Professor Bola Owolabi on Tackling Health Inequalities

On Tuesday 28 January we're holding our third annual Tackling Health Inequalities conference with NHS England. Professor Bola Owolabi, Director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme, NHS England, comments on the importance of the Tackling Health Inequalities programme.

It is both instructive and inspiring that the Tackling Health Inequalities Conference, organised by NHS England in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), has quickly become a staple in the calendars of a wide cross-section of healthcare professionals over the course of a few short years. Awareness continues to increase of the vital importance of ensuring healthcare services are designed and delivered equitably so that everyone – including those who are most vulnerable, seldom-heard, often forgotten and less privileged – benefit optimally and are supported to live long, healthy, and productive lives.

Indeed, this ethos must continue to shape and transform all healthcare services.

Across the NHS, healthcare professionals continue to demonstrate they are keen to play their part in helping to narrow lamentable and persistent gaps in the provision of healthcare services and unequal levels of access and outcomes, which are felt most acutely by those with less and at the lower echelons of the socio-economic ladder.

This burning desire to make meaningful change is a key ingredient behind the success of the Tackling Health Inequalities Conference which offers an important opportunity for stakeholders to unite, engage in thought-provoking and solutions-driven dialogue, share skills, learning and tools, network, build relationships and collaborate across industries.

At NHS England, we are proud to continue the multi-year strategic partnership with the RSM that laid the foundation for this conference.

It supports our mission to realise the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to take stronger action to reduce health inequalities, while ensuring we remain ever mindful that we need to restore NHS services inclusively in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen leadership and accountability.

These are common goals shared with the RSM which is uniquely placed to help reach and connect with the medical sector.As I mentioned in my speech at the 2024 conference, ‘the answer lies between us’ – a reminder of the vital importance of collaboration in the mission to reduce health inequalities. No single sector, specialty or industry has the answers. We will only get there together.

And so, it is with this same sense of purpose, partnership and zeal, that I look forward to the 2025 Tackling Health Inequalities Conference with its focus on ‘Health is Wealth’.

Read the full report here, and get tickets to Tackling Health Inequalities 2025 here.