Published: 25 January 2008
Tragedy of Health Inequalities
The failure to make sufficient headway in reducing health inequalities during the last decade has been highlighted in a report to the House of Commons Health Select Committee.
Unite, the third largest trade union in the NHS, said that this ‘tragedy’ for public health has been mirrored by severe cutbacks to the health visiting service – numbers are at a 13-year low – and the failure to train enough school nurses to tackle such problems as childhood obesity and mental health.
Unite said the problem has come about because primary care trusts are continuing with staff cutbacks, despite recent government calls, including Health Secretary Alan Johnson, for the employment of more health visitors.
This decline in health visiting is set against a background of:
· a rising birth rate
· an increasing number of children with complex needs
· high levels of immigration, and
· more calls on health visitor time from other agencies, such as social services
The Unite report said:
‘The advantage that every person in the country should be able to say they have a GP, every ante-natal mother has a midwife and every new family has a health visitor should not be understated or underestimated.
These professionals really understand communities and those who live in them.’
Unite said that the role of the health visitor should be once more protected by law, as it was in the century before it was removed in 2001.
This would mean the ‘health visitor’ role would be carried out only by those trained to that standard - at present less qualified staff can undertake health visiting duties. Health visiting should also have more ‘say’ in formulating its training programmes.
Unite said that school nurses take their public health role seriously, but are ‘extremely frustrated’ that there are too few of them to carry out the government policies to reduce inequalities.
Unite told the MPs who are investigating - The Contribution of the NHS in Reducing Health Inequalities:
‘To invest in health visiting and hence early intervention could produce massive savings to other areas of government expenditure related to inequalities in the longer term.’
Unite Head of Health, Kevin Coyne said:
“We welcome the opportunity to put our case to the Select Committee. We have produced powerful evidence highlighting the present level of health inequalities, and the practical and positive steps as to how the situation could be improved dramatically in the next five years”.
Further information
CPHVA website
The Contribution of the NHS to Reducing Health Inequalities: Written Evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee submitted by Unite (Amicus Section)
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