UK healthcare leaders announced for RSM Tackling Inequalities conference
Update 15 June 2022: the Tackling Inequalities conference, originally due to take place on 23 June 2022, has been postponed. It will now take place in Autumn 2022 and the new date will be announced in due course.
Programme published today, with 13 speakers joining keynotes Dr Bola Owolabi and Professor Sir Michael Marmot.
Healthcare leaders from major clinical specialisms and public-health experts will meet at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) in June to discuss how to take measurable actions to address health inequalities in the UK.
Leading figures from the RSM, NHS and other national bodies have been confirmed for the programme, published today, for the RSM’s inaugural ‘Tackling Inequalities’ conference on 23 June 2022.
Booking for the event is now open
Developed in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, the conference is the first milestone event of the RSM’s new, multi-year ‘Tackling Inequalities’ programme.
The all-day event in London has been designed around the five clinical areas where experts believe the greatest impact on inequalities can be made, as identified by the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 initiative: severe mental illness, maternity, chronic respiratory disease, early cancer diagnosis and hypertension case finding.
The conference will include key speaker and panel sessions in the morning. These panels will focus on the importance of the key clinical areas and the role of National Bodies in reducing healthcare inequalities. In the afternoon there will be expert sessions, focusing on the identified five clinical areas of health inequalities and a session on prevention. These will be delivered by senior leads from NHS England and specialist leads from the Royal Society of Medicine.
Announced last month, keynote speeches will be delivered by Dr Bola Owolabi, Director – Health Inequalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, and Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology at UCL and Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity.
The conference will be opened by Professor Nik Patel, Chair of Academic Board and Council Trustee at the Royal Society of Medicine.
Speakers include:
- Professor Sanjay Agrawal, National Specialty Adviser for Tobacco Dependency at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Dr Shahed Ahmed, National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care at Care Quality Commission
- Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, President of the Royal Society of Medicine Psychiatry Section, RSM Council Trustee and consultant psychiatrist
- Professor Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director and Director of Health Protection at Public Health England
- Matt Fagg, Director of Prevention at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Dr Tom Gardiner, National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Dr Emma Hadley, National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Nagina Javaid, Programme Lead - Prevention/Population Health at NHS England
- Professor Peter Johnson, Director of the Southampton Cancer Research UK Centre
- Professor Chris Nutting, President of the Royal Society of Medicine Oncology Section and Consultant in Clinical Oncology at Royal Marsden Hospital
- Dr Josie O’Heney, National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow at NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Dr Marina Soltan, Clinical Policy Delivery Lead for Data and Research in the Health Inequalities Improvement Team at NHS England
COVID-19 has shone a harsh light on some of the inequalities that persist in our society. With that, addressing health inequalities has moved firmly up the priority list of leaders in the NHS, the wider healthcare sector, the community and in business.
Speakers at the conference will discuss how a collaborative approach to addressing healthcare inequalities and the focus on specific measurable actions can make a real difference to the life chances of many people who have been underserved for a long time.