Imagine if we talked about traffic accidents the way we talk about public health.

By Director of Health Bogi Eliasen

We don’t talk about traffic accidents as something inevitable that are best dealt with by creating a larger rescue service. Instead, we have reversed the logic and instead focus on reducing the number of accidents.

A comparison of the health budgets of Western countries shows that there is no gain in investing more than ten percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the health system, notably when the focus is on disease and treatment. In Denmark, we are above the ten percent.

It is indisputable that today we start treating people relatively late in their disease progression, and that a large proportion of resources are put into the last months of people's lives. Our health system has become a disease system.

The current health crisis is not primarily about the lack of money or hands. It's about not using the tools and the knowledge we have. It is assumed that 30 percent of the disease burden - mostly lifestyle diseases - could be avoided. It's not about creating a larger health system, but a healthier population.

Much of the effort lies in school and leisure activities, where the foundation for a healthier lifestyle is laid. We do not need to tackle the whole problem at once, but rather focus on those who have the greatest need and who will be hit the hardest.

Crucial is the so-called secondary prevention with massive help to people who are at high risk of getting a chronic disease, or who have just been diagnosed with one.

In Denmark, we have both knowledge and data tools - not least through S?ren Brunak groundbreaking research - to be able to identify and help these people as early as possible.

With these resources, we can both keep them healthy as well as delay the further development of the disease and prevent them from getting other chronic diseases. Most people get sick at some point, and most die from a disease. But we do not need to accept a greater disease burden for the individual than necessary.

The Nordic countries are among the countries with the most employees in the health service per capita, and yet we are importing structurally important health personnel from poorer countries in recent years to remedy our own inefficiency.

In the Nordic Health 2030 Movement Health 2030 initiative - initiated in 2019 by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and Nordic Innovation with high-ranking health personnel across the Nordic countries, one of the conclusions was a common Nordic goal:

Of the ten percent of GDP, which the Nordic countries spend on health today, half should be allocated to (primary, secondary, and tertiary) prevention by 2030.

It is not a law of nature that a higher lifespan leads to a higher disease burden.

Health is not just about the right to treatment when needed, but also about the right to a life with as little disease as possible. Only with such a mindset can we create a sustainable and dignified health system.

Reach out to Bogi Eliasen if you want to know more about our approach to building sustainable health care systems.