Michael Marmot on what the UK is getting wrong:
If you needed a case study example of what not to do to reduce health inequalities, the UK provides it. The only other developed country doing worse is the US, where life expectancy is falling. Our country has become poor and unhealthy, where a few rich, healthy people live. People care about their health, but it is deteriorating, with their lives shortening, through no fault of their own. Political leaders can choose to prioritise everyone’s health, or not. Currently they are not…
What must happen at the same time, though, is leadership from central government, making reducing health inequalities a central plank of the next government. That means implementing fairer social and economic policies, with health at the heart.
Hard to imagine a Keir Starmer government doing that, but let’s hope.
