Investigation and Analysis

 Client Research

NHS provides national leadership for the NHS England medical services. They promote high-quality health care for everyone to improve the health of the population in the UK. They also support NHS organizations such as dentists, mental health services, and much more, so they can work in partnership so can deliver better outcomes for their patients and communities through a holistic approach. NHS supports local integrated care systems made up of public services that help provide health and care to all patients like NHS organizations, primary care, local councils, social care providers, and the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector so they can improve the health of the population, the quality of care, tackle inequalities and deliver care more efficiently.

The National Health Service (NHS) act was published in 1946 but the NHS was launched in 1948. Aneurin Bevan launched this at Park Hospital which is currently known s Trafford General Hospital. The principle was that it was free to everyone and it would be financed from tax. This was founded due to the idea that good health care should be free to everyone regardless of wealth.

There were three principles; meet the needs of everyone; it'll be free to everyone at the point of delivery; it'll be based on clinical needs and not ability. The first patient, Sylvia Diggory, was 13 years old and was suffering from a liver condition. In 1959, the mental health act was introduced, making a new provision for health care for people with mental health problems. On May 3rd, 1968, the first heart transplant in the UK took place at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. CT scans changed the way doctors examine the body in 1972 and in 1978, the first baby was born as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The first successful bone marrow transplant on a child takes place in 1979.

In the 1980s, MRI scans were introduced and the world's first liver, heart, and lung transplant was carried out in Papworth Hospital in 1987. For women over 50, breast screening was introduced in 1988. In 1991, the first wave of the NHS trusts was established and 1994 was the beginning of the NHS Organ Donor Register. Handling more than half a million calls each month, NHS Direct became one of the largest emergency services in the world.

Walk-in centers were introduced offering access to all of the NHS services in 2000. Primary Care Trusts were established in 2002, managing 37,000 general practitioners (GPs), 21,000 dentists, and 80% of the NHS expenditure. The 4-hour-target was introduced in 2002 to ensure that no patient spends more than 4 hours in the ER from arrival to admission, transfer, or release. In 2004, foundation trusts were first made available and the NHS Choices website went live in 2007. Smoking became illegal in restaurants, bars, and other public places as of July 1, 2007, and free choice for patients was established on April 1st, 2008.

The Care Quality Commission was established in April 2009 to control the standard of care provided to adults in the areas of health, mental health, and adult social care. The NHS Constitution, which outlines the seven guiding principles of the NHS and the rights of patients, was issued by the Department of Health in March 2011: 

- Principle 1: The NHS provides a comprehensive service available to all

- Principle 2: Access to NHS services is based on clinical need, not an individual's ability to pay

- Principle 3: The NHS aspires to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism

- Principle 4: The NHS aspires to put patients at the heart of everything it does

- Principle 5: The NHS works across organizational boundaries and in partnership with other organizations in the interest of patients, local communities, and the wider population

- Principle 6: The NHS is committed to providing the best value for taxpayers' money and the most effective, fair, and sustainable use of finite resources.

- Principle 7: The NHS is accountable to the public, communities, and patients that it serves.

The values of the NHS are, working together for patients, respect and dignity, commitment to the quality of health care, compassion, improving lives, and everyone counts. The new NHS 111 service went into operation in England during the summer of 2013. The Health and Social Care Bill was released in 2011. At Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, Matthew Green, 40, became the first patient in the UK to get an artificial plastic heart implant in August 2011. The Health and Social Care Act of 2012, which introduced numerous improvements, was issued. In March 2017, the NHS employed 132,673 scientific, therapeutic, and technical personnel in addition to 106,430 doctors, 285,393 nurses, and health visitors.

Change For Life

On the 10th January 2022, they launched a multimedia Better Health campaign to encourage families with young children, around the UK, to eat better as well as support families to find a more simple solution to maintain a much healthier diet aiming to improve long-term health and to promote a healthy lifestyle from a young age. Since the start of the pandemic, the campaign follows a record rise in obesity among children. It was also launched to help people prevent the risks of developing a serious illness as well as help reduce the risk of being in hospital with Covid-19. Better Health is working with 15 weight management and physical activity partners who are also providing both free and discounted offers. The multimedia campaign highlights severe health conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and up to 12 types of cancer. These could be prevented by losing excess weight and they offer free support and guidance to achieve this goal.

