Health inequalities: the NHS plan needs to take more responsibility

Health inequalities: the NHS plan needs to take more responsibility The NHS has a critical role in reducing health inequalities. When we look at what determines our health, we know that treatment comes in third place: after the wider determinants of health, and our health behaviours. But even third place means that around 10–20 per cent (or more, by some estimates) of our health outcomes are directly determined by the NHS. Crucially, NHS leaders have huge control over that chunk and they can influence beyond that into the wider determinants and our behaviours. We should therefore be expecting a lot from the long-term plan on health inequalities. The King's Fund