Doctors must strive to reduce health inequalities among patients, a new report urges.
The report, called How doctors can close the gap: tackling the social determinants of health through culture change, advocacy and education, suggests that disadvantage results in vast gaps in health and mortality, but these inequalities are not inevitable.
It identifies how doctors can take account of social inequalities in every area of their work, calling for changes to medical practice and consultations and encouraging doctors to use their influence to promote health equality.
The refocusing of attitudes and resources in healthcare towards prevention rather than treatment of illness, is a key recommendation.
Doctors are also urged to ensure they identify opportunities to help patients from disadvantaged backgrounds to manage their health, taking into account their social and physical environment and to encourage patients from marginalised groups to access health information, screening and health promotion services.
The Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Faculty of Public Health, National Heart Forum, and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit collaborated to produce the report.
Prof Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “At present, many doctors and other health professionals do their best to treat the patient in front of them, but they do not always look beyond the symptoms presented, and address the patients’ social and economic background.
“This becomes a vicious cycle, where people are treated for an illness, go back into the community and fall ill again, because doctors have not been able to address the reason they were unwell in the first place.”
Other recommendations include: encouraging patients to undertake healthy activities; urging doctors to join forces to advocate health equality at all levels, from impassioned medical students to influential deans and directors; restructuring the undergraduate and postgraduate education of doctors to make the public health and social aspects of the courses more engaging; and, more information-sharing between doctors, public health teams and researchers on best practice in reducing inequalities.
Prof Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “Doing what we can to remove some of the unfair barriers to better health and well-being is not just the province of public health specialists. All doctors can help to reduce the ‘health divide’ in various ways. I hope this report will stimulate not just reflection and discussion, but also action.”
Read the full report.
Tags: Health inequality, Public health
