Darzi's review of UK healthcare warned the NHS was in a "dire state" and the new Prime Minister said it must "reform or die", Healthworks chief executive Paul Court told ChronicleLive: "The thing here is it all ties into the new Government's strategy around health.
"The idea is of 'left shift' - to move care out of secondary [hospital] settings and into primary care and our communities - with an interventional model. That has to be around health promotion, early intervention and prevention that model is very close to what we do at Healthworks."
Paul added this sort of approach had to be part of a "fundamental" shift in how healthcare was delivered around the region and the country more widely. In his foreword to the impact report, he added: "In the last year we have enabled estimated cost savings to local health and social care services of over £41.3 million.
"This level of success has enabled us to tell our Healthworks story at national events andconferences, share our work and demonstrate how, through partnership, we have been able to address the unique health challenges faced by our communities across the North East."
Healthworks works closely with NHS organisations and voluntary sector groups across the city and region, and is set to mark its 30th birthday next year. Also in the impact report, Prof Marmot wrote: "Organisations like Healthworks play a crucial role in addressing health inequalities at the local level.
"By focusing on the social determinants of health, Healthworks can tackle the root causes of poor health and prevent health problems before they escalate. This approach improves individual health. Importantly it also prevents costly hospitalisations and reduces the demand for primary and social care services; and strengthens the overall resilience and sustainability of healthcare systems."
Last week Lord Darzi warned how austerity, "top-down reorganisation", and the pandemic had seen public health deteriorate and the NHS left in a "critical" condition. In response, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting both spoke of the need for radical change in the health service.
Sir Keir said: "The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands. Raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of an ageing population – or reform to secure its future. We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die."
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