GPs need better incentives to reduce health inequalities, says audit office

The Department of Health for England is on course to miss a Public Service Agreement target set in 2002 to reduce health inequalities by 10% by 2010 as the gap between the richest and the poorest widens, an audit has found.

The latest report from the National Audit Office found that because the department was slow to set up initiatives to tackle inequality, with most implemented in the mid 2000s, it was impossible to determine if its approach provided value for money, although it did think this “likely.”

Moreover, although life expectancy overall had increased, the gap in life expectancy between the national average and the government’s dedicated “spearhead areas” (72 local authorities in the bottom …