Authors:
Gareth Morgan*
Hywel Dda University Health Board, Block 6, Prince Phillip Hospital, Llanelli, SA14 8QF. Carmarthenshire, Wales. UK
Received: 10 July, 2015; Accepted: 03 July, 2015; Published: 05 July, 2015
Gareth Morgan, Commissioning Manager, Directorate of Strategic Partnerships, Hywel Dda University Health Board, Block 6, Prince Phillip Hospital, Llanelli, SA14 8QF. Carmarthenshire, Wales. UK. Desk: 01554 756567 extension 6951, Tel: 07854886580;
Morga G (2015) The Conflation of Health and Healthcare . Arch Community Med Public Health 1(1): 000. DOI: 10.17352/2455-5479.000002
© 2015 Morga G. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Prevention; Chronic diseases; Nursing; Primary health care
Short Communication
Health is difficult to define while healthcare relates to the various services available. Recent election campaigns within the United-Kingdom seemed to conflate the terms health and healthcare. Healthcare investment is not a guarantee of improved health, a point the general public may fully not appreciate. Recently, I attended a meeting in west Wales with a community group. Their interest in health was focused on healthcare, so we discussed an alternative model:
Health is difficult to define while healthcare relates to the various services available. Recent election campaigns within the United-Kingdom seemed to conflate the terms health and healthcare. Healthcare investment is not a guarantee of improved health, a point the general public may fully not appreciate. Recently, I attended a meeting in west Wales with a community group. Their interest in health was focused on healthcare, so we discussed an alternative model:
II. Determinants may lead to disease or predict serious adverse outcomes. So smoking and alcohol misuse may contribute to an increased risk of developing high blood pressure.
III. It may be easier to think about disease as opposite to health. So high blood pressure is an unhealthy condition because it increases the risk of adverse outcomes such as stroke.
IV. Healthcare is the response to the unhealthy conditions or adverse health outcomes. This includes primary-care blood pressure checks or delivery of specialist stroke care services
Do we need to dilate health and healthcare, educating those in government and the general public on their difference??
