Published 30 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2604
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2604

Observations

Body Politic

Mind the gap

Britain is a profoundly unequal country, and there’s not much that health care can do about that

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

One of the first acts of the incoming Labour government in 1997 was to ask Donald Acheson, then chief medical officer, to carry out a review of health inequalities. A decade after his recommendations the Department of Health published, in May, a review of what has happened since (www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_098936). It is a first class report—but what piffling progress it records. Health inequalities are as wide as ever, wider in some cases. Successes, where they exist, are measured in fractions of a percentage, at the margin of statistical significance.

You would have been hard pressed to discern this from the speech made by Alan Johnson, secretary of state for health at the time of publication. He rightly celebrated improvements in life expectancy and infant mortality but did not acknowledge the unwelcome figures that his own report spelt out. The gap between disadvantaged groups and the rest of the population . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Regional inequalities and cancer

Michael V Williams
BMJ 2009 339: b2927. [Extract] [Full Text]

Reducing the gap

Evan L Lloyd
BMJ 2009 339: b2928. [Extract] [Full Text]

Do we mind the gap?

Angela M Jones
BMJ 2009 339: b2933. [Extract] [Full Text]

The rhythm method

Jane Smith
BMJ 2009 339: b2668. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Williams, M. V (2009). Regional inequalities and cancer. BMJ 339: b2927-b2927 [Full text]  
• Lloyd, E. L (2009). Reducing the gap. BMJ 339: b2928-b2928 [Full text]  
• Jones, A. M (2009). Do we mind the gap?. BMJ 339: b2933-b2933 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Regional inequalites and cancer

Michael V Williams
bmj.com, 7 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Reducing the gap

Evan L Lloyd
bmj.com, 9 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Do we mind the gap?

Angela M Jones
bmj.com, 15 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Rurality and health deprivation

A Gordon Baird
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more>>