Health Management and Policy Alert

Home improvement: a triple dividend – Part one: boosting the British economy

Demos -
This report presents a case for a comprehensive nationwide programme to address the poor quality of the UK’s homes. It finds that 3.5 million homes in England are a threat to their occupants’ health and safety, and have the highest associated health and care costs in Western Europe. This briefing, produced in partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better, explores the economic opportunity that lies in shaping a home improvement policy that provides safe, energy efficient homes for a growing and ageing population. It concludes that by investing in homes pressure on health and social care services could be reduced.

• Report
• Demos - publications

 

Inequalities in disability

Institute for Fiscal Studies -
This analysis looks at differences and inequalities in the prevalence of disability and the degree to which health limits functional capabilities in the UK. This commentary studies differences in the prevalence of disability between education groups, regions, date of birth cohorts and genders. While there are a number of ways in which disability may affect outcomes, this commentary focuses particularly on employment as an outcome.

• Report
• Institute for Fiscal Studies - publications
• Institute for Fiscal Studies - press release

Health security from the ground up: 5 lessons for the future of the UKHSA

Reform - 

This paper explores the shortcomings in the English response to Covid-19 and presents five policy ideas which would help strengthen the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and improve the UK’s resilience in the face of future health crises.

• Paper
• More detail

How strong is your anchor? A measurement toolkit for health anchors

UCL Partners -
Anchor institutions are typically large-scale, non-profit organisations whose long-term sustainability is tied to the wellbeing of the population they serve. This toolkit aims to provide guidance and support to local health anchors and their partners, helping them to capture their activity and impact.

• Toolkit
• UCL Partners - projects

Not by choice: the unequal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on disempowered ethnic minority and migrant communities

Doctors of the World - 
This report argues that too many of the policy decisions that were made during the Covid-19 health emergency either did not understand the evidence on inequality or ignored it, and that this was particularly true for ethnic minorities and migrants.

• Report
• Doctors of the World - news

We deserve better: ethnic minorities with a learning disability and access to healthcare

NHS Race & Health Observatory -
This five part review examines two decades of research looking into discriminatory barriers preventing equitable health care treatment. It finds that people with a learning disability from Black, South Asian (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage) and minority ethnic backgrounds face shorter life expectancy triggered by poorer health care access, experience and outcomes. It also captures the lack of reasonable adjustments and failure to recognise individual needs. Other obstacles identified include language barriers, cultural and religious insensitivity, a lack of information in easy read format, and a lack of information during transitional care in hospital and home.

• Read the reports
• NHS Race & Health Observatory - news

Health in 2040: projected patterns of illness in England

Health Foundation - 

Produced by the Health Foundation’s Real Centre in partnership with the University of Liverpool, this report aims to support policymakers prepare for the future by looking at patterns of illness over the next two decades. The analysis lays out the potential scale and impact of the growth in the number of people living with major illness as the population ages, assigning scores to 20 conditions based on how likely the illness is to affect people’s use of primary care and emergency health services and likelihood of death. The report projects that 9.1 million people will be living with major illness by 2040, 2.5 million more than in 2019.

• Report
• Press release

Prevention, integration and implementation: healthcare leaders’ views on the major conditions strategy

NHS Confederation - 

The major conditions strategy is a national framework being developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). This briefing considers how the strategy can set the conditions to prevent, treat and manage multimorbidity in England.

• Briefing

Healthcare and prosperity: the NHS at 75

Institute for Public Policy Research -
This research shows that a third of British adults (34 per cent) have found it difficult to get the health care services they need through the NHS, since the pandemic began. This rises to 51 per cent of people with a life-limiting health condition. It finds that this disruption is costing lives and livelihoods. Some 71 per cent of those with a life limiting health condition who experienced difficulty getting the NHS health care they need said this lack of access had directly undermined their wellbeing and economic prospects.

• Report
• Institute for Public Policy Research - press release

A vision for the future of primary care

National Voices - 
Through insights gathered within a coalition of health and care charities, this report identifies nine proposals for the reform of primary care which could make a difference for people living with health conditions and disability, and in particular people from groups that experience health inequalities, whilst also supporting the primary care workforce.

• Report
• National Voices - publications