Think-tank sets out seven priorities for tackling health inequalities

A new report from The King’s Fund has set out seven priorities for the NHS in tackling health inequalities.

Sarah Woolnough (c) The King's Fund

Sarah Woolnough (c) The King's Fund

The report draws on The King's Fund's five-year programme of work on health inequalities and tackling the worst health outcomes, which includes insights from stakeholders, partners and people with lived experience, and outlines what the Government's 10-year health plan should focus on.

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, said: ‘It is deeply unfair that some groups experience worse health and care than others. The development of a 10-year plan offers a real opportunity to facilitate the significant change that is so desperately needed.'

The seven priorities are:

  • develop a cross-government health inequalities strategy for the 10-year health plan to feed into
  • reorientate the NHS to focus on prevention
  • radically change the relationships the NHS has with people and communities, from ‘power over' to ‘power with'
  • tackle racism and discrimination in the NHS and cultivate a culture of compassion
  • enable staff to identify and act on health inequalities and capture learning
  • empower place-based partnerships to take more decisions about how NHS money is spent
  • actively support local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations through changes in financial planning and commissioning.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Lord Darzi's report revealed the appalling state of the NHS. This Government is taking immediate action to get it back on its feet and will create a 10-year plan to make it fit for the future.

‘We will fundamentally reform the health system through three big shifts – from hospital to the community, analogue to digital and treatment to prevention.

‘We will create a healthier society while ensuring patients receive the highest quality care when and where they need it.'

 

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