Website of the Department of Health

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES AND CHARITIES TO JOIN FORCES WITH GOVERNMENT TO ACCELERATE THE DRIVE TO COMBAT SMOKING

Health Secretary Alan Milburn today published theGovernment's Cross Cutting Review of Health Inequalities.and set out five next steps to focus the emphasis of healthcare towards prevention as well as cure. In a major speech to public health professionals he announced a series of new initiatives to reduce smoking.

Alan Milburn's speech, hosted by the Faculty for Public Health Medicine, highlighted the Government's renewed determination to tackle the country's health inequalities which he described as a "scar" on the nation. To address health inequalities the Government's determination, he said, is "to improve the health of all and to improve the health of the poorest, fastest."

He used his speech to signal his determination to bring about a sea change in attitudes in the NHS to "put renewed emphasis on prevention as well as cure so that we develop in our country health services not just sickness services. We simply can no longer regard prevention as playing second fiddle to treatment."

The Health Secretary announced details of an accelerated drive to combat smoking, the principal cause of avoidable death in the UK today:

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said:

The time has now come to put renewed emphasis on prevention as well as cure so that we develop in our country health services and not just sickness services. It is time for a sea change in attitudes. A renewed determination to fulfil the ambition we should share as a nation: to improve the health of all and to improve the health of the poorest, fastest.

For over fifty years the health gap between the better off and the worst off has widened, not narrowed. For me, that offends against all this government stands for: a society based on fairness and justice, in which each citizen gets the opportunity to fulfil the potential of all their talents. Good health - like a good education - is the route by which each and every one of us can properly fulfil our true potential. It unlocks life chances and is a fundamental building block of well-being.

Too many people are denied the basic chances in life. Poorer people get sick more often and die earlier. For us it is simply unacceptable that the opportunity for a long and healthy life today is still linked to social circumstances, childhood poverty, where you live, how much your parents earned, how much you earn yourself, your race and your gender.

In some areas of the country life expectancy is still the same as the national average in the 1950s. Two weeks ago the Office of National Statistics published new figures showing that even today a boy born in Manchester would live on average a decade less than a boy born in Dorset.

Social inequality breeds health inequality. Poverty cascades down the generations. Up to a quarter of all children are persistently in low income families. Babies born to fathers in social class five are more likely to be low birth weight. Low birth weight is a key factor in a child's subsequent development and opportunity. Poor children are less likely to get qualifications and to stay on at school. Poor health then is linked to low educational attainment, which is bad for the individual and bad for the nation.

Economic success today depends on harnessing the skills and potential of all of our people and not just some. Poor health blights too many communities and holds back too many people.

So, the time has come to recognise that health just like education is a route to economic fulfilment as well as personal fulfilment. Just as good education is a route out of social exclusion and into economic prosperity so too is good health. The vicious cycle of poverty, social exclusion, educational failure and ill health must now be broken.

The NHS can make a specific contribution to improving health prospects by working with the communities it serves: making the task of tackling health inequality something done by local people not just done to them. Indeed, such action is vital if the NHS is ever to deliver on its values of equity and social justice.

"We can now increase our emphasis on prevention as well as cure. This can not be the old-style health promotion policies of the past seeking to cajole people into adopting healthier lifestyles but a new approach that offers people the opportunity of better health. One that recognises that diets are often less healthy and smoking rates are higher in poorer communities. That acknowledges people have the right to make a choice about what they eat or whether they smoke but people should have the opportunity to have a healthier diet or to give up smoking if they so choose. Many are denied that opportunity because healthy food has not been available locally or because help to give up smoking has not been available freely. It is on this basis that we can then ask people to take greater responsibility for their own health."

Alan Milburn set out the five next steps the Department will now take to address health inequalities in England. They are:

Cancer Research UK Chief Executive Sir Paul Nurse says:

"One third of all cancers and nine out of ten lung cancer cases in the UK are caused by tobacco. With this significant new support we will take our tobacco control campaign up a gear to reveal the truth behind these chilling statistics. This important new initiative opens up a new front in the war against tobacco and Cancer Research UK is delighted to work with Government in the fight to save lives."

Leslie Busk, Director General of the British Heart Foundation said:

"The British Heart Foundation is absolutely delighted to be part of this exciting drive for heart health. Currently, over a quarter of adults in the UK are at grave risk of destroying their own lives. We look forward to collaborating with the Government on developing hard-hitting and effective anti-smoking campaigns."

Notes to Editors