GB-NON-10820 Date of preparation: January 2025
This article has been fully funded by MSD who have reviewed and inputted into the final content. Ultimate editorial control for this article rests solely with the New Statesman. The New Statesman’s Future of Healthcare event referenced throughout this article was part funded by MSD as sponsors of the event. MSD had no input into the event agenda, choice of speakers or arrangements of the event.
At a recent New Statesman conference on the future of healthcare held in central London, health industry leaders, expert practitioners and policy professionals gathered for a suite of events discussing the key public policy issues in the healthcare space today. With a new government in Westminster, a clear “Mission-driven” commitment on reducing waiting lists, and the NHS facing one of the most challenging sets of overlapping crises since its foundation, there was plenty to discuss.
Health policy experts have identified health inequality as an area requiring serious attention and as a core area of concern for the new Health Secretary Wes Streeting. The landmark Marmot review, published in 2010, analysed the phenomenon in detail, evaluating the large regional, class and racial divergences in health outcomes, skewed by social and economic determinants. What is sometimes called the “social gradient in health” sees women living in the wealthiest ten per cent of areas achieving a life expectancy of over 86 years, but women in the poorest decile of areas expecting to live to only 78 – a gap of eight years. The gap for males is even larger, with over nine years of difference between those born in the poorest 10 per cent and those born in the wealthiest 10 per cent of areas. These inequalities are only widening.
Hosting the public panel event to identify the some of the broad origins as well as map out potential solutions to health inequalities, the New Statesman Future of Healthcare Conference 2024 was supported in part by MSD. The inequalities session, which MSD sponsored, was chaired by the New Statesman journalist Zoe Grunewald. It invited special guests to address the informed audience from the public, private and third sectors, with speakers including: Frances O’Callaghan, the chief executive of the North Central London Integrated Care Board, the statutory organisation coordinating, planning and commissioning NHS activity across several north London local authorities; Mubasshir Ajaz, head of health and communities at West Midlands Combined Authority; and Benson Fayehun, oncology business unit head at MSD UK.
Opening the discussion, Frances O’Callaghan pointed out that “healthcare influences only a small part of people’s health and wellbeing”, drawing attention to the importance of housing, employment, income, access to social infrastructure and opportunity, exercise, diet, and working life, all contributing in a holistic way to a person’s overall health. “This isn’t just an NHS issue. Nor should it be. It’s not just one department responsible for health. Some of the partnerships we have – particularly with local authorities and voluntary sector partners – are incredibly effective, more effective, at promoting well-being”, she added.
O’Callaghan also cited the example of “targeted interventions” in early years, as well as her organisation’s partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions under the Work Well banner, which will help more than 3,000 people get back to work – something that evidence shows improves health and wellbeing considerably.
Benson Fayehun, MSD’s representative on the panel, was next to introduce his thoughts on the topic. “Health inequality is one of the biggest challenges we have in the UK in terms of health outcomes”, he told conference delegates. “A lot of people don’t have access to quality healthcare just because of where they live”. He highlighted that inequality in health outcomes was often down to “factors outside of medicine” and “what we call social determinants of health”. Fayehun detailed his personal experience of growing up in an environment without proper access to quality healthcare and explained that his “life mission” was “driving health equity”. “It’s what has driven me to work for MSD in the UK, a pharmaceutical company that’s focused on driving the research and manufacturing of medicines and vaccines and getting them to patients in the clinic. But not only does it do that, and has done that for over a century, we also spend a lot of time partnering with the NHS and also patient advocacy groups that support patients in their journey.”
He went on to explain his work with the NHS, particularly on cancer “A lot of deaths from cancer are preventable and that’s not acceptable”, he told the room. There are serious inequalities in care, Fayehun said, and that isn’t something that government alone can remedy, industry has a key role to play to support the health system to address health inequalities too.
Mubasshir Ajaz spoke from the perspective of someone working in local and regional governance organisations. The West Midlands Combined Authority has a devolved health function, he informed the audience. “We’re talking about a cross-government approach to health”, he said. “It’s not just a Department for Health and Social Care focus area”. Devolution of health to the more local level “allows you to work more effectively with other areas like housing, transports, skills and employment”. Building on that success at a more national scale will really begin to shift health inequalities, Ajaz told the panel.
This theme of collaboration and partnership was a common reference point for all of the event speakers. The question and answer session from the audience also established the importance of cross-departmental and collaborative approaches to health inequality from the point of view of the New Statesman guests and delegates. Challenging entrenched inequity and boosting health outcomes will require a holistic approach to health that goes beyond just medicine, as well as an embrace of public-private and third sector partnerships across all layers of government, from local to regional to national. The vision is clear – it’s up to us all to implement it.
Related
