Policymakers should focus healthcare more on wellbeing over lifetime

In my view, our priorities should not be determined by Covid per se, or by any new virus or crisis we might face, but by the impact on wellbeing over the lifetimes of all those impacted by it and the policy responses to it. We can’t avoid making trade-offs between the needs of different age groups, even if these trade-offs are sometimes implicit or hidden. And I feel also that we must redouble our efforts to manage deaths properly, so as to create as much benefit as possible for the dying person – and, crucially, for those left behind. We must do more to accept death, especially in old age, and to minimise the impact that the death of loved ones has on family and friends. That means we need to have proper discussions about what end of life care looks like, and how we can best support patients and families. You can read the full blog post on LSE’s British Politics and Policy blog here.