The health of those living in the north is worse than those living in the south, and this inequality is reflected in the comparative economic performance as well. The regional inequality in economic performance is prominent throughout the United Kingdom. In this blog, Dr Luke Munford and Professor Clare Bambra explore the links between health […]
Child of the North: Child mental wellbeing
Children’s mental health and wellbeing was deteriorating prior to COVID-19, but there was significant decline during the pandemic, particularly in the North of England. This blog post covers the collaboration between Professor Pamela Qualter, Professor Matt Sutton, Stephanie Gillibrand, Professor Neil Humphrey and Dr Ola Demkowicz in their study of children’s mental health, originally published […]
Child of the North: The economic impacts of child health
The economic performance of the North of England consistently lags behind the national average. One factor that could partly explain this ‘productivity gap’ is the poorer physical and mental health of children in the North, along with a widening educational gap, with long-lasting impacts on the labour market. In this blog, Dr Rose Atkins and […]
Public transport and the pandemic: perceptions of risk and mitigation
Throughout the pandemic, public transport has been identified as a significant potential hub of transmission for the disease, with messaging urging people to avoid it wherever possible. Despite this guidance, however, there was little evidence on how great this risk was, or the effectiveness of mitigation measures such as masks and ventilation. In this blog, […]
The Child of the North: Building a fairer future after COVID-19
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, growing evidence has shown the effects of the disease, and measures to contain it, have not been felt equally across the UK, with the North of England one of the hardest hit regions. Even before the pandemic, the North suffered from higher levels of poverty, poor health, and inequality compared to […]
Achieving the right mix of skills in general practice: it’s a process not a destination
Last year, Dr Imelda McDermott and Dr Sharon Spooner published an article in On Primary Care highlighting policy-driven organisational changes in how general practice is delivered. In the first blog of this series, Dr McDermott, Dr Spooner and Professor Kath Checkland looked at how GP practices are managing changes in the practitioner workforce. In this piece, the authors focus on […]
Managing changes in the general practice workforce
Last year, Dr Imelda McDermott and Dr Sharon Spooner published an article in On Primary Care highlighting policy-driven organisational changes in how general practice is delivered. In this blog, Dr McDermott and Dr Spooner are joined by Professor Kath Checkland and they argue that the future face of general practice is about more than innovative […]
Quality matters in community pharmacy
This article was originally published in On Primary Care, a collection of essays identifying the challenges and opportunities facing policymakers today in the UK primary care sector. Here, Dr Ali Hindi, from the Center of Pharmacy Workforce Studies and Dr Sally Jacobs, from the Institute for Health Policy and Organisation, respond to a lack of guidance from NHS […]
Area-based vaccination would better protect against COVID-19
The early stages of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the UK have been a remarkable success from many perspectives: we have one of the highest rates of vaccination per capita, high uptake, and the government has met its first vaccination target. However, this rollout has taken place amidst a devastating surge of COVID-19 deaths, and […]
Inequalities in ageing: health disadvantages amongst ethnic minority groups
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on most ethnic minority groups in England. But this inequality is a crisis within a crisis – the pandemic has laid bare and exacerbated existing deep-rooted health inequalities. Here, Dr Ruth Watkinson and Dr Alex Turner, from the Health Organisation, Policy and Economics group (HOPE) and the […]