In response to a Health Foundation estimate that 2.5 million more people in England will have a serious illness by 2040, Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said:

"Prevention is better than cure. More support and money for public health services are vital to stave off poor health and ease pressure on the NHS.

"Years of cuts to funding for public health and preventative services have severely dented local councils' efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities and have put an overstretched NHS under more strain.

"More and more people need support for long-term conditions but community services are stretched to the limit, with serious staff shortages and long waits for diagnosis and treatment especially for children and young people.

"We need coordinated government action to prevent ill health, which must start with tackling the root causes of why some people – such as those living in poverty and in deprived communities, with poor housing, poor access to transport or poor access to nutrition; ethnic minorities; and people with learning disabilities – are more likely to have worse physical and mental health outcomes.

"Trusts are working hard to prevent ill health and reduce health inequalities but we need more focus on the wider factors as well as much more support for community services and social care, to help people to lead healthier lives."