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Unequal lives: breaking the wealth-health link

Posted on 2 March 2017

Inaugural lecture by Richard Cookson, Professor of Health Economics, University of York

Staff Photo for Richard Cookson

Abstract: The richest fifth of people in England enjoy at least twelve more years of healthy life than the poorest fifth. Public services need to be redesigned to help them break this unfair link between wealth and health. They must stop focusing on outcomes for a mythical ‘average’ citizen, and start looking through an ‘equity prism’ to see who gains and who loses from decisions about service funding and delivery. Richard Cookson is at the forefront of efforts to develop new analytical tools to enable ‘equity-informative’ economic evaluation and quality assurance of health services, and the NHS recently adopted his methods for detailed monitoring of local progress in tackling health inequality. Public services can use such tools to curb the rising costs of preventable illness associated with inequality and bridge the health divide.

Date and venue: Friday 12 May 2017, 4.00–5.00pm, Ron Cooke Hub, Heslington East

Further information about CHE's research on equity can be found here.