Investing in prevention can save lives and strengthen Wales’s future

15 Oct 2026 07:43 AM

Urgent action is needed to increase and protect investment in prevention, according to a new Public Health Wales report, which warns that health systems continue to spend too little on measures that can prevent illness, reduce pressure on services and improve people’s well-being. 

The report, Approaches to Measuring and Growing Prevention Spend and Investment, highlights a significant gap between the scale of preventable disease and the proportion of health spending directed towards prevention.  

Around 1.8 million deaths linked to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes are avoidable each year in the WHO European Region.  

The report estimates that 60 per cent of these deaths could be prevented through reducing risk factors and effective public health interventions. Wales faces a similar challenge, with cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory conditions and type 2 diabetes responsible for much of the country’s premature deaths. 

Across OECD countries, just 3.4 per cent of health expenditure was spent on preventative public health interventions in 2025. 

The report says investing in prevention can deliver substantial benefits. It can help people live longer and healthier lives, improve the resilience of public systems, and support the wider economy. 

It identifies practical approaches used internationally to help shift funding towards prevention, including protected or ring-fenced prevention and cross-sector budgeting, earmarked taxes, outcome-based investment and longer-term budget planning that protects prevention spending across political cycles. 

It also highlights the importance of working with partners such as philanthropic organisations, ethical investors, socially responsible businesses and development banks to complement public investment. 

The report calls for a consistent way to measure prevention spending, including investment outside the health service in areas such as housing, education, transport and social protection, where action can have a major impact on health and well-being. 

Professor Isabel Oliver, Chief Medical Office for Wales, said: “The future health of our nation will be determined not by how much illness we treat, but by how successfully we create the conditions for people to stay healthy in the first place.  

“Prevention is not a competing priority. It is the foundation of sustainable public services, thriving communities and economic prosperity. This report shows that countries which make long-term investments in prevention are not only improving health outcomes, they are building stronger, more resilient societies. We must be equally ambitious for Wales.” 

The Deputy Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and Director for Health, Marie Brousseau-Navarro said, “This report provides timely international evidence to support Wales’s ambition to shift from responding to ill health towards preventing it. 

“The Future Generations Commissioner’s work has consistently highlighted the need to invest earlier and smarter in all levels of prevention, including through recommendations and benchmarking work to better understand how public resources are being allocated. As Wales strengthens its approach to prevention, public bodies should use these findings to help support healthier lives, reduce inequalities and create a more sustainable future for generations to come.” 

Dr Mariana Dyakova, Consultant in Public Health and Head of International Health at Public Health Wales, said: “Prevention is not a cost, it is one of the smartest investments Wales can make. Every pound invested in helping people stay healthy can deliver benefits for individuals, communities, public services and the economy. At a time of growing demand and limited resources, we cannot afford to keep treating prevention as an optional extra. 

“Wales has a unique opportunity to lead the way. This requires moving beyond short-term decisions and funding, using public resources more effectively and engaging with partners to generate additional investments that enable healthy prosperous lives for all.”