Enhancing population health at the Royal College of Physicians

Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of serving as the RCP’s special adviser on population health. This role has offered me the chance to work alongside those who have dedicated their careers to specific areas of medicine and their public health implications, drawing on the college’s rich history and the wealth of expertise spanning generations. As my tenure draws to a close, I wanted to reflect on the work that we have done and the progress we have made.

The first key achievement of our Health Inequalities Advisory Group (HIAG) was to embed the topic of health inequalities into all aspects of the RCP’s work, from presidential statements to news, blog posts and educational pieces on our website, and within RCP committees. We supported the development of the RCP’s Sustainability Advisory Group, ensuring that its work is closely aligned with ours. Without addressing inequalities, we cannot address sustainability at societal level. The discussions that we had during this early phase of the HIAG led to an awareness that, externally, there was not a ‘collective’ to influence policy development on health inequalities.

This resulted in one of our key achievements: the establishment and ongoing work of the Inequalities in Health Alliance (IHA). Formed and convened by the RCP and now comprising more than 200 member organisations, the IHA has worked hard to highlight the staggering impact of health inequality across the UK and to advocate for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. The collective voice of the IHA has put health inequality at the forefront of both clinical and governmental agendas, driving home the message that disparities in health outcomes are not inevitable, but are often the result of social, economic and political factors that can – and must – be addressed.

I am pleased that we were able to draw on our HIAG to develop several podcasts on topics such as corporate influence, race and homelessness.

In tandem with the IHA’s advocacy and supported by our former health inequalities fellow’s excellent work with resident doctors, we have enhanced the RCP’s educational offerings to ensure that health professionals are better equipped to understand and tackle the complex issues that underpin health disparities. The launch of new training modules focused on health inequalities has empowered our fellows and members to integrate population health thinking into their everyday practice.

For the past few years, we’ve worked to embed the focus on health inequalities across all aspects of the RCP’s work, ensuring that this issue is woven into the very fabric of the RCP’s strategy and operations. This includes mobilising the full strength of the RCP’s structures, from ensuring that health inequalities have been a key part of the RCP’s events offering, its educational programmes and its policy advocacy to campaign for government to address the root causes of ill health and disparities in outcomes.

I know that I’ll leave this role with immense pride in what we’ve accomplished together, with huge gratitude to the HIAG members and the RCP team for supporting this work. To those considering applying for this role to succeed me at the RCP, know that you will have the opportunity to shape the future of health in the UK and beyond. It is an exciting time to be at the forefront of population health, and I look forward to seeing the next chapter unfold.

If you are passionate about reducing health inequalities and improving the health of entire populations, please consider applying for the position of RCP special adviser on population health.