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Health Inequalities

The British Thoracic Society is a founding member of the Inequalities in Health Alliance (IHA), a group of over 80 different organisations united by a common will and commitment to eradicate health inequalities in the UK.  The IHA is calling for support and action from government to:

  • develop a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities 
  • commence the socio-economic duty, section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 
  • adopt a ‘child health in all policies’ approach.

These are activities which we, as part of the IHA, believe are crucial to kick-starting the process of ridding society of engrained inequalities. To know more about the Alliance, please visit the Royal College of Physicians' web page dedicated to this project.

As well as supporting the shared aims and asks of the Alliance, BTS is working to produce a position statement on health inequalities, highlighting the various determinants of respiratory ill health and how we as a specialty can focus our efforts to begin to  tackle inequalities at every stage to improve lung health.

Links

  • Health Foundation COVID-19 Impact Inquiry – Findings The Health Foundation collected evidence on: - how people’s experience of the pandemic was influenced by their health and existing inequalities; - the likely impact of actions taken in response to the pandemic on people’s health and health inequalities – now and in the future.
  • Respiratory Futures - Resources on Health Inequalities Respiratory Futures hosts a collection of data sources for those wishing to find more about the wider determinants of health and the impact of health inequalities.
  • Actionable Insights Tool A new ‘Actionable Insights’ tool has been added to NHS Foundry, as a partner tool to the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Dashboard. The tool uses statistical techniques to present data into clear sentences, rather than using charts alone, making the data available to help NHS systems to reduce healthcare inequalities easier to interpret. Follow the link below for more information and to request access.