Organisations across the Midlands and leading national health charities are collectively launching a policy commission which has the potential to transform the health and care of people across the region by addressing health and care inequalities.
The Midlands Health and Care Inequalities Policy Commission, led by Midlands Innovation Health and following an intensive period of community and stakeholder involvement and engagement, proposes a range of transformative measures, from short- to longer-term initiatives, from simple to comprehensive, to drive forward innovative change. A key recommendation is to enable and embed people-powered health – supporting and empowering people to take charge of their health and care needs.
The report highlights opportunities to harness expertise and excellence in the region to deliver an improved health and care service, leading to enhanced health outcomes across the Midlands and, if scaled, the UK.
The commission was borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on communities who were already experiencing health and care inequalities. Striving to ensure that initiatives that came out in response were learnt from or harnessed, the commission listened to those experiencing health and care inequalities and, most importantly, what they believe is needed to address the issues they are experiencing.
Lord Victor Adebowale CBE MA, Chair of the NHS Confederation, led the commission, with Professor Kamlesh Khunti CBE of the University of Leicester – recognised nationally for his work and research into health inequalities – serving as Scientific Lead. Their wealth of knowledge was complemented by a group of expert commissioners drawn from leading health charities and organisations, academia, industry, the NHS, and Members of Parliament.
Lord Adebowale, Adam Jogee MP and Professor Kamlesh Khunti launch the report
The report underlines the scale and difficulty of the challenges faced in the Midlands, which is experiencing some of the worst inequalities in the country. The Midlands lags behind other parts of the UK in productivity, and the commission believes that the region cannot fully address this and deliver its share of economic growth nationally without improving the mental and physical health of its citizens.
The commission’s 10 Priorities for Change outline a path for the Midlands to make significant strides in reducing health disparities. These recommendations include:
Develop a regional strategy
- Establish one clear overarching regional strategy to coordinate approaches to improve access to health services and tackle systemic inequalities. The commission found that, whilst there are pockets of excellence transforming care, more can be done to share learnings pan-regionally. To address health and care inequalities requires the development of a clear regional strategy with the buy-in and support of leaders in the NHS, local authorities and other organisations working across the range of health and care settings.
Ensure long-term investment
- Advocate for sustained funding to support health initiatives and address systemic issues. Stakeholders highlight that reliable, sustained funding is more valuable than short-term increases, which often fail to address systemic issues or build community trust. Short-term programmes, while well-intentioned, can undermine trust and create dependency on grants.
- Develop regional funding models prioritising health inequalities, with ring-fenced budgets to ensure impactful interventions.
Harnessing regional strengths and excellence to nationally lead data and digital healthcare innovation
- Data and digital solutions are critical for addressing health inequalities in the Midlands. The region has strengths in digital infrastructure, data science, and health tech and AI innovation, making it well-positioned to drive progress. The Government wants to transform health services by embracing the opportunities of digital innovation, and the region has excellence that should be harnessed both regionally and nationally.
- Leveraging scientific expertise and facilities and the Midlands’ diverse population to become a global leader in innovative health solutions. The Midlands has the opportunity to become the UK’s testbed for inclusive clinical trials. With the second-largest clinical trials infrastructure in Europe and a diverse population, the Midlands can trial new medicines and medical technologies to revolutionise the NHS and become a global leader.
- Establish a long-term Midlands Centre for Evidence which works collaboratively across the Midlands to promote partnerships between research, industry, and health systems to benefit patients and boost the economy. By closely integrating research, industry and the region’s large, diverse population, this would mean that patients would not only benefit from being part of cutting-edge trials; it would create jobs and boost the economy, all of which are proven to help improve people’s health.
Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, Chair of the Midlands Health and Care Inequalities Policy Commission, said: “The commission’s work sheds light on the possibility of people-powered healthcare in partnership with leadership, focused on a regional response to health inequalities, supported by digital innovation and a strong research partnership. Inequalities in healthcare should not be accepted –they can be resolved. The commission’s work is a step in the right direction to finding resolution.”
Adam Jogee, MP for Newcastle Under Lyme, said: “I welcome the findings of the Midlands Health and Care Policy Commission. The UK and the Midlands find ourselves in the middle of an unprecedented economic challenge; health inequalities exacerbate these challenges, worsening people’s quality of life and further slowing productivity. This policy commission marks a hugely important first step towards closing this gap, identifying how our region’s huge pre-existing expertise can be harnessed, and how the Midlands could play a significant role in driving digital innovation and health and care reforms nationally.”
Professor Kamlesh Khunti CBE, Scientific Lead for the Commission, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, and Director of the Centre for Ethnic Health Research, said: “This commission presents us with a golden opportunity to address health and care inequalities, providing a blueprint to make lasting and positive changes, all aimed at improving the health and lives of those people experiencing inequalities.
“The commission shines a spotlight on where the opportunities to harness the Midlands’ scientific excellence, cutting-edge facilities – including the three Biomedical Research Centres and two regional applied research centres, and leading data assets – could be used to improve the health and care of the people in the Midlands, as well as how this could enable the region to become a global testbed for inclusive clinical trials, AI and data-driven innovation. Our work also supports the new 10 Year Health Plan in its ambition to tackle health inequalities.”
Alex Archibald, MI Health Project Manager and author of the Policy Commission, said: “We are extremely grateful to the commissioners who gave up their time and energy, as well as their expertise, to develop a holistic commission. It not only utilises best practice but, most importantly, gave a voice and a platform to those experiencing health and care inequalities. Most importantly, we would like to thank all those people and communities who shared their experiences with us. The commission is the first step in helping the region to, for the first time, collectively hold up a mirror and identify the opportunities for change together.”
Download The Midlands Health and Care Inequalities Policy Commission here
