All government departments must tackle causes of ill health, say experts

Politicians and health experts have called for cross government action to tackle the causes of poor health and warned of the impact of myopic funding cuts.

The All-Party Parliamentary Health Group and the Health Foundation said that ministers should make health improvement an urgent objective across sectors including education, leisure, housing, and employment.

The two groups published a collection of essays by more than 20 health experts on 6 July exploring public health issues affecting the UK.1

They said that tackling poverty and improving the wider social and physical environment was vital to enhancing people’s health and wellbeing, reducing preventable ill health, and easing pressure on the NHS.

Jo Bibby, the Health Foundation’s director of strategy, said that the health of the population was more important …