Blog

The government has stated that smoking is responsible for half of the inequalities gap in life expectancy in England – will the ideas in an independent review close that gap?

Loreen Chikwira explores how better listening, collaborative working with minority ethnic women and better support for link workers can improve how social prescribing supports migrant women.

The public has grasped what people who use social care already knew: it doesn’t provide all the support they need. Laura Schlepper, from Nuffield Trust, and Simon Bottery explore the data from the British Social Attitudes survey.

Oliver Standing, Director of Collective Voice, and colleagues from the Alliance Group, explore the opportunities offered by England’s new drugs strategy, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

In a recent roundtable, local health leaders identified five relationships that need to be strengthened to successfully manage elective backlogs.

How has the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on health services affected public perceptions of the NHS? The results of the 2021 British Social Attitudes survey reveal an unprecedented drop in public satisfaction with health services.

Integrated care systems are intended to be part of a new way of working in health and care based on principles of partnership and collective responsibility. Chris Naylor asks whether this original vision is already at risk and what making a reality of it would involve.

The Covid-19 vaccination programme was one of the few largely unqualified successes of the pandemic response. Nicholas Timmins summarises the findings of a new report on what made the roll-out work, and what can be learnt for the future.

As The King’s Fund celebrates its 125th anniversary, Richard Murray looks at how the world of health and care policy may not have changed as much as we might think.

Tackling poverty is core business, and the NHS can start by addressing low pay in its own workforce, as many other public services have.

Johnson Neo reflects on the role that clinicians can play in improving population health and considers how applying a framework can help make sense of the factors that can impact on their patients’ health.

David Buck and Toby Lewis consider the opportunities of NHS England’s new ‘Core20plus5’ approach to tackling health inequalities, and reflect on how the NHS begins to adapt its role and work more strongly with others to tackle the root causes as well as symptoms.

The NHS is facing the challenges of growing waiting lists, missed performance targets and a severe workforce shortage. How will public attitudes towards the health service change if the taxpayer-funded increase in health spending doesn’t result in improvements?

The current rhetoric from ministers is that waits for elective care will ‘get worse before they get better’. But what will the ‘better’ part of ‘build back better’ look like for elective care?

Veena Raleigh examines the latest international health statistics from OECD's Health at a glance 2021.

As demand for primary care services continues to grow, Martha Martin, GP trainee, explores how investment in improving the social determinants of health and time to develop relationships in multidisciplinary teams would help her to better support her patients.

NHS organisations have to be deeply embedded in their communities if they are to tackle the underlying causes of ill health and improve public health. Toby Lewis reflects on his learning about how to make anchoring a route to community wellbeing and a more inclusive organisational culture.

Partnership working can be transformative – if it works well. Here we share two techniques, observed as part of the Healthy Communities Together programme, that can help in forming healthy partnerships.

Mark Doughty shares a personal story, revealing the value and power of compassionate care and leadership at all levels.

Veena Raleigh considers the widening gaps in life expectancy between people in the most- and least-deprived areas of England. How will the newly launched Office for Health Improvement and Disparities face these challenges?