Prof Sir Michael Marmot told us about Health Equity in England. The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World gave us shocking results. There is direct correlation between the austerity measures of the coalition government with reduction in public spending and
slowdown in life expectancy, increase in child poverty, declining educational funding, increase in violent crime and precarious employment.
The other determining factor is the regional inequalities between people living in deprived or affluent communities and since 2010 the gap has widened. With the pandemic these inequalities are even more manifest.
Sir Michael Marmot’s plea is to “put fair distribution of health and well-being at the heart of government policy.” The last slide of the evening’s presentation came from New Zealand which concluded
the evening with an upbeat message:
A well-being approach can be described as enabling people to have the capabilities they need to live lives of purpose, balance and meaning for them.”
It was a thoroughly educational evening, with food for thought.
Find the report at https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/build-back-fairer-the-covid-19-marmot-review
Michael Marmot’s book The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World