Work and Projects
The group acts as a resource for the rest
of the College on health inequalities issues. It has
contributed to College comment on a number of government White
Papers, as well as providing evidence to the Acheson Inquiry
into Inequalities in Health. The group also contributed to the
review of the QOF and to the 2005 White Paper.
The group has mounted a series of conferences
and seminars on health inequalities themes, beginning in June 1999
with a conference on health issues and housing, held jointly with
the Chartered Institute of Housing. The two groups share a common
concern for issues of social exclusion and the health impact of
poverty and the conference generated a lively exchange of ideas
between health professionals and housing teams.
Since March 2002, the group has identified an
annual theme for its work, which culminates each spring in a
conference on the topic. The Conference in 2002 was in Leeds on the
topic Housing, Health and Homelessness: The Challenge to
Primary Care, supported by a generous grant from Leeds Health
Authority. The conference brought health professionals together
with people working in housing and social services and staff and
clients from voluntary agencies working with homeless people.
The following year, the conference was held in
Glasgow, entitled Hard Lives: Improving the Health of People
with Multiple problems and in March 2004, in Birmingham, the
theme was Mental Health Inequalities. In 2005, the group
returned to Leeds, for a conference on Health Inequalities and
the new GMS Contract. The group is currently
planning a conference based around the launch of their new booklet
Addressing Health Inequalities: A guide for general
practitioners. While this conference has been scheduled for
February 2009, the group is already planning their next conference,
Health Inequalities in the Medical Curriculum,
due to take place towards the end of 2009.
The main output of each of these events has
been the development of a consensus statement on the annual
theme. These statements have provided an agenda for closer
working between the different sectors involved and influencing the
College’s policy in this area. By bringing together a large
multi-disciplinary group and providing a structure in which to
elicit and record their ideas for action, as the end-point of a
year of writing and campaigning, the group summarises its thinking
about the issue and also suggests areas for further activity, which
can be taken up by other agencies, primarily Primary Care
Organisations.
The consensus
statements developed since 2002 have all been accepted by the
College Council.
The RCGP, Position Statement - Mental Health and Primary
Care is the result of the group's conference that was held
jointly with the National Institute for Mental Health in England
(NIMHE).
The group was occupied in 2005 with the
development of a report from its March conference on health
inequalities and the new GMS contract, and with preparing
submissions to the review of the QOF. These centred on the
particular value to marginalised and excluded populations of the
personal doctor and their role as advocates. The QOF
submissions drew heavily on the group's work on multiple morbidity
and mental health inequalities.
2008 sees the group actively involved with two
significant projects, including the production of a guidance
booklet for GPs Addressing Health Inequalities: A guide
for general practitioners. Due for publication in
summer 2008, the booklet has been funded by the Department of
Health, and a number of stakeholders from key organisations have
been involved with the project. The group is also producing a
clinical handbook on health inequalities which will cover several
domains in the GP core curriculum and tie in with practice
revalidation.