Received from: CSP
Physical inactivity is a major and costly public health problem. It is the fourth largest cause of disease and disability, directly contributing to one in six deaths in the UK, the same number as smoking. Only 50 per cent of UK adults do the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week. Despite this only around 4 per cent of the UK health budget is spent on prevention.
Physical activity contributes to health improvement and can substantially reduce the burden of illhealth and unnecessary disability in our society. That is why the CSP launched its Love Activity, Hate Exercise? campaign this summer to make exercise more accessible to a wider range of people.
The huge culture change that is needed to make a real difference to levels of activity cannot be achieved through campaigns such as this alone. Greater investment in public health education and ill health prevention by the government is urgently needed. The recent announcement of an average 3.4 per cent increase to the NHS budget over the next five years disappointingly does not include an increase in the public health budget which has suffered real-term cuts in recent years.
Congress calls on the General Council and affiliates to use every opportunity in the coming months, as the details emerge of how investment in the NHS will be
supported and sustained, to campaign for proper funding for public health and ill health prevention as part of the solution.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy