The King’s Fund publishes ‘Tackling health inequalities: seven priorities for the NHS’

The King's Fund has today published a new piece of work called: ‘Tackling health inequalities: seven priorities for the NHS'.

It is deeply unjust that some groups of people have significantly worse health and worse experiences of the NHS than others. It is also preventable. We believe tackling these inequalities should be at the heart of the government's forthcoming 10-year health plan. Although the root causes of health inequalities sit outside of the health service, the NHS has a central role to play in delivering care equitably and working with others to tackle health inequalities. 

Following a review of more than one hundred pieces of work from the past five years involving people working in the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary sector, private sector, and people who experience the worst health outcomes, we have identified seven key areas for action:

1. Develop a cross-government health inequalities strategy for the 10-year health plan to feed into.
2. Reorientate the NHS to focus on prevention.
3. Radically change the relationships the NHS has with people and communities, from ‘power over' to ‘power with'.
4. Tackle racism and discrimination in the NHS and cultivate a culture of compassion.
5. Enable staff to identify and act on health inequalities and capture learning.
6. Empower place-based partnerships to take more decisions about how NHS money is spent.
7. Actively support local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations through changes in financial planning and commissioning.

Under each priority, we recommend several specific actions that can be taken. The work also includes videos of three people talking about their experiences with the health and care system.