Dr Sarah Clarke, President of the Royal College of Physicians, has responded to the King's Fund report on the relationship between poverty and NHS services.
Responding to the report, Dr Sarah Clarke, President of the Royal College of Physicians said:
‘The King’s Fund report shines an important light on how poverty affects people’s access and experience of health services in the UK, further underlining how inequalities impact our health. It highlights the reasons why people living in poverty find it harder to access healthcare, including the cost of attending services (whether that be travel, access to internet or other charges), being put off by waiting times, thinking that they wouldn’t be eligible, and a lack of trust. Greater work needs to be done to ensure that all those who need to access health services are comfortably able to do so.
‘The report also recognises that the NHS can only treat the symptoms of poverty and that broader government, economic and civic society action is needed to treat the causes. Our latest census of UK consultant physicians found that 55% of consultant physicians had seen an increase in the number of patients with ill health due to social and economic factors over the previous 3 months.
‘Health inequalities cannot be tackled by the health service alone. This is why the RCP and over 250 member organisations of the Inequalities in Health Alliance are calling for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. Coordinated action across government departments is needed to act on the wider determinants of health that make us ill in the first place, such as poor housing, lack of educational opportunity, child poverty, communities and place, employment (including how much money you have), transport and air quality.
‘But there are things the NHS can and should do on this issue. It is vital that among the pressures of service delivery and waiting lists that tackling health inequalities is seen as “business as usual” rather than a “nice to have”.’