UK poverty has “devastating” effect on children’s health, doctors warn

Poverty is damaging the health of children in the UK and must be urgently tackled by the next government, paediatricians have warned.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Child Poverty Action Group, in a joint report based on an online survey of 266 paediatricians working at 90 NHS trusts in the UK,1 asked doctors for their views on how poverty is affecting the physical and mental health of the children they see and whether things are getting better or worse. …