Health in an age of austerity

Demos is working with the Wolfson Research Institute at Durham University on an essay collection and event series exploring health policy in austerity.

This new collaboration was kicked off with a lively and packed panel debate at Durham University debating the north-south divide in public health. The panel, including Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central, and Guy Opperman, Conservative MP for Hexham, as well as academics and health practitioners discussed the variable geographical impact of austerity, the knock on effect on public health, and the dynamics between poverty and health. Read a summary of the event here.

Demos and Durham University are now commissioning a collection of essays, including contributions from Professors Clare Bambra, David Hunter and Roy Hudson, Debbie Abrahams MP and BBC Health Correspondent Branwen Jeffreys.

This broad-ranging collection will capture the latest thinking across academia, policy and practice regarding the development of health policy in the UK in an era of austerity. It will cover issues such as public health reforms, the impact of recent NHS and care legislation, health economics, health inequalities, and the lessons the UK can learn from abroad as global challenges of demographic change and a squeeze on public service spending is seeing many countries confronting the challenge of meeting increased demand with fewer resources.

This collection – a must-read for those interested in the future of health policy and the NHS – will be discussed at a fringe event at Party Conference in September 2013 and launched the following month in Westminster.

The collaboration between Durham University and Demos is part of Demos’s Impact Programme, where we work with universities across the country to bring together cutting edge academic thinking with some of the UK’s biggest social policy challenges.

For more information on this project, please contact claudia.wood@demos.co.uk.