Mr Hancock set out his long-term plan for the NHS with the unveiling of a Government green paper, entitled ‘Prevention is better than cure’, which outlines his vision for a ‘new 21st century focus on prevention’.
 
The paper draws on figures showing that £97 billion of public money in the UK is spent on treating disease, while only £8 billion on preventing it, and sets out his targets for people to have five more years of healthy, independent life by 2035.
 
Former Sports Minister and the Project Lead for Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, the Rt Hon Richard Caborn, said: “I welcome Mr Hancock’s announcement and wholeheartedly agree that we need to take pressure off the NHS by focusing on prevention rather than the cure.
 
“Prevention matters. That’s why in Sheffield we have brought together the City Council, two NHS Foundation Trusts and two leading Universities to place physical activity and prevention at the heart of the NHS.
 
“Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is already delivering impressive results with the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) engaging 20,000 people in behaviour change programmes which embed physical activity in schools, the workplace and communities. It has also delivered 80,000 appointments yearly from hospitals to clinics based in three Sheffield leisure centres and resulted in 600,000 people using a Move More App.
 
“Building is also underway on Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, which will act as the research hub for the NCSEM and is set to become the most advanced research and development centre for health and physical activity in the world, creating ‘innovations to improve health’.
 
“These initiatives are just the start of our Olympic legacy to make Sheffield people healthier, and with new research centres planned for children’s health and rehabilitation programmes we believe we are taking the lead in giving people the incentive and opportunity to improve their own health.”