The Royal College of Physicians has issued a statement following the Liberal Democrat party conference in Bournemouth, welcoming a focus on the NHS, and commitments to ill health prevention and tackling health inequalities.
Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam said: “We welcome the focus on the NHS and health and care in Sir Ed Davey’s speech and the commitment in the motion passed by the Liberal Democrats to prevent ill health, tackle health inequalities and create a ‘health creation’ unit in the Cabinet Office. We are also pleased to see the commitment to restore the Public Health Grant to at least 2015 levels, alongside other public health measures such as limiting junk food advertising before the watershed.
“A survey of RCP members earlier this year found almost a third had seen more people with illness due to their living conditions in the prior three months. That is why the RCP and other member organisations of the Inequalities in Health Alliance have been calling for an explicit cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities.”