There has been a lot of press about the latest government report into the health system in Australia lately. It essentially says that our current healht system is bursting at the seams and can’t cope with the demand for medical services. A big factor in this is the ageing population and the rising incidence of obesity and overweight.
In my mind, the health system will never keep up with demand. If we build more hospitals we will certainly fill them up and be in the same place we are now, just with more people in hospital and it costing the community more.
Prevention is the only way we will ever have a health system that can cope.
Prevention means keeping people fit and the older you get, the more important fitness becomes.
The Sydney Morning Herald has a great article from some very knowledgeable academics about the importance of preventive health.
Here is the article
