On Friday 3rd September it was announced that Secretary of State Sajid Javid had given the go-ahead for the new Office for Heath Improvement and Disparities to launch on the 1st October. As his predecessor Matt Hancock was synonymous with digital and e-health, sources suggest that Mr Javid is keen to make health inequalities and disparities a main focus of his tenure, perhaps reflecting his position as the first BAME Secretary of State in that Department.
As well as being a personal area of interest, the investment in health inequalities also fits very well with Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s interest in deprivation and its impact on public health (with the CMO believing we can’t solve issues of public health in England without addressing underlying poverty and health inequalities such as access to services). It also supports No. 10’s wider ‘Levelling Up’ agenda. But as with all new agendas, success will be born from partnership with patient, academic and private sectors, so what might the ‘ask’ of the life sciences industry be in meeting the Department’s new priorities?
COVID-19 has shone a light on just how stark health inequalities are in the UK with individuals from black and minority ethnic groups, poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, deprived locations, and vulnerable groups of society suffering the full force of its effects.
But inequalities in health have existed for many decades and have led to unjust consequences in morbidity and mortality. Life expectancy is a key measure of how healthy a society is: and so inequality in life expectancy or quality of life are key measures of health inequality. In England, there is a systemic relationship between how rich you are and your life expectancy. Men living in the least deprived areas can expect to life 9 years longer than their counterparts in the poorest areas. Inequalities in both healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy are even wider than inequalities in life expectancy.
People in poorer areas spend a far greater part of their already far shorter lives in poor health. The sad fact is that inequalities in health, or future health, begin in utero: higher incidence low birthweight, premature birth, infant mortality and cognitive problems are associated with poor maternal health and deprivation. Evidence shows that a quarter of deaths under the age of 1 could be avoided if we had no health inequalities.
Reducing health inequalities and giving everyone the chance of a positive, healthy life is not just a health or an ethical issue, it makes fiscal sense. As noted in the DHSC release, ill-health amongst working-age people alone costs the economy around £100 billion a year, and it’s estimated that 40% of health care provision in the UK is being used to manage potentially preventable conditions.
So the challenge is clear, but what’s the solution and what could the role of the life sciences sector be in helping all patients, regardless of postcode, get the best chance of a healthier life?
In summary, industry should be thinking about how to articulate its commitment to meeting the government’s agenda, to improve patient care and outcomes. Pharma has arguably done more than most to understand health inequalities; now that this matches to the government’s agenda so clearly, how can we ensure that the industry’s voice is heard and we are seen as part of the solution? The key will be getting on the front foot and showing Government how the sector has been leading the way vs. waiting to be asked, or even worse, told. In the same way that ‘innovative medicines’ and ‘health technology’ were the focus under Hancock, we now will be asked to answer a different exam question.
The industry needs to evolve its approach in order to answer it.
Sign up to our mailing list:
"*" indicates required fields
Read on for what brands can learn from the reaction to sustainability u-turns and see how we tackled food waste, brought nature to a neglected part of East London and made ‘buildbackability’ front...See More
Welcome to the Media Network bulletin, brought to you by MHP Group. Our unrivalled team of former journalists and media experts bring you the latest insights behind the headlines....See More
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 1 year | Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Analytics" category . |
CookieLawInfoConsent | 1 year | Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. |
PHPSESSID | session | This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. |
_gat_gtag_UA_12122976_1 | 1 minute | Set by Google to distinguish users. |
_gid | 1 day | Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |
vuid | 2 years | Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
wc_session_ids[all_forms] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[default] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[multi][0] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[multi][1] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[multi][2] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[multi][3] | 8 minutes | No description |
wc_session_ids[multi][4] | 8 minutes | No description |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__cf_bm | 30 minutes | This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. |
__sharethis_cookie_test__ | session | ShareThis sets this cookie to track which pages are being shared and by whom. |