Dubai: Technology is helping us live longer but there are issues regarding quality of life, said Britain's former health minister, calling for an overhaul in health care services.
Pointing to the global challenges facing health care today, Lord Darzi of Denham, who is Britain's Ambassador of Life Sciences, said there was a need to change it from a "sickness service" to a "health and well-being service".
"Demographics are changing. We are all getting older, which is a good thing as it is a success of technology," he said, but noted that the quality of life of people is being impacted due to non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity). He pointed out that diabetes is "significantly increasing" in this region.
Lord Darzi was in Dubai heading a large team of medical innovators and providers of health care services to the Arab Health Congress which ended on Thursday.
"It's correct to say that health care services are not affected by the recession," said Lord Darzi. "On the other hand many health systems are finding it more challenging due to the escalating costs and the cost-effectiveness of care."
He said building more hospitals is not the solution to the global health care challenges.
"That was good for 40 or 50 years ago. This is a new era and we need to find new solutions," he said. Lord Darzi said in other sectors when new technology comes in, it replaces old technology, but that it is not happening in the medical sector. "We need to look at de-commisioning old systems which are ineffective," he said.
The ambassador said it was important to provide cheaper quality care. "If you do things right the first time, it is cheaper in the long run," he said and called for more investment in health and wellbeing, saying that prevention is better and cheaper than just treating the disease.
He said there was a need to look at innovative solutions and how to reduce demand of health care such as in remote monitoring (of patients).
