Public Health and Health Care

Fifty percent of chronic non-specific lung disease (CNSLD) patients are advised by medical practitioners to give up smoking.This also means that 50 percent are not given such advice, even though there are significant health gains to be made by this group from stopping smoking. In this case the glass is half empty, not half full. What can the government do to ensure that opportunities for health gains in individual health care are utilised more effectively, thereby reducing premature mortality and increasing healthy life expectancy and quality of life? What steering instruments should be deployed for this purpose? This advisory report provides an answer to these questions.