Public Policy Projects: The urgency of wound care and its contribution to health inequalities (2 June 2025)

Summary

A newly-released report from Public Policy Projects (PPP), The urgency of wound care and its contribution to health inequalities, highlights how wound care is presenting a growing but underacknowledged public health issue that is worsening health inequalities in the UK.

Approximately 3 in 40 UK adults have a wound managed by the NHS. This report, drawing on insights gathered from a roundtable of specialist health experts, reveals that non-healing wounds disproportionately affect individuals facing existing health disparities. Wound care in the NHS is often hampered by systemic issues, including fragmentation, under-prioritisation, and under-utilisation of data. To rectify this, the report calls for a shift towards preventative, integrated, and data-driven approaches, emphasising the need for greater prioritisation of wound care as a public health measure targeting health inequalities.