Previously, the NHS has been involved in other campaigns like the Change For Life campaign. This campaign was launched in 2009 as a national ambition set out in the government's Health Weight, Health Lives. This campaign also aimed to help families improve their diet and activity levels with small, sustainable but significant improvements. The awareness of the Change For Life campaign built rapidly and there were a lot of positive comments on it. Over 400,000 joined this campaign during the first year it was launched and parents have claimed that it has made changes in their children's eating habits. To promote healthy lifestyles, they set out actions in 6 main areas; 

• Promoting healthier food choices
• Building physical activity into our lives
• Creating incentives for better health
• Personalised advice and support
• Children
• Healthy growth and healthy weight

Target Audience

This campaign is aimed at young people ages 16 to 20. They want to encourage this age group to get involved in the Better Health campaign as well as raise awareness to improve health and well-being as a result. They aim for this age group because they are old enough to understand a healthy eating lifestyle and they can work on making this a daily habit. However, not only do they want to target 16 to 20 year old's, but they also want to raise awareness everywhere for everyone due to the pandemic lockdowns. From March 2020 to March 2021, the Covid-19 Pandemic had a major impact on the NHS team as well as people in the UK. A third of people claimed to be snacking on unhealthy foods and drinks, 29% of smokers have claimed that they smoked more than the second national lockdown, and people who drink alcohol have agreed that their alcohol intake increased by one. So not only did the NHS launch the Better Health Campaign to encourage people to start and have a better lifestyle, but they also launched it to help everyone that has been affected by Covid-19 and the lockdowns to get back to a healthy lifestyle that they were once at before Covid-19.

Subject Matter Research

How Covid-19 and Lockdown

A worldwide pandemic, also known as COVID-19, had impacted everyone's daily lives by the beginning of March 2020. Physical outdoor activities have well-documented physical, social, and mental benefits for people of all ages, particularly those who have or are at risk of developing a chronic illness. Numerous studies indicate that it can help prevent chronic illnesses, improve brain health and conditions, promote mental health, and reduce falls. However, COVID-19 has posed numerous challenges to our healthy habits. 

The pandemic caused a 50% decrease in physical activity in some areas due to a lack of access to safe public spaces such as parks and sports facilities. Reviews have shown that during the pandemic, personal, behavioral, and social changes led to mental health problems, particularly in children, such as anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems. COVID-19 had an impact on people's daily physical patterns. Physical activity has decreased, and they are spending more time at home watching movies or playing video games than they were pre-covid-19. The decline in physical health is accompanied by an increase in multiple health risks such as chronic disease, obesity, depression, and anxiety.

Obesity

Between 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in obesity rates during the COVID pandemic. The reasons why obesity rates are rising and why there are health disparities between various groups are intricately layered and multi-faceted. There are social, economic, and environmental factors that make it much more difficult for people who live in low-income areas to maintain a healthy diet. Following the Eatwell guidelines, for example, would cost nearly three times the current average weekly food expenditure per person. There is also a strong relationship between deprivation and the number of fast-food restaurants in a neighborhood.

Furthermore, in 2020 and 2021, the measures put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 are likely to have had a variety of effects on people's health behaviors, including diet and physical activity. It is too early to tell whether these policies will have a long-term impact on our health or obesity rates, but they are likely to have contributed to the patterns we have seen since the pandemic's first year.

Long Covid

While most people recover quickly from coronavirus (COVID-19), some may experience persistent symptoms. These can last for several weeks or longer. This has been dubbed "long COVID." These symptoms are not limited to people who have been seriously ill or hospitalized as a result of the coronavirus. The majority of people recover from coronavirus symptoms within four weeks. However, for some people, symptoms may last longer or new ones may emerge. Symptoms can also shift over time and affect any part of the body. Healthcare professionals refer long covid as:

• ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (4 to 12 weeks)
• post-COVID-19 syndrome (over 12 weeks)

Because this is a new condition, knowledge is constantly evolving. Experts are learning more about the duration of symptoms, which will vary from person to person. There can be a variety of symptoms, which frequently overlap. It is impossible to predict how long coronavirus symptoms will last. In most cases, symptoms improve over time, which is reassuring.

Long-term COVID can impact people's physical health due to the following symptoms: fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. This can affect people's physical health. They might not want to exercise because they're too tired or their mental health isn't too great and it's making them not want to do anything. Some people might still exercise, but they can't do it for as long as they want or should due to breathlessness. 

Health and Exercise

Doing exercise can help reduce the risk of many illnesses, such as coronary heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, and it can even lower your risk of early death by 30%. You can exercise at any age, at any time, and the best part about it is that it's free. Exercise has always been suggested by many people, but people have neglected to take the recommended dose. Past research indicates that it can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep, and energy. It can also help to reduce stress, depression, dementia, and Alzheimer's. 

The UK Chief Medical Officer's Physical Activity Guidelines show that adults need to try and be active for 150 minutes every day through different physical activities. The easiest way for people to stay active is by walking or riding a bike instead of getting a car, but it is recommended that the more you do, the better it is for you. 

