Doctors fear that inequalities are slipping down agenda

Public health specialists in England fear that health inequalities are slipping down the government's agenda as two new policy documents have failed to set national targets for closing the health gap.

Neither last week's white paper on public health nor an official report on health inequalities, published with minimal publicity at the same time, set national targets, and neither offered any extra money to improve health in the country's poorest boroughs.

Although the government plans to save 300000 lives over the next 10 years—from suicide, cancer, accidents, and heart disease and strokes—no parallel targets have been set to tackle health inequalities, and none of the £96m ($154m) public health development fund pledged in the white paper, Saving …