The King’s Fund outlines 7 priorities for NHS to tackle health inequalities

The King’s Fund has published an in-depth analysis highlighting the priorities that the government’s new 10-year health plan should address to combat
health inequalities.

This plan, currently being developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, will significantly shape the long-term future of the NHS.

The independent think tank emphasises that a core focus of this new plan should be to enable the NHS to better address health inequalities and support people
with the worst health outcomes.

Sarah Woolnough, CEO of The King’s Fund, explained: “Health inequalities are avoidable, unfair, and systematic differences in health between different groups
of people, and they reflect broader societal issues such as those related to income, housing, gender, ethnicity or disability.”

“Supporting the health and care system to do more to tackle these differences has been a strategy priority for the Fund over the past five years.”

Drawing on its extensive work on health inequalities in the last five years, the charity has outlined seven key priorities that should shape the 10-year health
plan: