Date : 24/04/2025 | Time : 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm |
The economic and social determinants of health – Can the NHS ever succeed in the current environment?
This talk will be on Zoom. The talk is free but you do need to book a place to get access details. Please ignore references to payment. Scroll to the end of this page for the booking form.
So much about how we live our lives affects the NHS, which is expected to pick up the pieces whatever health issues arise and whatever the underlying causes. Yet most of these causes are outside the control of individuals. Over the years, legislation on issues such as seatbelts and drink driving have reduced demand on the NHS. But new challenges replace these; gambling addiction, alcohol and drug misuse, social-media induced mental health issues, obesity and poor nutrition due to junk food, lack of access to green and blue spaces, media led expectations, lack of social care. In a tax and regulation averse society, what are the priorities for reducing demand on the NHS?
Moderated by Fiona Godlee, and with introductory contributions by Becks Fisher, Kevin Lavery and Nason Maani, our next Harkness Centenary Discussion will explore this challenge.
Moderator
Fiona Godlee (HF 1994-5) is a medical editor, writer and campaigner. She was Editor in Chief of The BMJ from 2005 to 2021 and now works to highlight the links between public health, climate change and nature recovery. Fiona has written on a wide range of subjects. She holds fellowships with the Royal College of Physicians and the Academy of Medical Sciences and is a Trustee of the Eden Project. She helped to establish and is an ambassador for the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.
Speakers
Becks Fisher (HF 2022-23) is Director of Research and Policy at the Nuffield Trust. Previously Becks was a senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, where she led the organisation’s primary care portfolio. She is also a salaried GP in a deprived urban area and is co-founder of Next Generation GP – a national leadership programme for early-career GPs.
Kevin Lavery (HF 1994-5) has been CEO of NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board since March 2022. Before this, Kevin had worked as CEO for the City of Wellington in New Zealand, and CEO in Newcastle upon Tyne and Cornwall Councils, gaining extensive experience of working with deprived communities, regeneration initiatives, child protection, adult social care and public health. A former consultant with Price Waterhouse, he was CEO of technology firms Agilisys and Serco Solutions, and Enterprise PLC which was headquartered in Leyland.
Nason Maani (HF 2019-20) lectures on inequalities and global policy at the University of Edinburgh. His research centres on the structural and commercial determinants of health and how they shape public understanding and policy. He is the deputy director of the local health and global profits theme within Population Health Improvement UK, a UKRI-funded initiative that enables multi-disciplinary research to improve health and reduce health inequalities. He is the lead editor of the Oxford University Press book “Commercial Determinants of Health and is host of the podcast “Money, Power, Health”.
Bookings
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