Challenges ahead

Happy New Year! This is an election year: I wonder what it will bring? The world of tissue viability faces many challenges and questions. Finances will remain a big challenge, whatever the outcome of the election.

The Times reports that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that Jeremy Hunt's tax cuts are likely to be reversed in the forthcoming budget (Smyth, 2024). Tax cuts may be popular with some but, not wanting to be political, we would be wise to think through what they mean for the NHS. Cutting tax potentially means cutting services. Can efficiency really fill the gap? As someone who has been working in healthcare for over 40 years, yes, we can find better ways to meet clinical challenges, we can innovate, and we can bring real quality improvement. But will that be enough?

New ways of thinking offer us opportunities and post-COVID there is a move away from thinking of health challenges in silos towards a ‘population health approach’. Perhaps the focus has been too long on illness rather than health, mental health and wellness. It would be naïve to believe that having a physical wound did not impact on mental wellbeing.