Currently, people are less active now due to more time spent on technology, which has made our lives easier. For example, we have public transport such as buses, trains, and boats and we also drive cars to get around easier. People entertain themselves through TV and computer screens. Everyone is beginning to move around less and burn less energy than they used to. Research shows that adults spend over 7 hours sitting down all day, at work, on transport, or in their leisure time. There is evidence that shows sitting down or lying for long periods is bad for your health. Not only do you need to reduce the amount of time you spend sitting down, but you also need to try and raise your activity levels for a better lifestyle. 

Through research, it has been shown that exercise can improve how you're feeling and decrease feelings like depression, anxiety, and stress. It increases the brain's sensitivity to the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine. Exercise also increases endorphins, which help produce more positive feelings. Your body uses energy in three different ways: digesting food, exercising, and maintaining body functions. Normal exercise has shown that it increases your metabolic rate, which is known to help you burn more calories to help you lose weight. We all know that exercise plays a role in maintaining strong muscles and bones, and to achieve this, you can do things like weightlifting. This can also help prevent osteoporosis. Regular exercise can increase your energy levels. Studies have found that doing regular exercise for 6 weeks reduces the feeling of being tired. Doing an increased amount of exercise can help increase energy levels for people with medical conditions such as cancer. Fitness can reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, several cancers, high cholesterol, and hypertension. Many cancers include breast, colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, lung, liver, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, thyroid, gastric, and oesophageal cancer. Exercise can help your skin stay healthy as well as delay signs of aging by providing antioxidant protection and helping with blood flow. It also improves the blood flow to the brain, which can also help with brain memory, and for older adults, it protects mental function. Regular physical activity, whether aerobic or a combination of aerobic and resistance training, can improve your sleep and make you feel more energized during the day. Exercise reduces the pain associated with a variety of conditions. It can also help with pain tolerance.

Other Campaigns

NHS Better Health

In this advert, they include the three ways you could stay healthy like eating, smoking and fitness. They also include what being healthy can do for you physically and mentally. There audience looks like it more or less aimed for people that are older and people that can really benefit from it. To aim it at the younger generation, I will include younger people in the advert so it can fit the target audience that we are wanting to achieve. We will also include how they can do it in a easier way as well as more affordable as it is for a younger generation. 

Better Health - Healthy changes start with little changes | NHS

In this advert, they gather a few people to do an interview like advert. They have them talk about what part of their life they want to change to become healthier as well as talk about what inspired them to become more healthier. I like the idea of doing an interview to get peoples point of view as well as their opinions about staying healthy. I would like to answer questions for people that don't understand a lot of fitness and eating healthy.

Better Health- Every Mind Matters, I do something for myself

In this advert, they focus more into the mental health side of this. They also promote a subscription for people to invest in to improve their mental health and to let them know that help is there if they need it.

References

• Unknown. (Unknown). Change For Life. [Online]. Wikipedia. Last Updated: 24 August 2022. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change4Life [Accessed 4 October 2022].
• NHS. (Unknown). Our History. [Online]. NHS. Last Updated: Unknown. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/about-and-contact/ [Accessed 4 October 2022].
• NHS. (2013). Change For Life. [Online]. Public Health England. Last Updated: 1st April 2013. Available at: https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/17-change4life/overview#:~:text=Change4Life [Accessed 4 October 2022].
• Age UK. (2021). Better Health - let's Do It. [Online]. Age UK. Last Updated: 07 January 2021. Available at: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/herefordshireandworcestershire/about-us/news/articles/2021/better-health--- [Accessed 5 October 2022].
• J Glob Health. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 on physical activity: A rapid review. [Online]. Journal of Global Health. Last Updated: 30 April 2022. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8979477/ [Accessed 30 October 2022].
• Jonathon Holmes. (2022). Obesity, deprivation, and Covid-19: why rowing back on the obesity strategy could prove to be a costly error. [Online]. The Kings Fund. Last Updated: 20th July 2022. Available at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2022/07/obesity-deprivation-and-covid-19 [Accessed 30 October 2022].
• Unknown. (Unknown). Long-term effects of COVID-19. [Online]. NHS Inform. Last Updated: Unknown. Available at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/long-term-effects-of-covid-19-long-covid/about-long-covid/what-is-long-co [Accessed 30 October 2022].
  
• NHS. (2021). Benefits of Exercise. [Online]. NHS. Last Updated: 4th April 2021. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-health-benefits/ [Accessed 31 October 2022].
• Arlene Semeco. (2021). The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise. [Online]. Healthline. Last Updated: 14th December 2021. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise [Accessed 1 November 2022].