Health secretary Wes Streeting has made it clear that economic growth and the NHS are intertwined, but many questions remain about what that means for huge and growing inequalities.
These complex challenges are the focus of our fourth MJA Symposium, which will be held on Friday 25th April in partnership with The Health Foundation and feature some of the UK’s leading policy and journalism experts exploring health inequalities and how we report them.
Seminal review
And there is so much to cover: In the 15 years since Professor Sir Michael Marmot published his seminal review on reducing health inequalities in England things have only got worse. Post-pandemic healthy life expectancy has decreased further. Last year we heard that children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty. There are stark divides in maternity outcomes for Black British women compared to their white counterparts. NHS funding is less in the deprived areas that need it more. The list goes on.
As health reporters, working for general or specialist audiences across print, online or broadcast, covering these inequalities is an important part of our work. Yet given that the divide is worsening across a range of measures, can and should we do more to hold those in power to account?
How do we encourage our editors to cover these stories and how can we tell them in the most engaging way? Where can we find the right data and what should our focus be?
Urgent need
There has never been a more urgent need to answer these questions, so be sure to book your place.
We have a full agenda of newsworthy speakers bringing you their latest research and policy positions. The UK Health Security Agency, Nuffield Trust and Association of Directors of Public Health will be among those addressing MJA members. Experts from the Health Foundation will also be sharing their latest findings.
We will hear from journalists about key investigations, including The Guardian’s Tobi Thomas who will talk about her work on disparities in maternity care. A series of workshops on datasets, the power of storytelling and convincing editors to care about these issues will provide our members with the tools to report on the topic effectively.
Hold the date
In a couple of weeks, we will bring you more details of the programme and the opportunity to secure your free place, but for now make sure you mark this unmissable event in your diaries.
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