THE East Lancashire health campaign to save the equivalent of a million years of people’s lives was always bold and ambitious.

The idea was that by aggressively promoting the benefits of exercise, healthy eating, and the like, over four years, the woefully-low life expectancy figures for towns like Blackburn, Burnley, and Accrington, would be significantly improved.

Simultaneously we were also told more resources would be put into targeting heart disease, alcohol-related illnesses and obesity.

A year ago, at the half-way point in the programme, health chiefs announced they had already saved around 300,000 years by adding 30 months to the area’s average lifespan.

Now we hear that an independent review of the Save a Million Years of Life campaign has concluded that its target is ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unachievable’, leading the trust’s chief executive to say: “We have to take stock and redirect our efforts.”

This raises a few questions.

I for one would like to know why, in difficult economic times, the trust apparently paid for an independent reviewer to produce a report on the first three years of a four-year programme, particularly since they have decided not to stop the project, but to ‘relaunch’ it in December, despite knowing it will not reach its target.

The report contains stunningly insightful comments like pointing out that the million years target by 2011 was “always aspirational.”

Of course it was.

The simple idea was also that by spending money on improving health the NHS would save some of the huge amounts paid out on treating people who have abused themselves by eating junk food, smoking and drinking to excess.

What’s worrying about this change in emphasis is that as resources become more scarce in a recession, medium to long-term projects seem to be pushed to one side, while front-line emergency services use their clout to grab the lion’s share of smaller budgets.

Add to that last week’s news that £25million plans to replace three health centres in Clitheroe, Great Harwood, and Colne, have been scrapped and the future begins to look particularly unhealthy.

We are told that NHS officials will now look for private sector partners for one, or all, of the community hospital sites.

The health service’s experience with private partners so far is pretty dismal because of the huge amounts of cash that have to be found to pay back firms who aren’t there for purely altruistic reasons, but to make lots of money for shareholders.

Which brings us back to the common sense of preventative campaigns and the Million Years idea.

Private health companies make their money by getting people to pay for treatment, rather than spreading practices and information which will stop folk needing it at all.

A medical speaker at a recent dinner put it very well when he stood up and began by saying he had seen a few people leaving the hall to have a cigarette.

“I would like to encourage anyone who feels like a smoke to get up now and go outside to do just that.

"I’m a consultant in chest medicine and every one of you who goes out for a cigarette means more money in my pocket.

"You are keeping me in business!”