Resources

A healthy population is key to citizen wellbeing, a productive economy and manageable public services. Policy decisions on jobs, income, housing, education, transport and green space have a major impact on health, but do not involve the Department of Health and Social Care. As the government sets out policies to deliver on its manifesto commitments, how can we ensure health is considered across government, mitigating the potential adverse impacts, ensuring equity and accentuating the positives? Here we argue that Health Impact Assessments are a key tool to cross-government action on health and health inequalities.

In this evidence brief, we examine the current state of Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) in the UK and their potential to reduce health inequalities. HIAs are essential to the Health in All Policies approach, which integrates health considerations across government. We offer recommendations to increase HIA use, emphasising the need for stronger leadership and dedicated resources to fully embed HIAs in national policy-making.

Discussions around population health and economic growth and their interconnectedness have intensified since the new government came to power. Parliament and cabinet members highlight the importance of cutting NHS waiting times and optimising prevention programmes to enable people to stay healthy and economically active. What seems to be less discussed – at least for now – is how the fundamental drivers of poor health and health inequalities will be tackled and to what extent the NHS can contribute to this goal. 

General practices serving the most deprived populations receive less funding per weighted patient than those serving the least deprived. Here we show that this inequality is driven by a higher concentration of dispensing practices in more affluent areas.

Overall patient satisfaction with general practice has improved slightly according to the GP Patient Survey 2024, but remains substantially lower than pre-pandemic levels. Patient satisfaction is not the same across the country. Read more to understand inequalities in patient satisfaction from the latest data.

People who visit emergency departments more frequently than the average often experience multiple socioeconomic difficulties and health problems. In this brief we summarise evidence on how health care services can better support these patients. Meeting these patients’ needs requires an integrated approach that cuts across different health care services but may also involve local authorities and the voluntary sector.

In this blog, we introduce eFIT, a tool that helps Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) allocate funding more equitably by considering socio-economic factors. By addressing inequalities in general practice funding, eFIT aims to provide additional resources to practices serving disadvantaged communities, working towards fairer health care outcomes for all.

The manifestos have been published, but what are they likely to mean for health and care inequalities? Let’s take a closer look and examine the underlying evidence.