Following our February statement on the Health and Care White Paper, FPH have now submitted a response to the Select Committee call for evidence on the Paper.
The public health measures that are in the white paper are generally welcome and will contribute to the health and wellbeing of the population.
However, it is also a missed opportunity to place public health in the centre of the nation’s healthy recovery from COVID-19 and to start addressing in a systematic and comprehensive way the iniquitous inequalities in health that have been exposed and exacerbated by COVID-19.
There is an urgent need to address these inequalities, through a balanced, well-funded and well-resourced public health system.