The RCP has released a new guidance document aimed at empowering NHS leaders to make reducing health inequalities a central part of their strategy.
The guidance provides actionable steps for tackling health inequity within healthcare delivery, emphasising the vital role clinicians and clinical leaders can play in addressing these longstanding disparities.
Health inequalities are avoidable and unfair, yet they continue to create barriers to equal access, outcomes, and experiences for patients across the UK. The RCP argues that tackling these disparities is essential to improving the nation’s health and reducing unnecessary pressures on healthcare services. The new guidance underscores that NHS leaders have a statutory, moral, and financial responsibility to prioritise this issue, and includes:
- Practical actions for clinicians, clinical leaders, and NHS organisations to make health inequalities a strategic focus.
- Existing statutory duties and guidance, helping organisations understand their obligations.
- Barriers and enablers to embedding health equity into NHS systems and strategies.
The guidance emphasises that while addressing health inequalities may seem daunting - particularly as many contributing factors lie beyond the NHS - there are tangible steps clinicians and clinical leaders can take. These steps include building understanding of health inequalities among staff, using data to identify and address disparities, advocating for health equity in organisational decision-making, and strengthening collaboration with community stakeholders.
Commenting on the guidance, Professor Carol Brayne, special adviser on population health at the RCP, said: "Health inequalities affect us all, and addressing them is not just a moral imperative - it is a practical one. Our guidance offers clear steps for NHS leaders and clinicians to incorporate tackling health inequity into their work, making it a tangible priority at an organisational level."