Tackling health inequalities: seven priorities for the NHS (29 September 2024)

Summary

Drawing 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, this long read outlines what the King's Fund think the anticipated 10-year health plan should focus on to help the NHS do more to tackle these challenges.

It includes a video from Stella O'Brien describing the barriers she has faced when accessing health and care services as a deaf person, and the importance of recognising patients and carers as assets.

Content

Seven priorities for the new 10-year health plan:

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.