A plan for unhealthy growth

The UK government’s plans for the NHS and the economy, unveiled last week, don’t bode well for the health or the wealth of the nation. The plans illustrate the government’s failure to grasp the link between poverty and poor health outcomes and reveal a complete disregard for people’s health and wellbeing.The fiscal measures announced by the chancellor of the exchequer on Friday 23 September will increase financial and social inequalities and, writes Danny Dorling, risk making England the most unequal country in Europe (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2318).1 They will disproportionately benefit the richest people and will make poorer families even poorer. The “mini-budget” provides no answers to the cost of living crisis, which is already having a detrimental effect on people’s health and is expected to get much worse this winter.Even before these measures were announced, paediatricians and experts warned that increasing numbers of families, children, and older people are living in poverty,…
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