The contrast between how expensive the cars are in this country and how shabby everything else is tells you that we absolutely can afford to electrify the railways and a million other nice things, but we have politicians that are terrified of asking for a few pennies extra in tax

And in mental health services too.

We may be generating demand rather than surfacing need.

9/ Big thanks to my supervisors @profkatsmith.bsky.social, @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social, Anna Macintyre, Gillian Fergie & @lisagarnham.bsky.social, and to my examiners @jlynch13.bsky.social, @markpetticrew.bsky.social & Shona Hilton.

Two more papers (and a book) hopefully to come!

8/ When 'health inequality' means (at least) 3 different things, how can we work together to address it? To act on systematically distributed illness & death, we must consider ways to avoid, not facilitate, the substitution of healthcare solutions. Maybe 'social inequalities in health' is clearer?

7/ Remarkably, none of my 22 social or economic policy interviewees used the term 'healthcare inequality'. Some health policy interviewees did so only to distinguish it from the 'international consensus' HI policy frame. I note SG is now preparing a 'Healthcare Inequalities Action Plan'.

6/ The third version also prioritised healthcare. The 'healthcare for disadvantaged groups' policy frame identified social disadvantage as meaningful, but did not responsibilise government to address it. Rather, targeted healthcare should respond to consequences of disadvantage.

5/ That revealed a different understanding of what 'health inequality' means. For economic policymakers, widespread ill-health-related economic inactivity was the major problem to solve. And the way to solve this 'health inequality' was via healthcare.

4/ Despite strong support for this position from health policy actors, I also found acknowledgement that this agenda is currently "tired" and "under the radar". So why did others describe health inequalities as "a huge priority"?

3/ The first version is the 'international (research) consensus' policy frame, first identified by @jlynch13.bsky.social in JPH in 2017, which responsibilises government for systematically distributed illness & death, and takes a moral stand to demand systemic change to improve social conditions.

2/ Delighted to introduce the first paper from my PhD which shows the three different versions of 'health inequality' used in policy settings. My case studies were SG and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, but similar dynamics surely exist elsewhere too academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/a...

Here's a paper we wrote about how it's actually very bad that a "context of constrained funding has incentivised... providers of adult education, sports, arts and community services to demonstrate ancillary wellbeing benefits." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40447986/

Thanks for this, v relevant to something I'm working on rn